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ETS 2001: Boundaries on creation and Noah's Flood: Early 19

century British Scriptural Geologists

Terry Mortenson, PhD

tmortenson@AnswersInGenesis.org

P. 2

the earth.

To understand both the 19

century debate and the current one, we need first to

consider briefly the historical context.

The relation of Scripture and science

Two important people in the 16

century greatly influenced the Genesis-geology debate of

the early 19

century. Those two men were Galileo and Francis Bacon. As is well known,

Galileo (1564-1642) was a proponent of Copernicus's theory that the earth revolves around the
sun, not vice versa. Initially the Roman Catholic Church leadership had no problem with this idea,
but for various academic, political and ecclesiastical reasons in 1633 the Pope changed his mind
and forced Galileo to recant his belief in heliocentricity on threat of excommunication. But
eventually heliocentricity became generally accepted and with that many Christians absorbed two
lessons from the so-called "Galileo affair." One was from a statement of Galileo himself. He said
that the Bible tells us how to go to heaven, but it does not tell us how the heavens go. In other
words, it was reasoned, the Bible teaches us theology and morality, but not astronomy or science.
The other closely related lesson was that the church will make big mistakes if it tries to tell
scientists what to believe about the world.

Galileo's contemporary in England, Francis Bacon (1561-1626), was a politician and

philosopher who significantly influenced the development of modern science. He emphasized
observation and experimentation as the best method of gaining true knowledge about the world.
He also insisted that theory should only be built on the foundation of a wealth of carefully
collected data. But although Bacon wrote explicitly of his belief in a recent literal 6-day creation,

he, like Galileo, insisted on not mixing the study of what he called the two books of God: creation
and the Scriptures.

So as a result of the powerful influence of Galileo and Bacon a strong bifurcation developed

between the interpretation of creation (which became the task of scientists) and the interpretation
of Scripture (which is the work of theologians and pastors). When we come to the 19

century

we find that often the old-earth geologists, whether Christian or not, referred to Bacon and
Galileo's dictums to silence the objections of the Scriptural geologists. The warning was obvious
and powerful on the minds of the public, namely that defenders of a literal interpretation of
Genesis regarding creation and Noah's flood are repeating the same mistake the Roman Catholic
Church made three centuries earlier in relation to the nature of the solar system, and just look at
how that retarded the progress of science.

A fully documented analysis of the Scriptural geologists and their opposition to old-Earth geology may be

found in my 500-page Ph.D. thesis: T. J. Mortenson, "British Scriptural Geologists in the first half of the
Nineteenth Century" (Coventry University, 1996). This is available from the British Library Thesis Service either on
microfilm for loan or on paper for purchase. Order from the Web:
http://www.bl.uk/services/bsds/dsc/brittheses.html.

Much has been written about this complex Galileo affair. Helpful analysis can be found in Thomas

Schirrmacher, "The Galileo Affair: history or heroic hagiography?", Creation Ex Nihilo Technical Journal, 14(1),
2000, pp. 91-100 (available on the Web at http://www.answersingenesis.org/Home/Area/Magazines/tj/docs/TJ14_1-
Galileo.pdf); William R. Shea, "Galileo and the Church," in God and Nature (Berkeley: UC Press, 1986), David C.
Lindberg and Ronald L. Numbers, eds., 114-35; Pietro Redondi, Galileo Heretic (London: Penguin, 1989).

Francis Bacon, The Works of Francis Bacon (London, 1819), II:480-88.

Francis Bacon, Advancement of Learning (Oxford, 1906), Book I, part VI.16, p. 46.