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Religions and Extraterrestrial Life pp 9–29Cite as

Pluralism Through Western History

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Abstract

Is the Earth the only location in the universe where life exists or can exist?

Astronomy , like the Christian religion, if you will allow me the comparison, has a much greater influence on our knowledge in general, and perhaps on our manners too, than is commonly imagined (Rittenhouse, D. (1775, February 24). An oration delivered February 24, 1775, before the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia (p. 7). Philadelphia: John Dunlap).

David Rittenhouse, 1775 C. E.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Aristotle. (1986). On the heavens, Book I, Part VIII (p. 73) (W. K. C. Guthrie, Trans.). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

  2. 2.

    Epicurus. Letter to Herodotus. Retrieved from http://www.epicurus.net/en/herodotus.html

  3. 3.

    Lucretius. On the nature of things, Book II (W. E. Leonard, Trans.). Retrieved from http://classics.mit.edu/Carus/nature_things.2.ii.html

  4. 4.

    Dick, S. J. (1982). Plurality of worlds: the origins of the extraterrestrial life debate from Democritus to Kant (p. 19). New York: Cambridge University Press.

  5. 5.

    Lovejoy, A. O. (2009). The great chain of being: A study of an idea (p. 52). Transaction Publishers.

  6. 6.

    Lamm, N. (1986). Faith and doubt: Studies in traditional Jewish thought (2nd ed., p. 87). New York: KTAV Publishing House.

  7. 7.

    Maimonides, M. (1986). Guide for the perplexed as quoted in Norman Lamm, Faith and doubt: Studies in traditional Jewish thought (2nd ed., p. 98). New York: KTAV Publishing House.

  8. 8.

    Genesis 1:1; translation from Holy Bible New Revised Standard Version.

  9. 9.

    Dick, S. J. (1982). Plurality of worlds: The origins of the extraterrestrial life debate from Democritus to Kant (p. 27). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

  10. 10.

    Grant, E. (2006). Science and religion, 400 B.C. to A.D. 1500: From Aristotle to Copernicus (p. 183). Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press. Translated (and square brackets added) by Edward Grant.

  11. 11.

    Danielson, D. R. (2000). The book of the cosmos (p. 92). Cambridge, MA: Helix Books.

  12. 12.

    Cusanus, N. (1954). Of learned ignorance (G. Heron, Trans., pp. 114–115). London.

  13. 13.

    Bruno, G. On the infinite universe and worlds, 1584. Retrieved from http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/brunoiuw0.htm#IUWTOC

  14. 14.

    Galilei, G. (1989). Sidereus nuncius (A. Van Helden, Trans., p. 26). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, title page.

  15. 15.

    Galilei, G. (1957). History and demonstrations concerning sunspots and their phenomena (1613), as quoted in Stillman Drake’s Discoveries and opinions of Galileo (pp. 93–94). Garden City, NY: Doubleday Anchor Books.

  16. 16.

    Galilei, G. (1987). Fourth Deposition, 21 June 1633, as quoted in Maurice A. Finocchiaro. The Galileo affair: A documentary history (p. 287). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

  17. 17.

    Danielson, D. R. (2000). The book of the cosmos (p. 169). Cambridge, MA: Helix Books.

  18. 18.

    Crowe, M J. (1999). The extraterrestrial life debate, 1750–1900 (p. 11). Mineola, NY: Dover Publications Inc.

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    Crowe, M J. (1999). The extraterrestrial life debate, 1750–1900 (p. 13). Mineola, NY: Dover Publications Inc.

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    Wilkins, J. (1638). The discovery of a world in the Moone. Or, a discourse tending to prove that ‘tis probable there may be another habitable world in that planet. Retrieved from http://www.gutenberg.org/files/19103/19103-h/19103-h.htm

  21. 21.

    de Fontenelle, M. (1761). Conversations on the plurality of worlds (Trans.). Dublin.

  22. 22.

    Crowe, M. J. (1999). The extraterrestrial life debate, 1750–1900 (p. 19). Mineola, NY: Dover Publications Inc.

  23. 23.

    Crowe, M. J. (1999). The extraterrestrial life debate, 1750–1900 (p. 28). Mineola, NY: Dover Publications Inc.

  24. 24.

    Franklin, B. Articles of belief and acts of religion. Retrieved from http://www.historycarper.com/resources/twobf2/articles.htm

  25. 25.

    Franklin, B. (1790, March 9). Letter to Ezra stiles. Retrieved from http://www.beliefnet.com/resourcelib/docs/44/Letter_from_Benjamin_Franklin_to_Ezra_Stiles_1.html

  26. 26.

    Rittenhouse, D. (1775, February 24). An oration delivered February 24, 1775, before the American Philosophical Society Philadelphia (pp. 19–20). Philadelphia: John Dunlap.

  27. 27.

    Hindle, B. (1964). David Rittenhouse (pp. 3–4). Princeton University Press.

  28. 28.

    Rush, B. (1796, December 17). Eulogium Intended to Perpetuate the Memory of David Rittenhouse, presented to the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.

  29. 29.

    Ibid (p. 126)

  30. 30.

    Ibid (p. 128)

  31. 31.

    Ibid (pp. 128–129)

  32. 32.

    Kant, I. (1998). Critique of pure reason (p. 687). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

  33. 33.

    Crowe (1999) (p. 132)

  34. 34.

    Crowe (1999) (p. 63)

  35. 35.

    Crowe (1999) (pp. 63–65)

  36. 36.

    Crowe (1999) (p. 66)

  37. 37.

    Crowe (1999) (p. 71)

  38. 38.

    Crowe (1999) (p. 73)

  39. 39.

    Crowe (1999) (p. 74)

  40. 40.

    Crowe (1999) (p. 209)

  41. 41.

    MacPherson, H. (1925). Camille Flammarion. Popular Astronomy, 33, 654.

  42. 42.

    Another world inhabited like our own. Scientific American, May 10, 1878, p. 2787.

  43. 43.

    See, T. J. J. (1896). Researches on the evolution of stellar systems (Vol. 1, p. 257). Lynn, MA: The Nichols Press.

  44. 44.

    Scientific American, October 28, p. 334 (1905).

  45. 45.

    Henkel, F. W. (1909, May 15). Life in other worlds: The interpretation of planetary markings. Scientific American (p. 319).

  46. 46.

    The Red God of the Sky. Scientific American Supplement, October 23, p. 270 (1909).

  47. 47.

    Lowell, P. (1907). Mars in 1907. Nature 76, 446.

  48. 48.

    Pickering, W. H. (1924). Eratosthenes, no. 6 migration of the plats. Popular Astronomy 32, 392.

  49. 49.

    Newcomb, S. (1905, August). Life in the universe. The Harpers Monthly, 404.

  50. 50.

    Jones, E. M. (1985). “Where is everybody?” An account of Fermi’s question, LA-10311-MS. Retrieved from http://lib-www.lanl.gov/la-pubs/00318938.pdf

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  1. Department of Physics & Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

    David A. Weintraub

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Weintraub, D.A. (2014). Pluralism Through Western History. In: Religions and Extraterrestrial Life. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05056-0_2

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