Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
The rising waters, White tells us, represent "the flood of increased knowledge
and new thought"; the dam is dogmatic religion and unyielding convention
(White then confesses the hope that his topic might act as a mujik's channel
to let light through gently). For if dogma stands fast, and the dam breaks (as
truth cannot be fore- stalled forever), then the flood of goodness, by its
volume alone, will overwhelm more than darkness: ". . . a sudden breaking
away, distressing and calamitous, sweeping before it not only outworn creeds
and noxious dogmas, but cherished principles and ideals, and even wrenching
out most precious religious and moral foun- dations of the whole social and
political fabric" (1896, vi).
Burnet, in White's view, was part of the dam—an example of religion's
improper intrusion into scientific matters and, therefore, a danger to gentle
enlightenment. This interpretation underlies the short-takes of our textbooks
and classroom lectures. Modern scholars know better, but the world of
textbooks is a closed club, passing its errors directly from generation to
generation.
Burners Methodology
The Reverend Thomas Burnet was a prominent Anglican clergyman who
became the private chaplain of King William III. Between 1680 and 1690,
Burnet published, first in Latin then in English, the four books of Telluris
theoria sacra, or The Sacred Theory of the Earth: Containing an Account of
the Original of the Earth, and of all the General Changes which it hath
already undergone, or is to undergo Till the Consummation of all Things. In
Book I on the deluge, Book II on the preceding paradise, Book III on the
forthcoming "burning of the world," and Book IV "concerning the new
heavens and new earth," or paradise regained after the conflagration, Burnet
told our planet's story as proclaimed by the unfailing concordance of God's
words (the sacred texts) and his works (the objects of nature).
In previous hints of my affection for Burnet, I hope I did not convey the
impression that I would defend him as a scientist under
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