Thomas Burnet

Thomas Burnet (c. 1635? - September 27 1715 [Dates in this article follow the Julian Calendar.] [cite web |last=Westfall |first=Richard S. |authorlink=Richard S. Westfall |title="Burnet, Thomas" |work=Catalog of the Scientific Community in the 16th and 17th Centuries |url=http://galileo.rice.edu/Catalog/NewFiles/burnet.html |publisher= [http://galileo.rice.edu The Galileo Project] ] ), theologian and writer on cosmogony, was born at Croft near Darlington, and educated at Cambridge, and became Master of Charterhouse and Clerk of the Closet to William III. His literary fame rests on his "Telluris Theoria Sacra, or Sacred Theory of the Earth", published 1681 in Latin and 1684 in English, a work which, in absence of all scientific knowledge of the earth's structure, was necessarily a mere speculative cosmogony. It is written, however, with much eloquence. In this book he suggested that the earth was a perfect hollow sphere with most of the water inside until Noah's Flood, at which time mountains and oceans appeared. He attempted to keep his argument as scientific as possible, carefully (but incorrectly) calculating the amount of water on Earth. To his calculations, there was not enough water on Earth to account for Noah's Flood. His explanation was that the water came from beneath the Earth's surface.

Isaac Newton was an admirer of Burnet's theological approach to geological processes. Newton even wrote to Burnet, suggesting the possibility that when God created the Earth, the days were longer. However, Burnet did not find this explanation scientific enough. Lengthening the days would require an intervention on God's part. Burnet tightly held the belief that God created the world and all its processes perfectly from the start.

Some of the views expressed in another work, "Archaeolgiae Philosophicae", were, however, so unacceptable to contemporary theologians that he had to resign his post at Court. In this he considered whether The Fall of Man was a symbolic event rather than literal history.

Burnet's work had an influence on Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He is quoted at the beginning of the final (1834) revision of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

The ridge Dorsa Burnet on the Moon was named after him.

Notes and References

Persondata
NAME= Burnet, Thomas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Theologian and writer on cosmogony
DATE OF BIRTH=c. 1635
PLACE OF BIRTH=Croft near Darlington, England
DATE OF DEATH=September 27 1715
PLACE OF DEATH=