vs. | |||
John Tyndall (1820-1893) | Balfour Stewart (1828-1887) | Peter Tait (1831-1901) | |
In 1874, a religion vs science debate erupted at the BAAS meeting between John Tyndall, who argued that religion needs to relinquish all control to science, and Balfour Stewart and Peter Tait, who argued that the two were compatible; with others, e.g. James Maxwell, on the fence. |
“All religious theories, schemes and systems, which embrace notions of cosmogony, or which otherwise reach into the domain of science, must, in so far as they do this, submit to the control of science, and relinquish all thought of controlling it.”
“We attempt to show that we are absolutely driven by scientific principles to acknowledge the existence of an unseen universe, and by scientific analogy to conclude that it is full of life and intelligence—that it is in fact a spiritual universe and not a dead one.”