So you’re still with us as we dust off the 19th Century and earlier, following an obscure trail that takes us through the suspect ‘foundations of modern geology’, towards where?........................ a surprising destination!
We found that lawyer Charles Lyell (1797-1875) turned his geology hobby into an international success story with his publication ‘Principles of Geology’ 1830, but who did he listen to along the way?
Rev. William Buckland (1784-1856)…
was an amateur geologist/paleontologist who lectured in theology at Oxford University and was appointed Dean of Westminster. One of his students was Charles Lyell. He taught the ‘Gap Theory’ popularised by Thomas Chalmers co-writing the Bridgewater Treatise in 1814. (more on that later)
James Hutton (1726-1797)…
is called the ‘father of modern geology’ but actually he was a doctor of medicine who manufactured chemicals, owned properties including two farm estates, and took an interest in geology as a hobby. He shifted the focus from sedimentation to volcanic upheaval so was known as a ‘Plutonist’.
His theory of Uniformitarianism in ‘Theory of the Earth’ (1788) that geological processes were the same in the past as they are today, was adopted by Lyell, and can be seen to be deeply rooted in Hutton’s personal philosophy but was rejected by Abraham Werner.
was a professional mineralogist and taught mining at the renown Bergakademie in Freiberg, Saxony. He was labelled as a ‘Neptunist’ because of his study of stratification of sedimentary rock from global deluge. Since he rejected Hutton’s Uniformitarianism, popular opinion demoted him to ‘father of historical geology’.
Nicholas Steno (born Niels Stenson 1638-1797)…
was another medico with geology as a hobby, who also has been called ‘the father of geology’. A Danish surgeon, he published ‘An Introduction to Rocks’ in 1669 and established the Law of Superposition that describes the horizontal stratification of sedimentary rock. He devoted the remainder of his life to being a Catholic bishop in Italy.
So it looks as if the ‘millions of years of evolution’ was founded on observations by amateurs interpreting from philosophy, while rejected by professional geology, and you could pick who you wanted to be ‘father of geology’ depending on your point of view!
Huh?..this is science???
NEXT: ‘The Missing Link?’
What is this Gap Theory all about and just who is Thomas Chalmers?
http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/which-missing-link.html
Image credit: twitter.com
http://hotspuds.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/which-missing-link.html
Image credit: twitter.com
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