Science Versus Faith In Memoriam A. H. H. Essay -- memoriam

The Victorian Age, named for the queen who reigned nearly the entire century, was characterized by incredible scientific progress. Charles Darwin, for example, came forth with his treatise The Origin of Species, which travel his radical theories of evolution and survival and rocked the pillars of impostal Christian faith in humankinds superiority to the beasts of the earth. Darwins theories of natural selection and survival of the fittest conflicted with the story of the Creation related in the Bible. Moreover, scientists now had proof that the Earth was much older than had ever been imagined before, making the history of humanity seem like a blink of the universes eye. The Victorian macrocosm could no longer blindly accept that the world had been created in six days after geologists had proven that the world evolved into its current form over millions of old age. In addition, a theory called Higher Criticism developed which read the Bible not as the infallible word of God, but as a historical text. In the face of these incredible and disturbing discoveries and theories, the faith of many Victorian Christians was profoundly shaken. The Victorian masses no longer had a bedrock of tradition and Biblical scripture to stand upon it had been dashed to pieces by fossilized rocks and the skulls of apelike men. The poet laureate of the age, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the voice of the Victorian people, expresses his horror and bewilderment at the implications of these scientific discoveries in In Memoriam A. H. H. In sections 54, 55, and 56 of this lengthy poem, Tennyson finds his belief in God weakened and his faith foundering in the face of scientific fact. In the face of evolution, geology, and natural selection, ... ...eration of evidence he cannot deny. He is wounded by Gods apparent betrayal of humanity and desperate for an answer, but there is none forthcoming. It took years for the wounds inflicted by science on the faithful to heal. Some Victorians chose agnosticism as their new philosophy of God if someone could prove to them His Existence, then they would believe. Others chose to become atheists. ungodliness stated that there was no God, no afterlife, and no divine creator. While neither of these theologies was very popular during the Victorian period, they have continued to exist. The citizens like Tennyson who act to reconcile their old faith with their new knowledge had to find ways to blend the two together, to show that it was possible for God to work through nature to achieve His ends. They had to gather together the dust of Earth, and with it shape a Heaven.