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Scriptural geologists (or mosaic geologists) were "a heterogeneous group of writers" in the early nineteenth century, who claimed "the primacy of literalistic biblical exegesis" and a short 'Young Earth' time-scale.[1] Their views were marginalised and ignored by the scientific community of their time.[1][[#cite_note-FOOTNOTERudwick200884,_"But_since_'"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000002-QINU`"'[[William_Henry_Fitton]]'"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000003-QINU`"'_and_other_geologists_regarded_[scriptural_geology]_as_scientifically_worthless…"-2|[2]]][3] They "had much the same relationship to 'philosophical' (or scientific) geologists as their indirect descendants, the twentieth-century creationists."[4] Paul Wood describes them as "mostly Anglican evangelicals" with "no institutional focus and little sense of commonality".[5] They generally lacked any background in geology,[6][7] and had little influence even in church circles.[8]

Background

Reason for appearance

Classical British scholarship, up to the end of the 17 hundreds, was theologically based. When it came to world history and chronology the Bible was a traditional source. The Genesis Flood presented the basic assumptions for explaining geological data. An old-earth cosmology was not an inevitable conclusion among the educated. Amateur and popular geologists continued to use scripture centered geology long after Hutton.[9][10][11]

Hutton’s revolutionary geological assertion that there was “no vestige of a beginning-no prospect of an end” at the beginning of the 19th century was difficult for the conventional mind to accept without loss of faith. Thomas Chalmers (a minister of the Scottish Kirk) popularized Gap creationism (or "interval" theory), a form of old Earth creationism that posits that the six-day creation as described in the Book of Genesis involved literal 24-hour days, but that there was a gap of time between two distinct creations in the first and the second verses of Genesis, explaining many scientific observations, including the age of the Earth.[12][13][14] Chalmers’ suggestion was supported by theological liberals, what Milton Millhauser referred to as the party of "reconciliation," such as Edward Hitchcock, W. D. Conybeare, and the future Cardinal Wiseman. Sharon Turner included it in his children’s book A Sacred History of the World. Millhauser wrote that "Its prestige was such that the " interval" theory presently became almost the official British rival to the continental one that interpreted the Six Days as six creative eras," adding his subjective estimate that "until about I850, the casual pulpit or periodical assurance that geology does not conflict with revelation was based, in possibly seven instances out of ten, on CHALMERS' "interval" theory."[15]

Historian of Religion Arthur McCalla considers that "All geological work that was taken seriously by experts took for granted the reality of deep time" and that scriptural geologists were not given "the slightest credence" by working geologists.[16] Irish-Scottish Studies Lecturer Ralph O'Connor disagrees, considers McCalla's views to be an "overstatement", and states that "the 'orthodoxy' of an old-earth cosmology was not there for the taking; it had to be painstakingly constructed, using various performance strategies designed to persuade the literate classes that the new school of geology trumped biblical exegesis in questions about earth history."[17]

The British scriptural geologists' writings came in two waves before Darwin's writings on evolution. The first, in the 1820s, was in response to 'gap theory' and included Granville Penn's A Comparative Estimate of the Mineral and Mosaical Geologies (1822) and George Bugg's Scriptural Geology (1826). Realizing that the majority opinion was slipping away from scriptural geology, their zeal increased. While the period from 1815-1830 represents the incubation of the movement, 1830 to 1844 marks its most intense and significant activity.[18] This was largely in response to Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology and William Buckland's Bridgewater Treatise, Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology, which diverged from flood geology. Responses included George Fairholme's General View of the Geology of Scripture (1833) and The Mosaic Deluge (1837).[19]

Historian O'Connor wrote of the times, "Although secularization in various forms was on the ascendant among the upper and upper-middle classes, the Bible was still the most important book in early nineteenth-century British cultural life. Although liberalizing churchmen were busily instructing people that the Bible was not intended to teach facts about the natural world, the text of Genesis 1 appeared on the face of it to suggest otherwise, with its bald statements of what had been created when. For all but a growing minority, the Bible remained a vital touchstone for speculation about the natural world; conversely, any thoughtful reading of the first few chapters of Genesis necessarily involved reflections about the natural world."[20]

Geological competence

Professor of intellectual history David N. Livingstone states that scriptural geologists "were not, as it turns out, geologists at all", concluding that "while it may be proper to speak of Scriptural Geology, it is not really accurate to speak of Scriptural Geologists."[7] L. Piccardi and W. Bruce Masse state that "[a]part from George Young, none of these scriptural geologists had any geological competence".[6] David Clifford states that they were "not themselves geologists" but rather "keen but biased amateurs" and that one of them, James Mellor Brown, "felt that no scientific expertise was required when examining scientific matters."[21] Taking a more positive view, Milton Millhauser states that the leaders of the party were "by no means ignorant of the science [they] assailed."[22]

They have been described as "genteel laymen ... versed in polite literature; clergymen, linguists, and antiquaries — those, in general, with vested interests in mediating the meaning of books, rather than rocks, in churches and classrooms", although a number of them were involved in fossil collecting or scientific endeavours. However for the majority, geology was not their main scientific interest, but rather a transient or peripheral concern.[23]

Theologians
Thomas Gisborne
Thomas Gisborne, B.A. in 1780, M.A. in 1783, from St. John's College, Cambridge, became a close friend of William Wilberforce whom he met in college. Gisborne wrote thirteen books, many of which went through numerous printings (two were interpreted into Welsh and German). Two of his books were related to science: Testimony of Natural Theology to Christianity (1818) and Considerations on Modern Theories of Geology (1837).[24]
Sir William Cockburn, 11th Baronet
William Cockburn, B.A. in 1795, M.A. in 1798, D.D. in 1823, from St. John's College, Cambridge,[25] was not a geologist. Gillispie described "reasonably respectable" William Cockburn, Dean of York, as spouting clerical "fulminations against science in general and all its works",[26] and writing[27] "clerical attacks on geology and uninformed attempts to frame theoretical systems reconciling the geological and scriptural records."[28]
George Bugg
George Bugg, B.A. in 1795 from St. John's College, Cambridge, was ordained deacon in York and became a priest and curate of Dewsbury, near Leeds. Bugg's most significant work was his two-volume Scriptural Geology. Volume I (361 pages) appeared in 1826. Volume II (356 pages) was published in 1827.[29] Although critics would object to associating geology with the Bible as a repetition of the mistakes the church made at the time of Galileo, Bugg held that there was a significant difference. Copernicus could easily reconcile his theory with scripture. But according to Bugg, modern geologists could not harmonize the Bible with their theories without changing the meaning of the scriptures.[30] He contended that "the history of creation has one plain, obvious, and consistent meaning, throughout all the Word of God." There is no hint of any other meaning than the obvious one in the rest of Scripture unless the Biblical authors have misled their readers.[citation needed] Millhouse quotes Bugg saying, "Was ever the word of God laid so deplorably prostrate at the feet of an infant and precocious science!"[31] Wood says the Bugg was "an embittered clergyman who could not find a benefice".[5]
George Young
George Young, B.A. in 1801 from the University of Edinburgh, studied literature and excelled in mathematics and natural philosophy under the tutelage of Professor John Playfair. In 1806 he became the pastor of the Chapel in Cliff Street serving for 42 years until his death. He wrote A Geological Survey of the Yorkshire Coast, (with John Bird in 1822, 2nd ed. 1828)[32] and Scriptural Geology (1838).[citation needed] He was a fossil collector and dealer.[33]
Geologist Martin Simpson described Young's Geological Survey as "in every way worthy of a pupil of the celebrated Playfair."[34] And, Piccardi and Masse said that George Young was geologically competent.[35]
Scientists
Andrew Ure
Andrew Ure, M.A. in 1799, M.D. in 1801 in Glasgow, was a scientist and physician. He served briefly as an army surgeon then in 1803 became a member of the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons in Glasgow as Professor of Natural Philosophy (specializing in chemistry and physics) at the Andersonian Institution (now the University of Strathclyde).[33] He was probably the first consulting chemist in Britain and highly esteemed by contemporary scientists.[36] He wrote A Dictionary of Chemistry (1821), Elements of the Art of Dyeing (1824), and A New System of Geology (1829).[32][citation needed]
Theologian Adam Sedgwick condemned A New System of Geology pulling "it to pieces without mercy" and calling it a "monument of folly".[37][38] Gillispie chastised Andrew Ure as of the "men of the lunatic fringe"[39] who produced clerical "fulminations against science in general and all its works".[40] Ure was not a cleric.
George Fairholme
George Fairholme was a wealthy banker and landowner,[25] self-taught naturalist. He was not opposed studying geology; rather, he did battle with the new theories which were, in his view, inconsistent with Scripture and scientific facts.[citation needed][41] Genesis did not teach science or geology, rather, it offers a true grasp of earth history for geologists to follow. He tried to show from geology and geography that a global Flood had molded the continents. The strata, in his view, were connected chiefly with the Flood.[citation needed] Charles Gillispie listed Fairholme as among "the lunatic fringe."[39] But Millhauser said he was "by no means ignorant of the science [he] assailed"[22]
John Murray
John Murry was self-taught early in his career, but he eventually obtain M.A. and PhD degrees. While traveling widely to observe geological and archeoloical sites he lectured and conducted experimental field research using chemical analysis to study rocks and fossils.[42]
Other
Granville Penn
Granville Penn attended Magdalen College, Oxford and became an assistant chief clerk in the War Department. His major work on geology (1822) was A Comparative Estimate of the Mineral and Mosaical Geologies.[43] Penn made no claim to be a geologist, yet he read the geological literature of his day.[44]
Contemporary Hugh Miller described Granville Penn as one of "the abler and more respectable anti-geologists" and "certainly one of the most extensively informed of his class,"[45] But where Penn's view of Biblical verses conflicted with Millers own views, Miller labeled Penn's views as "mere idle glosses, ignorantly or surreptitiously introduced into the text by ancient copyists."[46] Gillispie chastised Penn as among "men of the lunatic fringe, ... [who] got out their fantastic geologies and natural histories, a literature which enjoyed surprising vogue, but which is too absurd to disinter".[39] Millhauser said the Penn "had come to suspect it [the new geology] of a tendency toward Lucretian materialism."[31]

Reception

By historians of science

A number of modern historians have "rounded on scriptural geologists as simplistic fundamentalists who defended an untenable and anti-scientific worldview". Historian of science Charles Gillispie chastised a number of them as "men of the lunatic fringe, like Granville Penn, John Faber, Andrew Ure, and George Fairholme, [who] got out their fantastic geologies and natural histories, a literature which enjoyed surprising vogue, but which is too absurd to disinter".[39] Gillispie describes their views, along with their "reasonably respectable" colleagues (such as Edward Bouverie Pusey and William Cockburn, Dean of York), as clerical "fulminations against science in general and all its works",[40] and listed the works of Cockburn[47] and Fairholme[48] as among "clerical attacks on geology and uninformed attempts to frame theoretical systems reconciling the geological and scriptural records."[49] Martin J. S. Rudwick initially dismissed them as mere 'dogmatic irritants', but later discerned a couple of points of consilience: a concern with time and sequence; and an adoption of the pictorial conventions of some scriptural geologists by the mainstream.[39]

Bibliography of works by scriptural geologists

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b Rudwick 1988, pp. 42–44.
  2. [[#cite_ref-FOOTNOTERudwick200884,_"But_since_'"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000002-QINU`"'[[William_Henry_Fitton]]'"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000003-QINU`"'_and_other_geologists_regarded_[scriptural_geology]_as_scientifically_worthless…"_2-0|^]] Rudwick 2008, p. 84, "But since [William Henry Fitton] and other geologists regarded [scriptural geology] as scientifically worthless…".
  3. ^ Wood 2004, p. 168.
  4. ^ Rudwick 1988, pp. 42–44
  5. ^ a b Wood 2004, p. 169.
  6. ^ a b Piccardi 2007, p. 46.
  7. ^ a b Livingstone, Hart & Noll 1999, pp. 186–187.
  8. ^ Piccardi 2007, p. 46.
  9. ^ O’Connor 2007, pp. 361–362.
  10. ^ Rupke 1983, pp. 42–50.
  11. ^ Millhauser 1954, p. 67.
  12. ^ Evolution vs. Creationism: An Introduction, Eugenie Scott, pp61-62
  13. ^ The Scientific Case Against Scientific Creationism, Jon P. Alston, p24
  14. ^ What is Creationism?, Mark Isaak, TalkOrigins Archive
  15. ^ Millhauser 1954, pp. 66–70.
  16. ^ McCalla 2006.
  17. ^ O’Connor 2007, p. 361.
  18. ^ Millhauser 1954, p. 72.
  19. ^ Livingstone, Hart & Noll 1999, pp. 178–179.
  20. ^ O’Connor 2007, p. 391.
  21. ^ Clifford 2006, pp. 133–134.
  22. ^ a b Millhauser 1954, p. 73.
  23. ^ O’Connor 2007, pp. 371–373.
  24. ^ O’Connor 2007, p. 371.
  25. ^ a b O’Connor 2007, p. 371.
  26. ^ Gillispie 1996, p. 152.
  27. ^ Specifically: The Bible Defended Against the British Association (1839) and A Letter to Professor Buckland Concerning the Origin of the World (1838)
  28. ^ Gillispie 1996, p. 248.
  29. ^ O’Connor 2007, pp. 367, 371.
  30. ^ O’Connor 2007, pp. 367–68.
  31. ^ a b Millhauser 1954, p. 71.
  32. ^ a b O’Connor 2007, p. 375.
  33. ^ a b O’Connor 2007, p. 372.
  34. ^ Simpson 1884, pp. iv–v.
  35. ^ Piccardi 2007, p. 46.
  36. ^ Millhauser 1954, p. 71.
  37. ^ Brooke & Cantor 2000, p. 62.
  38. ^ Clark 1970, p. 362.
  39. ^ a b c d e Brooke & Cantor 2000, p. 57.
  40. ^ a b Gillispie 1996, p. 152.
  41. ^ Millhauser 1954, p. 73.
  42. ^ O’Connor 2007, p. 372 "Murray only failed to gain the chemistry chair at King's College, London, in 1831, because of his refusal to join the Church of England (he was a staunch Presbyterian).".
  43. ^ O’Connor 2007, pp. 372, 373.
  44. ^ Millhauser 1954, p. 71 "a scholar of some competence, who had studied geology."
  45. ^ Miller 1857, pp. 367–68.
  46. ^ Clifford 2006, p. 133.
  47. ^ Specifically: The Bible Defended Against the British Association (1839) and A Letter to Professor Buckland Concerning the Origin of the World (1838)
  48. ^ Specifically: New and Conclusive Physical Demonstrations: Both of the Fact and Period of the Mosaic Deluge and of Its Having Been the Only Event of the Kind that Has Ever Occurred upon the Earth (1838)
  49. ^ Gillispie 1996, p. 248

References

Books
  • Brooke, John Hedley; Cantor, G. N. (2000). Reconstructing nature: the engagement of science and religion. ISBN 0-19-513706-X. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Clark, John (1970). The Life and Letters of the Reverend Adam Sedgwick. Westmead: Gregg International Publishers. p. 362. ISBN 0-576-29117-X.
  • Clifford, David (2006). Repositioning Victorian Sciences: Shifting Centres in Nineteenth-Century Thinking. City: Anthem Press. ISBN 1-84331-212-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Cole, Henry (1834). Popular Geology Subversive of Divine Revelation. pp. 52, 113. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Gillispie, C. C. (1996). Genesis and Geology. London: Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-34481-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Khun, Thomas S. (1970). The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. p. 76. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Livingstone, David; Hart, Darryl G.; Noll, Mark A. (1999). Evangelicals and Science in Historical Perspective. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-511557-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • McCalla, A. (2006). The creationist debate: the encounter between the Bible and the historical mind. T \& T Clark International. p. 65. ISBN 0-8264-6447-5.
  • Piccardi, L. (2007). Myth and Geology. London: Geological Society. p. 46. ISBN 1-86239-216-1. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  • Rudwick, Martin J. S. (1988). The Great Devonian Controversy. pp. 42–44. ISBN 0-226-73102-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Rupke, Nicolaas (1983). The Great Chain of History. Oxford: Clarendon Press. pp. 42–50. ISBN 0-19-822907-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
Journals

Further reading

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