Repository | Book | Chapter
(1992) The invention of physical science, Dordrecht, Springer.
Devils' hells and astronomers' heavens
religion, method, and popular culture in speculations about life on comets
Sara J. Schechner
pp. 3-26
According to eighteenth-century astronomical theory, comets were opaque, spherical, solid bodies shining by reflected light and revolving in elliptical orbits around the sun. The perceived similarities between them and the planets raised the question of their fitness for habitation. At the heart of this question was a tension among natural theology, scientific reasoning, and popular culture. Theology played a role in suggesting how the existence of extraterrestrial life was to God's credit, and its natural side sought to divine the Lord's purposes in populating the heavenly bodies. Scientific reasoning played a role in posing what that life might be like, given the material and biological conditions assumed to inhere on the heavenly bodies by analogy with the earth. And popular culture shaped the way that rules of reasoning and natural theology were applied to the case of comets. Before turning our attention to speculations about cometarians, let us examine the doctrine of the plurality of worlds with its religious and methodological underpinnings.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/978-94-011-2488-1_1
Full citation:
Schechner, S. J. (1992)., Devils' hells and astronomers' heavens: religion, method, and popular culture in speculations about life on comets, in M. J. Nye, J. L. Richards & R. H. Stuewer (eds.), The invention of physical science, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 3-26.
This document is unfortunately not available for download at the moment.