William Whiston, suur veeuputus ja kohutav spektaakel

Abstract

William Whiston (1667-1752) was an English divine, mathematician and astronomer. His works nicely reveal the close relationship between science and religion in the early modern period. The paper aims to characterize Whiston's way of thinking in the light of his Astronomical Principles of Religion, Natural and Reveal'd (1717). In the 17th and early 18th century cosmologies, the location of Hell in the universe was a major issue. This horrible place of punishment could be located beneath the earth or on the sun. Whiston's view on this issue relies on the juxtaposition of biblical descriptions of Hell and scientific evidence regarding comets. Research for this paper was supported by Estonian Science Foundation grant no. 6099.