Modern science and the culture surrounding it is just leftover remnants of enlightenment era political and philosophical propaganda. Newton is a religious figure for materialists that want to set a narrative and challenge church and state authority. This can be more clearly seen by Darwin and his followers: even when the theory is shown to be wrong, he was still right "in spirit". Ie in that he was against metaphysical thought. People have been claiming we were ancestors of animals for thousands of years, yet Darwinism and the controversy surrounding it is a very modern phenomenon. This is because the DNA of Science Culture is fundamentally reactionary: only when the zeitgeist moves away from philosophy and religion and towards strict materialism does the conversation become meaningful.

Pic related is an enlightenment era propaganda piece meant to cast newton as a god like being with divine knowledge spilling out to peons.