Laplace Theorizes That the Solar System Originated from a Cloud of Gas
Overview
In Exposition du système du monde (Exposition of the System of the World) (1796), the French astronomer Marquis Pierre Simon de Laplace (1749-1827) briefly stated his "nebular hypothesis" that the Sun, planets, and their moons began as a whirling cloud of gas. This hypothesis sparked controversy among theologians and politicians as well as astronomers and physicists.
Background
After the pioneer astronomers Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), and Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) put forth their respective heliocentric (sun-centered) theories of the relationships among celestial bodies, Christianity was hard pressed to defend its traditional geocentric (earth-centered) cosmology. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the church suppressed heliocentric astronomy. Many scientists became disenchanted with religion. By the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, astronomers were arguing publicly among themselves for and against the immanence of God, i.e., the presence and activity of God in the world.
Accepting heliocentrism did not entail disbelief in either God or Christianity. Nevertheless, some adjustments in the content of Christian doctrine became necessary because of heliocentrism. It prompted a Christian theological debate that lasted about two centuries. In the light of the new cosmology, some thinkers even came to question the reality of God.
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