Page 12

ETS 2001: Boundaries on creation and Noah's Flood: Early 19

century British Scriptural Geologists

Terry Mortenson, PhD

tmortenson@AnswersInGenesis.org

P. 12

The Scriptural geologists' GEOLOGICAL arguments against old-earth geology

With respect to geological evidence the Scriptural geologists raised five important objections,

though the geologically competent Scriptural geologists also gave many different detailed
objections to old-earth theories. The Scriptural geologists believed that the old-earth geologists
were closing their minds to evidence that was contrary to their theories and that there were logical
errors in their old-earth interpretations of their otherwise accurately described geological evidence.

One important geological objection related to the gradual transitions between different

mineralogical formations. Several Scriptural geologists

and many old-earth geologists

observed

that it was quite common in the geological record to find one kind of mineral deposit gradually
changed into another kind, for example, sandstone blending into limestone. Furthermore, the
Scriptural geologists noted that, at this transition boundary, there was no evidence of soil or
erosion, as would be expected if the lower layer had been exposed to water or air for a long period
of time. The theoretical implications of this observation were almost universally ignored by old-
earth geologists when they accurately described this phenomenon, but it indicated to the Scriptural
geologists that the strata were deposited in rapid succession (as expected during a year-long global
flood), while the subjacent stratum were still rather soft and moist.

A second important geological objection related to certain polystrate fossils, which were

often found in an upright position and cutting through two or more strata of rock.

One of the

most famous polystrate fossils of the early 19

century was this tree found in a quarry in

Scotland in 1830, which can be seen to be passing through many strata of rock. Two theories to
explain such fossils were proposed and debated by leading geologists well into the 1840's, namely,
either 1) that the trees had been gradually buried where they grew, or 2) that the trees had been
uprooted, transported and deposited by flood waters, which rapidly buried them in sediments.
Since a dead tree would rot and disintegrate over hundreds or thousands of years, the Scriptural
geologists, along with some old-earth geologists,

believed that these trees had been transported

http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/4126.asp. For scholarly discussions see James Stambaugh, "Creation and the
Problem of Evil" (paper given at ETS national meeting, Nov. 17, 1995) and "Creation and the Curse" (paper given at
ETS Far West regional meeting, April 26, 1996). Both papers can be obtained from the author at Michigan
Theological Seminary, 41550 Ann Arbor Tr., Plymouth, MI 48170. See also Thane Hutcherson Ury,
"The Evolving Face of God as Creator: Early Nineteenth-Century Traditionalist and Accommodationist Theodical
Responses in British Religious Thought to Paleonatural Evil in the Fossil Record" (Ph.D. dissertation, Andrews
University, 2001).

E.g., George Young, Scriptural Geology (1838), pp. 22-23 and George Fairholme, Physical

Demonstrations of the Mosaic Deluge (1837), pp. 12, 80, 285, 395-98.

E.g., William Smith, Strata Identified by Organized Fossils (1816), pp. 1, 9-11, 13, 15, 21, 27, 32.;

Thomas Weaver, "Geological Observations on Part of Gloucestershire and Somersetshire," Transactions of the
Geological Society, 2nd Ser. Vol. I, Pt. 1 (1822), pp. 323-24, 339, 343, 349, 360; Adam Sedgwick and Roderick I.
Murchison, "On the structure and Relation of the Deposits contained between the Primary Rocks and the Oolitic
Series in the North of Scotland," Transactions of the Geological Society, 2nd Ser. Vol. III (1835), 130, 132, 141,
147, 150.

E.g., Fairholme, Ref. 28, pp. 392-94; Young, Ref. 28, pp. 12-14; William Rhind, The Age of the Earth

(1838), pp. 36-37.

S.P. Hildreth, "Notice of Fossil Trees, near Gallipolis, Ohio," Philosophical Magazine, N.S., Vol. II,

No. 10 (Oct. 1827), 311-13; H.L. Pattinson, "On the Fossil Trees found in Jefferies Rake Vein at Derwent Lead
Mine in the County of Durham," Philosophical Magazine, N.S., Vol. VII, No. 39 (March 1830), 185-89; John