Geology and God: Examining the relationship between the scientific and the sacred in nineteenth-century England

In the following master's thesis, I examine geological theories that challenged natural theology, the guiding philosophy of English geology, in nineteenth-century England. Focusing mainly on British geologists William Buckland and Charles Lyell, I explain their views on diluvialism, extinction, and human antiquity in relation to the argument from design.; For primary sources, I use the writings of Buckland, Lyell, and their contemporary critics. My secondary sources include journal articles and books. Some sources focus mostly on science, others on religion, and some equally on both.; The focus of my argument is that the relationship between science and religion in nineteenth-century England was characterized by conflict and cooperation, both in surprising degree. Leading geologists, often clerics themselves and devoutly Christian, were attacked by biblical literalists for much of their careers, a trend that began with Buckland's diluvialism and accelerated with Lyell's stance on human antiquity and Darwin's theory of natural selection.