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RC 5

Georges LeClerc proposed calculating the Earth's age by measuring iron spheres' cooling times, estimating 75,000-3,000,000 years old. The passage discusses how Darwin built upon past scientists' work, even those who were devout creationists, like LeClerc. It explores how data emerging in fields like geology and paleontology challenged biblical accounts of Earth's age and creation, influencing Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection.

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Akash Mehta
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72 views

RC 5

Georges LeClerc proposed calculating the Earth's age by measuring iron spheres' cooling times, estimating 75,000-3,000,000 years old. The passage discusses how Darwin built upon past scientists' work, even those who were devout creationists, like LeClerc. It explores how data emerging in fields like geology and paleontology challenged biblical accounts of Earth's age and creation, influencing Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection.

Uploaded by

Akash Mehta
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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PASSAGE 5

Georges LeClerc (1707-1788) proposed a mechanism for calculating the age of the Earth using
molten spheres of iron and measuring cooling times, after which he proposed that the Earth was
at least 75,000 years old and perhaps as old as three million years.

Some students may feel that we should not focus on the past, and that our thoughts should be
trained on new knowledge and invention, rather than antiquated ideas. What these students do
not understand is the importance of the old ideas in shaping our current understanding of the
world around us, and that an outright dismissal of past theories simply because they have been
rejected by new evidence may limit our understanding of current theories.

There is value of learning about hypotheses that were once espoused to explain an observed
phenomenon, but that have now been long disproved and invalidated. Darwins theory of natural
selection as the mechanism for evolution is all too often taught in a vacuum in high school biology
classrooms, as if this brilliant naturalist developed a ground-breaking theory on natural order
which had never before been contemplated in any form. It is only by learning about the gradual
development of evolutionary theory, and the role of some religious individuals in shaping this
theory, that students may come to see the logic and power behind Darwins relatively simple
ideas.

Many of the contributions upon which Darwin built his ideas came from scientists who were
staunch creationists themselves. These scientists believed that all organisms on Earth had been
placed here through special creation, by God, because there was little evidence at the time to
support evolution. LeClerc also perceived that species were not fixed and could change over time;
he even proposed that closely related species, such as the horse and donkey, had developed from
a common ancestor and had been modified by different climactic conditions. Yet, LeClerc was a
devout Christian creationist and devoted much of his writing to the debunking of evolutionary
ideas. Despite their commitments to religion, LeClerc and Linnaeus both gave Darwin crucial raw
material to work withtheir ideas concerning the similarities between related species and possible
connections with common ancestors cried out for a reasonable explanation.

For centuries before Darwin, data that challenged the biblical account of creation was surfacing
in many fields of research. As explorers began to study the forces that shape the Earth, such as
mountain building and volcanic eruptions, accounts from scripture and assertions that the Earth
was very young began to be called into question. Uniformitarian geologists such as Charles Lyell
felt that the only reason mountains and other features of the Earths terrain had been built the
way they had was because of long, gradual processes that shaped these structures. There was
no way, he felt, that the Earth could be several thousand years old as asserted in the Bible. In
addition, the discovery of new plants, animals, and fossils as explorers travelled to uncharted
regions of the world aroused suspicion about the paucity of animal and plant kinds in the Bible.
Improvements in scientists abilities to estimate the age of the Earth and the relative ages of
fossils also pushed people to question old assumptions.
1. Taking into account all that was argued by the author, the main idea of this
passage is that:

A. religious scientists before Darwin greatly influenced his formation of the theory of natural
selection.
B. similarities between species of plants and animals were too great to ignore as people
attempted to explain relationships in nature.
C. Darwin relied on a great deal of information from those who lived before him as he formed
his well-known conclusions about the mechanisms of evolution.
D. old ideas should not be dismissed simply because they are old and disproved.
E. There is no connection between old ideas and new ones

2. If the author were teaching a class on evolution in a university in the Unites


States, the passage suggests that the class would spend a significant amount of
time discussing:

A. the origins of Darwins theory of natural selection.


B. details of Darwins theory of natural selection.
C. the Biblical account of creation.
D. taxonomy and classification and their importance in Darwins ideas.
E. the future of evolution

3. The authors discussion of Darwins theory in paragraph 3 of the passage


suggests that:

A. Darwin does not deserve the credit he is given for his ideas on evolutionary theory.
B. Darwins theories should be presented in the context within which they were originally
conceived.
C. Darwins ideas would be properly devalued if people knew the religious background from
which his ideas stemmed.
D. Darwins ideas are simple enough that he didnt need much help in formulating them.
E. Darwins ideas have no place in modern theories of evolution

4. According to the passage, the idea that mountains and other structures take a
great deal of time to form was an idea championed by:

A. catastrophists.
B. Darwinists.
C. creationists.
D. uniformitarians.
E. modern scientists

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