relation to God. Atheism was to follow soon as the need for an external source of mechanical motion ceased to exist.”61 Instead of being conceived of as the transcendent, yet intimately present, source for the world’s ongoing existence (a point to be discussed further in the next chapter), God came to be seen as extrinsic to the workings of the world. Like the proverbial clockmaker who creates his clock and leaves it to run on its own, God fashions the cosmos and puts it in motion, but he remains