Creationism Versus Geology

A History of the Debate

Since antiquity, humankind has tried to apply science to the Bible's description of creation, eventually giving rise to the science of origins and a natural theology, which considered that the marvels revealed by science through nature confirmed religion. In1748, Count Buffon proposed that the Earth could be millions of years old, an idea that outraged the theological authorities at Sorbonne, who forced him to publicly recant. Buffon went on to define seven geological eras, in accordance with the days in Genesis.

In the first part of 19th century, naturalists such as Louis Agassiz,Georges Cuvier, and Alcide d'Orbigny supported the idea of a series of successive extinctions and creations. Their catastrophism was used to integrate and reconcile the scientific discoveries of geology with the Bible's doctrine. But the Archbishop Ussher had established that the date of creation was 4004 BC, and the new data demonstrated that the Earth was many years older. Today's creationists consider the Great Flood responsible for all fossils, but early catastrophists did not.

By the middle of the 19th century, James Hutton's actualism and Charles Lyell's uniformitarism began to overtake catastrophism. Geology was an emerging science, and its paradigm questioned some of the constructs of creationism: the Great Flood, the direct creation of all animals by God, and the creation of human beings from clay. Lyell, particularly, presented theoretical foundations that set the stage for Charles Darwin's natural selection in the transformation of species and the theory of evolution. Only a few fossils were known in Darwin's time, and scientists could not find support to corroborate the evolutionary process using palaeontology until Simpson demonstrated the value of fossils to document the synthesis theory of evolution.

[Page 586]Acceptance of Darwin's theory of evolution has been gradual. At the end of the 19th century, some renowned scientists remained opposed to the theory. Some, such as the geologist James D. Dana, defended evolutionism but supported the specific creation of human beings and the comparison between day and geological era. Others, including Arnold Guyot, a naturalist from Princeton, and the Canadian geologist John W. Dawson not only compared day and era, but attempted to harmonize science and the Bible by invoking a singular creation for matter, life, and humankind.

In 1909, C. I. Scofield published a version of the Bible that enforced Thomas Chalmers's idea that there were long intervals of time between the events described in verse 1 and verse2 in the first chapter of Genesis. This explanation allowed the time required by earth sciences between the first destruction and a new creation. At the same time, geologist and Protestant minister George F. Wright began a text on Christian opinions about evolution. In the1920s, evolutionists in some parts of the United States were persecuted, and various professors resigned.

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