Evangelicals and

extraterrestrials The plurality of worlds debate

in Scotland, 1815–55

BSHS Conference 2015

Swansea

Bill Jenkins University of Edinburgh

writetobillj@yahoo.co.uk

Scientific Evangelicals in Scotland

Thomas Chalmers (1780–1847)

Minister, social reformer and political economist. Leader of the

Evangelical Party of the Church of Scotland and first moderator of

the Free Church of Scotland (1843). Author of the ‘Astronomical

Discourses’ (1817).

David Brewster (1781–1868)

Natural philosopher, inventor and science journalist. Principal of the

united colleges of St Salvator and St Leonard at St Andrews

University from 1838. Author of More Worlds than One (1854)

Hugh Miller (1802–1856)

Journalist, geologist and former stonemason. Editor of the Evangelical

newspaper The Witness. Author of Geology versus Astronomy (1855).

Thomas Chalmers’ ‘Astronomical Discourses’

Thomas Chalmers (1780–1847)

23 Nov. 1815: Chalmers gave the first

of seven sermons on Christian faith

and modern astronomy at the Tron

Church, Glasgow.

Published in 1817 as A Series of

Discourses on the Christian Revelation

Viewed in Connection with the Modern

Astronomy.

By the end of 1817 it had gone

through 9 editions and sold 20,000

copies.

The plurality of worlds and the scriptures

“In my Father’s house are many mansions”

John 14:2

Evangelical writers made extensive use of scriptural evidence to back up

their opinions.

Chalmers even provided an appendix containing ‘passages from

Scripture … serving to illustrate or to confirm the leading arguments

which have been employed’ in his Astronomical Discourses.

Chalmers’ answer to the ‘astronomical objection’

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the

moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man

that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou

visitest him?

Psalm 8: 3–4

The God who sitteth above, and presides in high authority

over all worlds, is mindful of man; and, though at this

moment his energy is felt in the remotest provinces of

creation, we may feel the same security in his providence, as

if we were the objects of his undivided care.

Thomas Chalmers, Astronomical Discourses (1817)

David Brewster: More Worlds than One

Written in response to William

Whewell’s Of the Plurality of Worlds

(1853).

Brewster drew on Richard Owen’s

theory of archetypes to claim that all

possible forms of life must exist

somewhere in the universe.

Life was not made for matter, but

matter for life; and in whatever spot we

see its atoms, whether at our feet, or in

the planets, or in the remotest star, we

may be sure that life is there’

D. Brewster, More Worlds than One (1954)

Evangelicals and the principle of plenitude

“no genuine potentiality of being can remain unfulfilled,

that the extent and abundance of the creation must be as

great as the possibility of existence and commensurate

with the productive capacity of a ‘perfect’ and

inexhaustible Source”

Arthur O. Lovejoy, The Great Chain of Being (1936)

‘the attribute of omnipotence predominates over the all,

and no mind responsive to its power will ever be

disturbed by the idea which it suggests of infinity of time,

infinity of space, and infinity of life.’

David Brewster, More Worlds than One (1954)

Hugh Miller and temporal plenitude

More sceptical than Brewster that all

planets were currently inhabited.

As the earth had existed for millions

of years before the creation of life,

perhaps the same was true for other

worlds.

The other planets may have been

ripening, nay, in all likelihood, have

been ripening as certainly as our own;

and the period of rational inhabitancy

may have arrived in not a few of them.

Hugh Miller, Geology versus Astronomy

(1855) Hugh Miller (1802–56)

Analogical reasoning

“similarities leave no room for doubt,

but that all the planets and moons in

the system are designed as

commodious habitations for creatures

endowed with capacities of knowing

and adoring their beneficent creator.”

James Ferguson and David Brewster,

Astronomy (1811)

Brewster was prepared to stretch the

analogy so far as to assume that the sun was

inhabited (as was William Herschel).

David Brewster (1781–1868)

Fall and redemption on a cosmic stage

How did the Christian drama of fall, atonement and

redemption relate to beings on other worlds?

The rest of the universe is (probably) without sin, therefore

Christ’s atonement relates only to the inhabitants of the earth.

(Chalmers) 1

The fall and Christ’s atonement may have taken place on all

other planets as on the earth.

(Brewster) 2

Christ’s atonement had only taken place once, on the earth,

but had universal relevance.

(Brewster, Miller) 3

Key points

An influential group of scientific Evangelicals existed in

Scotland in the early nineteenth century who actively

promoted the idea of extraterrestrial life. 1

The Evangelical emphasis on the power of God made the

existence of extraterrestrial life in the universe not only an

attractive idea but a necessary consequence of their faith. 2

Chalmers, Brewster and Miller did not reject the findings of

modern science, instead they attempted to create a synthesis

that reconciled it with their religious beliefs. 3

Thank you for your attention!

Evangelicals and

extraterrestrials The plurality of worlds debate

in Scotland, 1815–55

BSHS Conference 2015

Swansea

Bill Jenkins University of Edinburgh

writetobillj@yahoo.co.uk