The Religion of Geology and Its Connected SciencesHitchcock, Edward
Religion
The Religion of Geology and Its Connected Sciences
Hitchcock, Edward
Bible and geology; Religion and science
To prove the original igneous fluidity of the globe, we might have adopted
another course of argument. All will admit that the present temperature of
the interior of the earth is far more elevated than that of the
surrounding planetary spaces. The inevitable result is, from the known
laws of heat, that its radiation into the celestial spaces is constantly
going on, and consequently the earth's temperature is being constantly
lowered. Who can tell us now when this process of refrigeration commenced?
If no one, then there must have been a time when the heat was great enough
to fuse the whole globe. And the facts already stated confirm such an
inference. For all the efforts hitherto made to show that the earth may be
passing through regions of various temperatures, in its march around the
centre of centres, amount to nothing more than dreamy conjecture.
In order to feel the force of the argument, sustained by so many facts in
geology, just picture to yourselves this vast globe as a mass of liquid
fire. From such a world every thing organic must have been excluded, and
every thing combustible consumed, and only such combinations of matter
have existed as incandescent heat could not decompose. Compare such a
world with that now teeming with life, and beauty, and glory, which we
inhabit; and say, must not the transition to its present condition have
demanded the exercise of infinite power, infinite wisdom, and infinite
benevolence? You can, indeed, conceive how a solid crust might have formed
over the vast fiery ocean, by the simple radiation of heat; and then, too,
by natural laws, might the vapors have been condensed into oceans and
clouds, while volcanic force within might have lifted up our continents
and mountains above the flood. But what a picture of desolation and ruin
would such a world present, while unadorned with vegetation, and with no
voice of life to break the stillness of universal death! Here is, then,
the precise point where we need the interference of a Deity. Admit, if you
please, that atheism, with its eternal matter and the laws of nature at
command, might form a world without inhabitants. Who does not see, that to
bestow organization, and life, and instinct, to say nothing of intellect,
upon brute matter, is the loftiest prerogative of Jehovah? especially to
fill so vast a world as ours with its teeming millions, exhibiting ten
thousand diversities of size, form, and structure.
Let the atheist then exult in the belief of an eternal world. Geology
shows him that it must have been without inhabitants; and that, therefore,
the most wonderful part of the creation still remains to be accounted for;
while physiology teaches that the interference of an infinite Deity can
alone solve the enigma.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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