<P> Newton and Robert Boyle's approach to the mechanical philosophy was promoted by rationalist pamphleteers as a viable alternative to the pantheists and enthusiasts, and was accepted hesitantly by orthodox preachers as well as dissident preachers like the latitudinarians . The clarity and simplicity of science was seen as a way to combat the emotional and metaphysical superlatives of both superstitious enthusiasm and the threat of atheism, and at the same time, the second wave of English deists used Newton's discoveries to demonstrate the possibility of a "Natural Religion". </P> <P> The attacks made against pre-Enlightenment "magical thinking", and the mystical elements of Christianity, were given their foundation with Boyle's mechanical conception of the Universe . Newton gave Boyle's ideas their completion through mathematical proofs and, perhaps more importantly, was very successful in popularising them . </P> <P> In a manuscript he wrote in 1704 (never intended to be published) he mentions the date of 2060, but it is not given as a date for the end of days . It has been falsely reported as a prediction . The passage is clear, when the date is read in context . He was against date setting for the end of days, concerned that this would put Christianity into disrepute . </P> <P> "So then the time times & half a time (sic) are 42 months or 1260 days or three years & an half, recconing twelve months to a year & 30 days to a month as was done in the Calender of the primitive year . And the days of short lived Beasts being put for the years of (long -) lived kingdoms the period of 1260 days, if dated from the complete conquest of the three kings A.C. 800, will end 2060 . It may end later, but I see no reason for its ending sooner ." </P>

Who invented calculus and developed the laws of gravitation and motion