Evangelicals and
extraterrestrials The plurality of worlds debate
in Scotland, 1815–55
BSHS Conference 2015
Swansea
Bill Jenkins University of Edinburgh
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
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