Page 7

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

century British Scriptural Geologists

Terry Mortenson, PhD

tmortenson@AnswersInGenesis.org

P. 7

theories. In this paper I am limited to briefly introducing you to four of the most geologically
competent Scriptural geologists. To set the context, it is helpful to see what Charles Lyell, the
leading uniformitarian geologist in the 19

century, had to say about the opponents of old-earth

geological theories. Lyell described them as "wholly destitute of geological knowledge" and
unacquainted "with the elements of any one branch of natural history which bears on the science."
He said that they were "incapable of appreciating the force of objections, or of discerning the
weight of inductions from numerous physical facts." Instead he complained that "they endeavour
to point out the accordance of the Mosaic history with phenomena which they have never
studied" and "every page of their writings proves their consummate incompetence."

As will be

clear, these men were far from being the anti-geology, scientific ignoramuses that Lyell, most of
their other contemporary critics and nearly all historians have portrayed them.

George Young

First, George Young (1777-1848) was born into a poor but godly farming family in Scotland.

He got his first degree from the University of Edinburgh, where he focused on mathematics and
natural philosophy and was a favorite student of professor John Playfair, who at this time was in
the process of becoming the articulate interpreter of James Hutton's uniformitarian theory. Young
then studied theology for five years under a leading Scottish theologian. In 1805 he moved to the
little port of Whitby in Yorkshire and became the pastor of a Presbyterian congregation, called
Whitby Chapel, where he served faithfully until his death in 1848. After beginning his pastoral
ministry he also received an M.A. and an honorary Doctor of Divinity.

As a godly pastor, Young was respected for his concern for the poor and his generous, self-

denying, Christian spirit, because of which he delighted to unite with Christians of other
Protestant denominations in joint efforts of witness and service. His congregation fixed a
monument over the pulpit of the church after his death, which honored Young for having
"preached the Word of God within these walls with unabated zeal for 42 years, actuated and
sustained throughout solely by a sense of duty, and an anxious desire for the salvation of souls."

Beyond this, his scholarly attainments were also considerable. He had a more than common

knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, Latin, French and Italian, as well as an acquaintance with Arabic,

Charles Lyell, Review of Memoir on the Geology of Central France, by G.P. Scrope, Quarterly Review,

Vol. XXXVI, No. 72 (1827), p. 482. Lyell likely had in mind, among others, Granville Penn, George Bugg and
George Young, who all wrote substantial works on the subject before 1827 and who feature in my thessis.

Even Davis Young, the professing evangelical old-Earth geologist at Calvin College who has influenced

so many other evangelical scholars in the last few decades, has misled his readers on this subject. In his Christianity
and the Age of the Earth (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1982, p. 54) Young implied that these Scriptural geologists had
no real geological knowledge: "A torrent of books and pamphlets were published on `Scriptural' geology and Flood
geology, all designed to uphold the traditional point of view on the age and history of the world. The `heretical' and
`infidel' tendencies of geology were roundly condemned by some churchmen, few of whom had any real knowledge
of geology. Those who had geological knowledge were now largely convinced that the Earth was very old." In his
more recent work, The Biblical Flood (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995, p. 124-28), he is a little more generous,
when he states that, "a few were competent field observers who had described regional geology." He names George
Young, but briefly discusses only the views of Granville Penn, George Fairholme and William Kirby. He does not
mention John Murray and William Rhind, who along with Young and Fairholme were the most geologically
competent Scriptural geologists. All these men except Kirby are discussed thoroughly in my thesis.

Francis K. Robinson, Whitby (1860), 145.