Victorian Sciences and Religions: Discordant Harmonies

Lightman, Bernard

doi:10.1086/649351

Cited by 43 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…In this, he was not unlike August Comte, who envisioned science helping to promote a new religion of humanity in the final stage of history (Pitt ). He might also be compared with Thomas Huxley, who, as Lightman () shows, “asserted that the revolution effected in the modern mind by the beneficial impact of science represented the final climax of the Protestant Reformation” (347). One might also compare him to Ernest Renan (1891), who did not just claim for his “religion…the progress of science,” but self‐consciously sought to infuse the progress of science with religious drama (x).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Andrew Dickson White and the History of a Religious Future

Schaefer¹

2015

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Andrew Dickson White played a pivotal role in constructing the image of a necessary, and even violent, confrontation between religion and science that persists to this day. Though scholars have long acknowledged that his position is more complex, given that White claimed to be saving religion from theology, there has been no attempt to explore what this means in light of his overwhelming attack on existing religions. This essay draws attention to how White's role as a historian was decisive in allowing him to posit a future for religion purified of dogma by science. It argues, furthermore, that this effort is better understood as religious innovation, rather than a plea for strictly secular science. In so doing it hopes to lay the foundation for a more fruitful historical treatment of White, and a range of other figures whose devotion to science has otherwise been difficult to grasp.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Andrew Dickson White and the History of a Religious Future

Schaefer¹

2015

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“…These were made explicit through the press: the Junta wished to transform the Parc ‘into a true park of culture’ and started with the erection of an impressive mammoth ‘whose remains had been found in Catalonia’ ( La Veu de Catalunya , 1 October 1907, p. 1). In the attempt to contribute to the understanding of the varieties of popular science and the transformations of public knowledge in a non‐anglophone context (Daum, , p. 322), this paper provides a case study at the confluence of the historiography aiming to paint a nuanced picture of the relation of science and religion (Lightman, , p. 344) and making the case for science in the creation of national identity (Harrison and Johnson, , p. 3).…”

Section: Nationalism Catholicism and Newspapers ‐ Science In The Pubmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Mammoth in the Park: Palaeontology, Press and Popular Culture in Barcelona (1870-1910)

Plana

2016

Centaurus

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This paper focuses on the role of newspapers and journals in constructing the public images of the mammoth in Catalonia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, paying special attention to the visual power of descriptions, pictures and cartoons of this and other ancient species that increasingly appeared in the press. As palaeontology became a 'public science,' the extinct species gained status not least because it could be imbued with multiple meanings that moved between the scientific and public spheres. The visualizations of the animal contributed to metaphorically reinforcing and confronting ideas of political and social scope, like the notions of modernity and national identity, which were of great relevance in Barcelona at the turn of the century.

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“…The term “scientific naturalism” was first coined by T. H. Huxley in 1892, but the ideas, methods, and attitude of naturalism became widespread decades before (Numbers 2003). In the middle decades of the nineteenth century, a group of scientists preaching the strict exclusion of religion from scientific matters (for which the uniformity of nature was an important weapon) became influential and rose to prominence in the scientific community (Jacyna 1980; Lightman 1987, 2001; Moore 1979; Numbers 2010; Ruse 1975; Turner 1974, 2010; Young 1985). 4 Led by Huxley, John Tyndall, and their allies, these strongly naturalistic scientists portrayed themselves as the vanguard of a truly modern and enlightened science and eventually succeeded in making their visions of a completely naturalistic and areligious science seem obvious and inevitable—precisely how naturalism is presented by scientists today.…”

Section: A Historical Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

The Uniformity of Natural Laws in Victorian Britain: Naturalism, Theism, and Scientific Practice

Stanley

2011

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A historical perspective allows for a different view on the compatibility of theistic views with a crucial foundation of modern scientific practice: the uniformity of nature, which states that the laws of nature are unbroken through time and space. Uniformity is generally understood to be part of a worldview called "scientific naturalism," in which there is no room for divine forces or a spiritual realm. This association comes from the Victorian era, but a historical examination of scientists from that period shows that uniformity was an important part of both theistic and naturalistic worldviews. Victorian efforts to maintain the viability of miracles and divine action within a universe ruled by natural laws receives special attention. The methodological practices of theistic and naturalistic scientists in the nineteenth century were effectively indistinguishable despite each group's argument that uniformity was closely dependent on their worldview. This similarity is used to reexamine both the reasons for the decline of the role of religion within the scientific community and claims made by the intelligent design movement about the relationship of science and religion.

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Victorian Sciences and Religions: Discordant Harmonies

Cited by 43 publications

References 0 publications

Andrew Dickson White and the History of a Religious Future

Andrew Dickson White and the History of a Religious Future

A Mammoth in the Park: Palaeontology, Press and Popular Culture in Barcelona (1870-1910)

The Uniformity of Natural Laws in Victorian Britain: Naturalism, Theism, and Scientific Practice

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