Creation; Or, the Biblical Cosmogony in the Light of Modern Science

Naslovnica
General Books, 2013 - Broj stranica: 24
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1884 edition. Excerpt: ... VII. THE FIRST COSMOGONIC DAY. Light Appears. "And God said, Let there be Light and Light was." We now have a starting-point, but yet no activity, no progress. All beginnings are in darkness and silence. The era of progress opens with the first day's work. At God's command, movement begins and the first result is the production of light. This was no creation, but a simple manifestation of the activity of matter; for, according to modern physics, heat and light are but different intensities of the vibratory motions of matter. To understand the process, let us also note that the present theory of light requires the presence of a general ethereal medium, in which matter is plunged, by which, it is penetrated, and which, by its vibration, is capable of transmitting movement to all parts of the universe. Are matter and force one and the same, or is matter a sub-stratum and an instrument for force, as the body is for the mind % This vexed metaphysical question is not likely ever to be solved. If we incline to the last view we may conceive that God then endowed inert matter with the forces which we find always associated with it-- gravitation, the general quantitative force, and the specific qualitative forces and their correlatives. Under the uniform action of gravitation, which tends to unity, and from which no molecule can be screened by an interposing body, that immeasurable mass of gaseoUs matter contracts. In this process, latent heat is given out, atoms conglomerate into molecules; nearer approach begets continual chemical combinations on a multitude of points. In the more concentrated parts, heat is intensified and light is produced; and the result is the appearance in the dark space of heaven of a large luminous mass--the primitive, ...

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