Saturday, October 1, 2022

Speaking of Queens (Victoria Institute)


 

Do you know anyone who has a lake named after them?  Lake Victoria is our planet's second largest freshwater lake and is bordered by Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. [1]  England's Queen Alexandrina Victoria (d. 1901) was fifth in line for the throne and then her father, granddad and uncles died before she was eighteen. She married German Prince Albert in 1840 ("do you have Prince Albert in a can?" ☺).  She bore nine kids!  Victoria was a great fan of Benjamin Disraeli who was Prime Minister twice.  In a speech at Oxford in 1864, Disraeli said, "The question is this, is man an ape or an angel?  My lord, I am on the side of the angels.  I repudiate with indignation and abhorrence the contrary view, which is, I believe, contrary to the conscience of mankind."  It is thought that Queen Victoria gave a Bible to Ali bin Nasr, governor of Mombasa. To the ruler of Abeokuta (Nigeria), Victoria gave Bibles in English and Arabic.  The Queen famously stated, "That book [the Bible] accounts for the supremacy of England."

 

The Victoria Institute (aka the Philosophical Society of Great Britain) was founded in 1865.  The first volume of the Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute (1867-1868) had a foundational paper titled "Scientia Scientiarum."  In it we learn that in 1844, when the British Association for the Advancement of Science met at York, the late Dean of York, Sir William  Cockburn, a geologist, said:

 

You say that there are geological facts which prove the long existence of the world through many ages. I say there are no such facts. Here we are completely and plainly at issue. Produce, then, some one or more of these facts; and if I cannot fairly account for them without supposing the very long duration of the earth, I am beaten! I am silenced! But if you do not produce such facts, and retreat, like Professor [Adam] Sedgwick [d. 1873], from the challenge, confess, or let your silence confess, that the whole doctrine of a pre-Adamite world has been a mistake...

 

James Reddie, the Honorary Secretary of the Victoria Institute, had this to say: 

 

My object not being to refute the geological views of Sir Charles Lyell or Bishop Colenso [The Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua Critically Examined] ... It is no part of my object to endeavor to prove that there are now no scientific views opposed to the Scriptures. Were that the case, had every quasi-fact and every "scientific" theory already shared the fate of the azoic ages and the "original igneous fluidity of the earth's nucleus," why then, of course, the Victoria Institute had been founded late in the day! ... I for one would never have thought of its establishment. But at the same time, I may be permitted to observe, that surely these confident appeals made by Bishop Colenso and Dr. Temple to "simple facts revealed by modern science" that contradict the statements of Holy Scripture, are put forward with an unwise effrontery so soon after such large confessions by our most eminent geologist (from whom they take their science second-hand), of science contradicting itself, and of the utterly delusive character of its former ''revelations" respecting the very foundation "facts" of geology. Surely when the scientific have been all out as regards the Creation of the world, after all the bold sneers in "Essays and Reviews" [on biblical criticism, multiple authors] as to the blunders of "the Hebrew Descartes" - a little modesty and somewhat less confidence might well become our once "deluded" teachers, when they come to speak now of the Deluge.  There are, doubtless, men of science and authors, who have already been engaged in investigating this question of the evidence of the universality of the deluge from a scientific point of view; and who have arrived at other conclusions than those of Sir Charles Lyell.


 

You may read all the articles from the Victoria Institute here (their journal is now called Faith & Thought).  JI Packer is in the house‼  Are there famous scientists that were influenced by this group?  The cactus moth loves to eat cacti.  In the early 20th Century, the prickly pear was an invasive plant in Australia and a huge nuisance ("crikey" ‼). 


 

John Mann (d. 1994) found the solution to the prickly pear problem and won international kudos in the 1930's.  With widespread distribution of the Cactus Moth (Cactoblastis cactorum), the infestation was controlled.  Mann, who was a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), had a definite opinion on Darwin since he was a young man:

 

The concept of evolution at that time (1930's) was not as universal as it is now.   There were lots of debates about it, a lot of questions asked and being answered.  In the 1920s I used to get copies of the magazine put out by the Victoria Institute in England.  They were men of high degree and they wrote against evolution.  Their magazine influenced me greatly.

 

Mann was a Bible-believing Christian and creationist.

 


 

Creationists are innovators!  Speaking of creationaries, my friend Casey Williams has a new book out, The Codes of Self Innovation.  There are Creationists who have done positive deeds for the entire globe.  Dr. Tyndale John Rendle-Short (d. 2010) was a Member of the Order of Australia for his research on infantile autism.  He was an innovator in early childhood autism diagnosis and was highly regarded around the world.


 

In the Doctor Who (David Tennant) episode "Tooth and Claw," the Doctor meets Queen Victoria.  He also wears a new moniker, Sir James McCrimmon from Balamory.  In the drama, the Torchwood Institute was a secret UFO/paranormal research organization established in 1879 by Queen Victoria after the werewolf problem was resolved.   Meanwhile, back in the actual world, the very real Victoria Institute was never mentioned in the show (if memory serves).


 

Speaking of science fiction, Martin Fichman wrote Evolutionary Theory and  Victorian Culture which was published by Humanity Books (2002).  He is Professor Emeritus at York University (Toronto).  He received his doctorate in  

History of Science from Harvard in 1969.  According to Fichman ...

 

Since the Victorian era, evolutionism has become an integral part of the debates regarding the appropriate place of science in the broader culture. The relationship between evolutionary science and religion is a critical aspect of these wide-ranging debates. ... Fundamentalist factions, such as creationists, some sects of Orthodox Jews, and increasing numbers of Islamic sects, in contrast, regard evolution as anathema. ... These issues involve not only differing concepts of knowledge and belief but competing views of cultural authority. ...  Huxley, Darwin, Spencer, and their associates had to wage an uphill battle to influence individual and institutional attitudes in government, education, industry, and society. At the start of the twenty-first century, a similar effort is being mounted by the antievolutionists. Although their crusade and that is the operative metaphor will undoubtedly fail, their tactics and their influence over certain individuals and institutions are unfortunate. [2]

 

Meanwhile, back at the Ranch (Reality), creationism is on the rise.  I hope and pray that Dr. Fichman gets red-pilled soon.  We hope to hear your feedback, pro or con (that includes you Dr. Fichman): 

   DeepTimeSkeptic@protonmail.com

BTW, David B. Kitts was my History of Science Prof ... he wrote the foundational work on the Philosophy of Geology, The Structure of Geology.  Speaking of Humanity (Fichman's publisher) ...


Notes:

1) The University Desk Encyclopedia (Elsevier, Lausanne, 1977), p. 1011.

2) Evolutionary Theory and Victorian Culture by Martin Fichman (Humanity Books, Amherst, NY, 2002), p. 222.

 

my site: https://totalyouth.us/

 

#LakeVictoria #Tanzania #Kenya #Uganda #QueenAlexandrina #QueenVictoria

#MartinFichman #VictorianAge #DavidKitts #Humanity #CactusMoth #CactoblastisCactorum #JohnMann #DoctorWho #DavidTennant #CaseyWilliams #CodesOfSelfInnovation #JohnRendleShort #Harvard #FaithAndThought #JIPacker #VictoriaInstitute #JamesReddie #PrinceAlbert

#PhilosophicalSocietyOfGreatBritain #WilliamCockburn #Lyell #Genesis #Geology #YoungEarth #RedPill

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