I was disappointed to read in the The Spectator (established 1828) that Professor Ian Plimer has written an article ‘Global Warming, meet Creationism’ in which he not only challenges Climate Change but also attacks Creationism. It is wonderful that this highly respected scientist questions the climate change hoax but he certainly seems to have an ongoing problem with believers in a recent Six Day Creation. Maybe this is a common trait found in geologists! Charles Lyell (above) was similarly persuaded according to this article by Russell Grigg (Creation 36[4]: 36 – 39 October 2014).

Charles Lyell (1797–1875) is best known as the author of Principles of Geology.¹ Darwin read the first two volumes of this on his famous voyage on HMS Beagle. These converted Darwin to belief in long geological ages, which gave him the deep time he needed for his theory of evolution to work.

Education

Charles was born in Scotland, the eldest of ten children. He attended private schools and then Oxford University, graduating B.A. in 1819 and M.A. in 1821. Here he took in William Buckland’s lectures on geology, and then did a geological tour of Scotland with him; he later went on several geological and fossil-hunting tours of Europe.² Lyell’s aim was to free the science from ‘Moses’.

He had studied law, and was appointed a barrister in 1825, but he suffered from poor eyesight and abandoned the legal profession in 1827, thereafter devoting himself to geology. From 1831 to 1833 he was Professor of Geology at King’s College, London.

Geology in the 19^th century

At the beginning of the 19^th century there were two main schools of geology.

Most leading geologists were catastrophists, i.e. they believed that the earth’s geology was best explained as the result of cataclysms. Many of these believed in long ages and multiple catastrophes; however, there were also many ‘scriptural geologists’ who believed that Noah’s Flood, as recorded in Genesis, being worldwide, was the principal such catastrophic event.

The other view was that everything in geology was solely the result of processes now operating in the earth. This belief rejected the Bible, and hence the accounts of Creation and the Flood as recorded by Moses in Genesis. Advocates were either secret atheists or deists, who conceded that the earth must have had a cause, but were not prepared to attribute that cause to the God of the Bible. Charles Lyell was one such deist. In his Principles of Geology, he alluded to “a Creative Intelligence” having “foresight, wisdom and power”, but he did not allow that this “Infinite and Eternal Being”⁵ had actually communicated with mankind.

Lyell argued against catastrophic events in the history of the earth—not by citing contrary evidence, but by holding that any such events were not accessible to inquiry.⁶ But the same inaccessibility to inquiry also applied to his own view of a tranquil past. What is needed to establish past events is eye-witness testimony. However, Lyell refused to accept the Flood testimony of Noah, recorded in Genesis by Moses”.

I think I see History repeating itself. For my readers interested in pursuing the truth of this matter, may I suggest the rest of this excellent article from Creation Magazine, accessible here: https://creation.com/charles-lyell

I do not suggest that you challenge the good professor (he is doing a mighty job on exposing Climate Change as a hoax). But I do suggest you read both sides of the story, they both cannot be true.

Gibber! Gibber!

Chugley

The Rock Sceptic Chimp