In the
history of science, the clockwork universe compares the universe to a
mechanical clock. It continues ticking along, as a perfect machine, with its gears governed by the
laws of physics, making every aspect of the machine predictable.
A similar concept goes back, to
John of Sacrobosco's early 13th-century introduction to astronomy: On the Sphere of the World. In this widely popular medieval text, Sacrobosco spoke of the universe as the machina mundi, the machine of the world, suggesting that the reported eclipse of the Sun at the crucifixion of Jesus was a disturbance of the order of that machine.[1]
"The Notion of the World's being a great Machine, going on without the Interposition of God, as a Clock continues to go without the Assistance of a Clockmaker; is the Notion of Materialism and Fate, and tends, (under pretence of making God a Supra-mundane Intelligence,) to exclude Providence and God's Government in reality out of the World."[3]
In 2009, artist Tim Wetherell created a large wall piece for
Questacon (The National Science and Technology centre in Canberra, Australia) representing the concept of the clockwork universe. This steel artwork contains moving gears, a working clock, and a movie of the
lunar terminator.
^Davis, Edward B. 1991. "Newton's rejection of the "Newtonian world view" : the role of divine will in Newton's natural philosophy." Science and Christian Belief 3, no. 2: 103-117. Clarke quotation taken from article.
David Brewster (1850) "A Short Scheme of the True Religion", manuscript quoted in Memoirs of the Life, Writings and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton, cited in Dolnick, page 65.
Anneliese Maier (1938) Die Mechanisierung des Weltbildes im 17. Jahrhundert
Webb, R.K. ed. Knud Haakonssen (1996) "The Emergence of Rational Dissent." Enlightenment and Religion: Rational Dissent in Eighteenth-Century Britain,
Cambridge University Press page 19.
Westfall, Richard S. Science and Religion in Seventeenth-Century England. p. 201.