ABSTRACT
Biology, in their vision, could rival the unity of the older physical sciences but also become an autonomous science that could not be reduced to physics. Huxley's cosmic unifying vision met with sympathetic resonance as a generation of astronomers and cosmologists began to see the universe as part of an historical process, an evolving entity that reflected progressive evolution. Given the pulpit for the convocation address, Huxley delivered what is probably his most famous, indeed notorious, lecture of all, his 'secular sermon' entitled 'The Evolutionary Vision'. Huxley's lecture once again embodied his unifying vision made possible by evolutionary humanism. Religion, according to Huxley, was but an 'organ of evolving man', and the time had come for a 'new organization of thought' based on the new evolutionary vision. Furthermore, the 'evolutionary vision', as 'opened up to us' by Charles Darwin, 'exemplifies the truth that truth is great and will prevail, and the greater truth that truth will set us free'.
