Essays Upon Some Controverted Questions

Scientific evidence and religious belief meet in these argumentative essays by Thomas Henry Huxley. Originally published largely in periodicals, the pieces range across palaeontology, interpretations of Genesis, morality, agnosticism and claims about miracles. In his prologue, Huxley explains that many began as replies to attacks on his views, and considers both the usefulness of public controversy and its tendency to become a personal quarrel.

The collection repeatedly asks how people distinguish reliable knowledge from conviction. One passage examines the value of testimony through a Gospel account, bringing physiology, anthropology and questions of justice into the discussion. Huxley's voice is direct and combative, and he preserves the essays' original argumentative character. Readers interested in the relationship between scientific inquiry and theology will find specific disputes, close reasoning and a nineteenth-century account of the competing claims of natural and supernatural explanations.