" Newton's religious and alchemical interests were not tidily separated from his scientific ones. He believed that God mediated the gravitational force [511](353), and opposed any attempt to give a mechanistic explanation of chemistry or gravity, since that would diminish the role of God [646]. He consequently conceived such a hatred of Descartes, on whose foundations so many of his achievements were built, that at times he refused even to write his name [399,401]. "

Numbers in brackets [..] are references to pages in Richard's Westfall's "Never at Rest" , Cambridge University Press, 1980.


http://www.physics.wustl.edu/~alford/newton.html