Theory of the Earth
Identifier |
BOK.ENG.AD1690
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Title |
Theory of the Earth
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Description |
Standing at the intersection between science and religion, Thomas Burnet sought to understand and explain the Biblical accounts of the creation and eventual fate of the earth through logic. This effort reflected a common effort by many of his time to explain the world through science (Leeuwenhoek and Newton having produced their findings in the years prior).
Burnet believed the earth to be divinely created, but that this creation could be explained through scientific processes. At the time, science "had not yet become a distinctly defined discipline," and later scientists criticized his work as speculatory and "lacking hard evidence" (Baker). Some of Burnet's theories posited that the earth was originally "a smooth sphere unbroken by mountains and valleys" and that the flood of Moses "must have sprung from a subterranean layer of water that cracked through the surface from an underground abyss," as rainfall would have been insufficient to cover the earth (Baker). * * * Baker, Christopher. “Thomas Burnet.” Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia, 2018. |
Date Created |
1690 AD
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Creator |
Thomas Burnet
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Publisher |
R. Norton
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Geographical Coverage |
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Temporal Coverage |
Enlightenment
17th Century
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Format |
Print
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Collecting Areas |
History of Writing Collection See all items with this value
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Language |
English
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Provenance |
From the Historian's Office Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
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Subject |
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Type |
Science
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Bibliographic Citation |
Burnet, Thomas, 1635?-1715. The Theory Of The Earth: Containing an Account Of The Original of the Earth, And Of All The General Changes Which it has already undergone, Or Is To Undergo, Till the Consummation of all Things. The Two Last Books, Concerning the Burning of the World, And Concerning the New Heavens and New Earth. London: R. Norton, 1690.
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