Cambridge Library Collection - Religion Series

Is there intelligent life on other worlds? William Whewell, one of the most influential British intellectuals of the nineteenth century, weighed in on this question with Of the Plurality of Worlds. Writing anonymously, Whewell argued that there was no life anywhere else in the universe. Admitting such a possibility, he feared, would threaten humanity's special relationship with God, and open the door to supporters of evolution.

The publication of Plurality in 1853 ignited a bitter Victorian debate on science and religion. This book reprints the first edition in facsimile, together with a vigorous response to his critics that Whewell added later and new introductory and bibliographic material by noted Darwin scholar Michael Ruse. This edition also includes 84 typeset pages--never before published--that Whewell cut from the original book at the last moment. Showing clearly the theological underpinnings of Whewell's thinking, these chapters also reveal the difficulties facing any Victorian who tried to reconcile traditional Christian thought with the findings of modern science.

Astronomy and General Physics Considered with Reference to Natural Theology

by William Whewell

Published 21 October 2008

A leading British intellectual of the Victorian era, William Whewell (1794-1866) was a contemporary and adviser of Herschel, Darwin and Faraday. A geologist, astronomer, theologian and Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, he was best known for his works on moral philosophy and the history and philosophy of science, and for coining, among others, the term 'scientist'. This book, originally published in 1833, is one of a series of treatises published with the help of a legacy from the Earl of Bridgewater (d.1829), intended to contribute to an understanding of the world as created by God. Though an advocate of religion, Whewell accepts that progress in science leads to an understanding of the laws and processes of the natural world. He argues, however, that ultimately the scientific understanding of creation, astronomy, and the laws of the universe only serves to confirm the idea of a divine designer.