Atheism is so senseless & odious to mankind that it never had many professors. Can it be by accident that all birds beasts & men have their right side & left side alike shaped (except in their bowells) & just two eyes & no more on either side the face & just two ears on either side the head & a nose with two holes & no more between the eyes & one mouth under the nose & either two fore leggs or two wings or two arms on the sholders & two leggs on the hipps one on either side & no more? Whence arises this uniformity in all their outward shapes but from the counsel & contrivance of an Author? Whence is it that the eyes of all sorts of living creatures are transparent to the very bottom & the only transparent members in the body, having on the outside an hard transparent skin, & within transparent juyces with a crystalline Lens in the middle & a pupil before the Lens all of them so truly shaped & fitted for vision, that no Artist can mend them? Did blind chance know that there was light & what was its refraction & fit the eys of all creatures after the most curious manner to make use of it? These & such like considerations always have & ever will prevail with man kind to believe that there is a being who made all things & has all things in his power & who is therfore to be feared.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Newton argues that the uniform bilateral symmetry of living beings points to a purposeful design by an author.
- In plain terms
- He sees the consistent left‑right arrangement of bodies as evidence of intentional creation.
- What can you take from it?
- Observe recurring patterns as possible signs of underlying design.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What alternative explanations exist for bilateral symmetry?
- How does this view fit with evolutionary theory?
Another view
Modern biology explains symmetry through evolutionary mechanisms without invoking a designer.
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