The Religion of Geology and Its Connected Sciences

Edward Hitchcock, president of Amherst College and professor of natural theology and geology, wrote The Religion of Geology and Its Connected Sciences. An opening quotation says that science has a foundation, and so has religion, and asks that they unite their foundations. The text asks whether the sacred writers meant to teach as certain truth the fiction of a solid firmament, or on this subject conformed their language to the prevailing belief.

The text says that until the time of Copernicus no opinion respecting natural phenomena was thought more firmly established than that the earth is fixed immovably in the centre of the universe. The text quotes Dr. Paley as finely expressing that we never get amongst such original or totally different modes of existence as to indicate that we are come into the province of a different Creator, or under the direction of a different will. The text says revelation is illustrated, not opposed, by geology.