Newton ¿Profeta Del Apocalipsis?
La pregunta interesante no es si Newton predijo o no el fin de los tiempos para el 2060, sino por qué algo así se convierte en noticia en los medios de comunicación. Estos días andan por ahí los digitales con ello, y -como ya comentamos hace poco con el asunto de la bomba gay- lo más notable es que ni siquiera es noticia actual. Bueno, ahora hay una exposición en Israel de escritos de Isaac Newton (Los secretos de Newton), y entre ellos aparece ese cálculo cabalístico que hizo, uno más entre sus abundantes escritos proféticos y de exégesis... Ya en febrero de 2003 se habló del tema, a raíz de un documental que emitió la BBC titulado "Newton: el hereje oculto" (bueno, traducción mía de Newton: the dark heretic, donde se comentaba, precisamente ese asunto del 2060. Lo cuenta uno de los expertos que han trabajado sobre el tema, Stephen D. Snobelen en isaac-newton.org, donde apunta algunas de las razones por las cuales en 2003 esa profecía se convirtió en noticia:Why did Newton's prediction for 2060 become such a big news story?El artículo explica muchas otras cosas, y a él remito al lector interesado en algo más que esa nota de prensa de agencias que se puede leer por ahí.
One reason why Newton's heresy, apocalyptic thought and prediction about the 2060 date became news in February 2003 is because most members of the media and the public had no idea that Newton was anything other than a "scientist". For many, the revelation that Newton was a passionate believer who took biblical prophecy seriously came as something of a shock. It seems that both the media and the general public have a notion of Newton as a "rational" scientist that makes it difficult to absorb the knowledge that Newton was practising both alchemy and prophetic exegesis—studies many see as antithetical to the enterprise of science. The media has perpetuated a myth that science and religion are inherently in conflict (the fact is, sometimes they are; but religion has also often stimulated the development of science). The story about Newton predicting the Apocalypse in 2060 is the sort of thing that one would expect to see on the covers of the tabloids. In this case, however, the story is true. Ironically, the tabloids did not cover the story (perhaps because this story, although counter-intuitive to many people, is authentic).
There is likely another reason why so many found the story about Newton and 2060 so compelling. When the story broke, storm clouds of war were on the horizon. Concern about the predicted war in Iraq (now a "fulfilled" prophecy) probably heightened the public's interest in Newton's date for the end of the world, particularly because the pending war involved the nation who occupies the land of ancient Babylon—a land that figures prominently in biblical prophecy and in Newton's own prophetic writings. The head of the Department in charge of the Newton collection in Jerusalem, in a TV interview pointed directly to the threat of war in Iraq as one reason for the interest in the story. Reviewing footage of two Canadian television news items on the 2060 story, I was struck by its placement in the midst of images of U.S. troops and helicopters arriving in Kuwait, along with statements about the pending war from presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer. It is clear that whether we are religious or secular, we are living in "apocalyptic" times. India, Pakistan and North Korea are rattling nuclear sabres. Jetliners fly into skyscrapers laden with kerosene and human bodies. Terrorists strike around the world. Also beginning around the time the documentary aired was the SARS outbreak, appearing seemingly out of nowhere like a biblical plague. And then there are concerns about the degradation of our environment and fears of a coming eco-apocalypse. In the context of these troubling realities, a dramatic story about the greatest scientist of all time predicting "the end of the world" carried with it added potency and poignancy. Curiously a couple months after the 2060 story broke, Sir Martin Reese, one of today's leading scientists, published a book entitled Our final hour (Our final century in the UK) in which he argues that the human race has only a fifty-fifty chance of surviving the 21st century. Apocalypticism is not the exclusive domain of the lunatic fringe. It is a broader phenomenon that reflects humanity's insecurity about the apparent fragility and tenuousness of our existence on planet earth.
No será raro encontrarse con que la historia cae, convertida en pseudomisterio imbécil y lleno de afirmaciones insensatas, lugares comunes y mentiras, en manos de los del Cuarto Milenio. Ciertamente, la imagen que se tiene de Isaac Newton es un estereotipo poco convincente. Recomiendo leer una biografía brevísima escrita por Moncho Núñez dentro de su colección de biografías de científicos recientemente publicada: "Esta es mi gente" (ed. le-pourquoi-pas) (precisamente un fragmento de la misma está en esa web, en PDF), o leer las andanzas de un Newton convertido en personaje central de la enoooorme saga del Ciclo Barroco de Neal Stephenson (a ver cuándo hablo de estos libros por aquí...).
Por supuesto, eso de que el fin de los tiempos llega el 2060 no tiene mayor relevancia con el mundo que saber una de las muchas chaladuras de un puritano bastante egocéntrico y genial, que además supo ponerse a lomos de gigantes y hacer nacer la ciencia moderna. Ese sí es el logro profético de Sir Isaac...