'Daylight Origins Society' reading material

HISTORICAL GEOLOGY: SCIENCE OR PSEUDOSCIENCE?

Historical geology, as most textbooks show, is based upon the theory of uniformity, which asserts that present processes in the formation of strata have always operated in the past. It also claims that there are two main laws or principles that are relevant to the determination of geological time. They are known as
(a) the law or principle of faunal succession and
(b) the law or principle of superposition.

The Theory of Uniformity. No evidence has ever been adduced that uniform conditions on earth have always prevailed. Uniformity was merely an assertion made by James Hutton in 1797, which was later adopted by Charles Lyell in 1830 in his Principles of Geology. ²⁰ Lyell was not an atheist, but he did not accept biblical history. In April 1829 he spoke of driving certain men out of the Mosaic record. ²¹ He had no evidence to support the doctrine of uniformity and even admitted that there were

But he argued that this appearance, which seemed to many as being indicative of great catastrophies, was due to the fact that there were many links in the chronological chain that were missing . To give illustration to this argument he took examples from human living. For example, he said that, if a census were taken every year in sixty provinces, changes in population would seem gradual. However, if it were only taken in a different province every year, the sixty-year interval between the census taking in individual provinces would reveal changes that would appear to be very great. ²³ Thus, Lyell's argument of gradual changes, which were not apparent to the observer because of (alleged) missing time spans, was an argument from silence. It was on these grounds that Lyell dogmatically rejected

and subsequently succeeded in ousting the prevailing flood geology. ²⁵

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²⁰ Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology (1830-1833), vols. 1-3.
²¹ Life, Letters, and Journals of Sir Charles Lyell (London: John Murray, 1881 - written by Lyell's sister-in-law, a Mrs. Lyell), vol. 1, p. 253.
²² Mrs. Lyell, op. cit. (12th edition), p. 298.
²³ Mrs. Lyell, ibid.
²⁴ Mrs. Lyell, op. cit., p. 319.
²⁵ Abandonment of flood geology was gradual until 1859 but accelerated after Darwin had published his theory. While there are now neo-catastrophists amongst evolutionist geologists, they do not recognize the Genesis flood as an historical event.