THE MORE COMPETENTLY PERFORMED, THE LESS IT NEEDED GOD. THERE WAS NO SPECIAL PROVIDENCE IN THE FOAL OF THE SPARROW. JUST NEWTON'S SECOND LAW, F = M + A.  FORCES, MASSES, AND ACCELERATION WERE THE SAME EVERYWHERE. THE NEWTONIAN APPLE FELL FROM ITS TREE AS MECHANISTICALLY AND PREDICTABLY AS THE MOON FELL AROUND THE NEWTONIAN EARTH. WHY DOES THE MOON FOLLOW ITS CURVED PATH? BECAUSE THE PATH IS THE SUM OF ALL THE TINY PATHS IT TAKES. IN SUCCESSIVE INSTANTS OF TIME, AND BECAUSE AT EACH INSTANT ITS FORWARD MOTION IS DEFLECTED, LIKE THE APPLE, TOWARD THE EARTH.  gOD NEED NOT CHOOSE THE PATH. OR, HAVING CHOSEN ONCE, IN CREATING A UNIVERSE WITH SUCH LAWS, HE NEED NOT CHOOSE AGAIN. A GOD THAT DOES NOT INTERVENE IN A GOOD RECEDING INTO A DISTANT HARMLESS BACKGROUND.

YET EVEN AS THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST LEARNED TO COMPUTE THE PATHS OF PLANETS AND PROJECTILES BY NEWTON'S METHODS, A FRENCH GEOMETER AND PHILOSOPHER, PIERRE-LOUIS MOREAN DE MAUPERTUIS, DISCOVERED A STRANGELY MAGICAL NEW WAY OF SEEING SUCH PATHS. HE ... SHOWED THAT THE PATHS OF MOVING OBJECTS ARE ALWAYS, IN A SPECIAL SENSE, THE MOST ECONOMICAL. THEY ARE AT WORK, A PLANET SOMEHOW CHOOSES THE CHEAPEST, THE SJMPLEST, THE BEST OF ALL PATHS. IT IS AS IF GOD - A PARSIMONIOUS GOD - WERE LEAVING HIS STAMP AFTER ALL.