On 23 Apr, 09:53, James Brown
wrote:
The idea that the radiation from the sun is a constant (solar
constant) is based on an 18th Century concept that God created the
world and then let it like run a clockwork machine, al la Newton.

Cheers, Alastair.

I'm not sure that your reference to Newton is correct Alastair. AFAIK he
believed specifically in intervention rather than a purely docetist view
(e.g.comets). I get rather concerned with the factuality of sweeping
generalisations as to the origins of scientific understanding, much as
some of the origins of language can at times be ambiguous.

Cheers

--
James Brown

I looked up Deism on Wikipedia and found this:

Freedom and necessity

Enlightenment thinkers, under the influence of Newtonian science,
tended to view the universe as a vast machine, created and set in
motion by a creator being, that continues to operate according to
natural law, without any divine intervention. This view naturally led
to what was then usually called necessitarianism: the view that
everything in the universe - including human behavior - is completely
causally determined by antecedent circumstances and natural law. (See,
e.g., La Mettrie's L'Homme machine.) As a consequence, debates about
freedom versus determinism were a regular feature of Enlightenment
religious and philosophical discussions.

Because of their high regard for natural law and for the idea of a
universe without miracles, deists were especially susceptible to the
temptations of necessitarianism. Reflecting the intellectual climate
of the time, there were differences among deists about freedom and
necessity. Some, such as Anthony Collins, actually were
necessitarians.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism#F..._and_necessity

.... which is more or less what I was referring to.

Cheers, Alastair.