ABSTRACT
Born into a nineteenth-century America that was committed to progress and intoxicated by a sense of divine mission, Seventh-day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, and Christian Scientists each found a unique way to blend science and religion into a popular message for their day. With a profound sense of assurance of the rightness of their various visions, each movement took to hand whatever means its culture presented to buttress and spread its views. Given the growing preeminence of science as an investigative method and an authoritative body of knowledge, it often became a tool for apologetics. These movements used it both to attack others and to defend their own claims. “True” science brought confirmation of their worldviews; science that disconfirmed their message became “false” science. They were not alone, however, in their selective use of science. Many nineteenth-century Americans, including physicians, social reformers, and political utopians, did the same-and most shared the fervent zeal that their vision was the true one.
