THE SACRED THEORY OF THE EARTH (or Telluris Theoria Sacra) CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE EARTH AND OF ALL THE GENERAL CHANGES WHICH IT HAS ALREADY UNDERGONE<br />OR IS TO UNDERGO TILL THE CONSUMMATION OF ALL THINGS<br /><br />Believed in the truth of the Biblical Genesis, Thomas Burnet (1635-1715) an English theologian and writer on cosmogony, was motivated by a desire to understand and explain the origin of the world&rsquo;s landscapes, its oceans and mountains. It was a speculative cosmogony, in which Burnet suggested a hollow earth with most of the water inside until Noah&#39;s Flood, at which time mountains and oceans appeared.