Theoretical physics developed in spite of theological beliefs held by it's practitioners, not because of.
"The orthodox view of the nature of the laws of physics contains a long list of tacitly assumed properties. The laws are regarded, for
example, as immutable, eternal, infinitely precise mathematical relationships that transcend the physical universe, and were imprinted on it at the moment of its birth from “outside,” like a maker’s mark, and have remained unchanging ever since...It is not hard to discover where this [our modern] picture of physical laws comes from: it is inherited directly from monotheism, which asserts that a rational being designed the universe according to a set of perfect laws. And the asymmetry between immutable laws and contingent states mirrors the asymmetry between God and nature: the universe depends utterly on God for its existence, whereas God’s existence does not depend on the universe.
Historians of science are well aware that Newton and his contemporaries believed that in doing science they were uncovering the divine plan for the universe in the form of its underlying mathematical order." (pp. 89-90)
Davies, P. (2014). Universe from bit. In P. Davies & N. H. Gregersen (Eds.)
Information and the Nature of Reality (pp. 83-117). Cambridge University Press.
"Newton was amazed by that accuracy, and he found there an argument for the existence of God. Since the system was so finely tuned, since one could predict the future state of the sky, and since, by solving equations, one could recover the state of planets at any previous moment, one had to admit that the solar system, as well as all the cosmos, had been conceived by some superior intelligence.
At the peak of a physical theory, it is not unusual to find that scientists have invoked some "higher power." This can be transformed into a theological argument, as in the case of Newton." (p. 3)
Basdevant, J-L. (2007).
Variational Principles in Physics. Springer Science.
"One of the most widespread misconceptions about science concerns its historical relationship to religion. According to this pervasive myth, these two enterprises are polar opposites that compete to occupy the same explanatory territory. The history of Western thought is understood in terms of a protracted struggle between these opposing forces, with religion gradually being forced to yield more and more ground to an advancing science that offers superior explanations. Wherever possible, religion has resisted this ceding of territory, thus hindering the advance of science. While historians of science have long ago abandoned this simplistic narrative, the “conflict myth” has proven to be remarkably resistant to their demythologizing efforts and remains a central feature of common understandings of the identity of modern science." (pp. 195-196)
Harrison, P. (2015). Myth 24. That Religion Has Typically Impeded the Progress of Science. In R. L. Numbers * K. Kampourakis (Eds.)
Newton's Apple and Other Myths about Science (pp. 195-201). Harvard University Press.
I referenced sources in my previous post, and added a few even simpler and clearer ones of varied nature to this post. I could continue to add more and more, but as you haven't done anything but contradict what is well-known historically about the emergence of physics and how as well as why it was able to develop conceptually, particularly the religious and theological origins of modern physics out of early modern natural philosophy from Descartes, Galileo, Newton and beyond, I will await some sort of explanation preferably with something other than rhetoric to back up your position.
Certainly, religion has impeded the development of progress in the sciences and the development of physics. But examples like Galileo are actually rather few and far between in this matter and ultimately fail because like his contemporaries Galileo was a firm believer and his works were influenced by theological principles particular to Western monotheism through-and-through.
Newton used God as an explanation not merely as a motivation for believing in a rational universe, but also evidenced by his laws where God serves in multiple ways as an explanation (most interestingly in varied references, including correspondence, where elsewhere he famously declared to make no hypothesis regarding the origin, explanation, or source of his force).
The same is true of Descartes. I already referenced Maupertuis and Euler.
But I am not all that interested in debating the clear and unambiguous historical record as it regards the many and varied ways in which theological concepts and principles formed the conceptual basis as well as motivation (among other important relations) for the emergence of modern physics. Firstly because it is rather obvious and (as noted above) one has to distort the record horribly whilst overreaching (in e.g., pointing to theists whose work was highly theological in nature or motivated by theology in no small way, such as Galileo) for evidence of theology hindering the emergence of modern physics. Secondly, because the point of my post was a clear counter-example, so to really address it you would have to argue specifically about the action principle and its historical emergence in physics from Maupertuis and Euler and before even beginning to address the emergence of modern physics out of natural philosophy and early modern sciences.
And, finally, because it isn't all that relevant now. Just because the action principle seems quite mysterious to many doesn't mean we should accept the rationale upon which it was based in a theologically dominated culture when belief in a rational deity could help motivate and justify the kind of inquiry that was contingently required for the sciences to emerge (Western theology need not have provided the impetus or justification that it did, as is shown by the fact that it took centuries after widespread Christianity for early modern sciences to emerge, that this worldview was heavily influenced by Greek philosophy, and that the Greeks actually came very close to developing the scientific endeavor without monotheism at all).
My point was that it is ridiculous to say that theology has never and could never offer anything as was argued in the post I responded to. It clearly did. This is just fact.