Catastrophism

Catastrophism is the theory that the Earth had largely been shaped by sudden, short-lived, violent
events, possibly worldwide in scope.[1] This is in contrast to uniformitarianism(sometimes
described as gradualism), in which slow incremental changes, such as erosion, created all the
Earth's geological features. Uniformitarianism held that the present was the key to the past, and
that all geological processes (such as erosion) throughout the past were like those that can be
observed now. Since the early disputes, a more inclusive and integrated view of geologic events
has developed, in which the scientific consensus accepts that there were some catastrophic events
in the geologic past, but these were explicable as extreme examples of natural processes which
can occur.

Catastrophism held that geological epochs had ended with violent and sudden natural
catastrophes such as great floods and the rapid formation of major mountain chains. Plants and
animals living in the parts of the world where such events occurred were made extinct, being
replaced abruptly by the new forms whose fossils defined the geological strata. Some
catastrophists attempted to relate at least one such change to the Biblical account of Noah's
flood.

JAMES HUTTON

James Hutton ( 3 June 1726– 26 March 1797) was a

Scottish geologist, physician, chemical manufacturer, naturalist, and
experimental agriculturalist.[3] He contributed to what was later called uniformitarianism—a
fundamental principle of geology—that explains the features of the Earth's crust by means of
natural processes over geologic time. Hutton's work helped to establish geology as a science, and
as a result he is often referred to as the "Father of Modern Geology",[4][5] though these
principles were already in use by others including Buffon.[6]
Through observation and carefully reasoned geological arguments, Hutton came to
believe that the Earth was perpetually being formed; he recognised that the history of Earth could
be determined by understanding how processes such as erosion and sedimentation work in the
present day. His theories of geology helped to establish geologic time,[7] also called deep
time,[8] but unlike modern concepts, Hutton's "system of the habitable Earth" was
a deistic mechanism to keep the world would eternally suitable for humans.[6]
 DEISM
Deism (/ˈdiːɪzəm/ DEE-iz-əm [1][2] or /ˈdeɪ.ɪzəm/ DAY-iz-əm; derived from Latin "deus"
meaning "god") is the philosophical belief which posits that although God exists as the uncaused
First Cause – ultimately responsible for the creation of the universe – God does not interact
directly with that subsequently created world. Equivalently, deism can also be defined as the
view which asserts God's existence as the cause of all things, and admits its perfection (and
usually the existence of natural law and Providence) but rejects divine revelation or direct
intervention of God in the universe by miracles. It also rejects revelation as a source of religious
knowledge and asserts that reason and observation of the natural world are sufficient to
determine the existence of a single creator or absolute principle of the universe.[3][4][5]
Deism as a form of natural theology gained prominence among intellectuals during
the Age of Enlightenment, especially in Britain, France, Germany, and the United States.
Typically, deists had been raised as Christians and believed in one God, but had become
disenchanted with organized religion and orthodox teachings such as the Trinity, Biblical
inerrancy, and the supernatural interpretation of events, such as miracles.[6] Included in those
influenced by its ideas were leaders of the American and French Revolutions.[7]
Deism is considered to exist in the classical and modern forms,[8] where the classical
view takes what is called a "cold" approach by asserting the non-intervention of a deity in the
natural behavior of the created universe, while the modern deist formulation can be either
"warm" (citing an involved deity) or "cold" (citing an uninvolved deity). These lead to many
subdivisions of modern deism, which serves as an overall category of belief.[9]

James Hutton and Deep Time

From Newton, Halley, Herschel, and others, the realm of application of the developing laws of
physics was extended deep into Universe. However, even Newton, the first to make the break
from entrenched ideas did not believe that the laws of physics were constant for all time.

At the time, people thought the Earth was rather young, and in the process of "running down".
The observation of sedimentary rocks was explained (not too well) by references to a Great
Flood.

That task of extending "Universality" back in time fell to Dr. James Hutton, a physician and
successful farmer who visited and studied many geologic outcroppings. From his studies of
rocks, Hutton concluded, and in 1785 reported, that the Earth was much older than people had
assumed. In fact, Hutton described an earth model with "no vestige of a beginning - no
prospect of an end".

Hutton imagined Earth in a continuous cycle of uplift and erosion, a hypothesis that qualitatively
explained the observations he made at rock outcroppings.

UNIFORMITARIANISM
Uniformitarianism, also known as the Doctrine of Uniformity, is the assumption that
the same natural laws and processes that operate in our present-day scientific observations have
always operated in the universe in the past and apply everywhere in the universe.[1][2] It refers to
invariance in the metaphysical principles underpinning science, such as the constancy of cause
and effect throughout space-time,[3] but has also been used to describe spatiotemporal invariance
of physical laws.[4] Though an unprovable postulate that cannot be verified using the scientific
method, some consider that uniformitarianism should be a required first principle in scientific
research.[5] Other scientists disagree and consider that nature is not absolutely uniform, even
though it does exhibit certain regularities.[6][7]
In geology, uniformitarianism has included the gradualistic concept that "the present is
the key to the past" and that geological events occur at the same rate now as they have always
done, though many modern geologists no longer hold to a strict gradualism.[8] Coined by William
Whewell, it was originally proposed in contrast to catastrophism[9] by British naturalists in the
late 18th century, starting with the work of the geologist James Hutton in his many books
including Theory of the Earth.[10] Hutton's work was later refined by scientist John Playfair and
popularised by geologist Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology in 1830.[11] Today, Earth's history
is considered to have been a slow, gradual process, punctuated by occasional natural catastrophic
events.

Gradualism
Gradualism, from the Latin gradus ("step"), is a hypothesis, a theory or a tenet assuming that
change comes about gradually or that variation is gradual in nature and happens over time as
opposed to in large steps.[1] Uniformitarianism, incrementalism, and reformism are similar
concepts.
Charles Lyell and Uniformitarianism

Hutton published a book outlining his concept of "Geology" but was not very skilled in written
explanations. His work was later clarified in a book by Playfair and then restructured in the
classic "Principles of Geology" by Charles Lyell (1797 - 1875).

Lyell's views differed somewhat from Hutton's. He was the first to expound the idea we know
today as Uniformitarianism, often summarized in the statement "the present is the key to the
past".

We interpret "the present is the key to the past" to mean that the same processes and laws in
operation today were operating throughout the history of Earth. Lyell interpreted the idea more
strictly, he also assumed that processes operated at the same rates in the past as they do today. He
rejected the idea that Earth history was dominated by catastrophic events, he favored gradualism.

We now know that Earth history, although dominated by gradual processes, was punctuated with
catastrophic events such as mass extinction's (perhaps caused by comet impacts, periods of
dramatic climate change or intense volcanism). For dramatic example, in July of 1994 the comet
Shoemaker-Levy 9 crashed into Jupiter! But such events are a natural process that are expected.

UNIFORMMITARIANISM…….

Uniformitarianism is a theory based on the work of James Hutton and made popular by Charles
Lyell in the 19th century. This theory states that the forces and processes observable at earth’s
surface are the same that have shaped earth’s landscape throughout natural history.
The earth sculpting processes alluded to above are the processes of erosion, deposition,
compaction and uplift. Although these processes are constant, they occur at extremely slow rates.
As a farmer, Hutton realized that the rates of erosion were so slow that it would take an
inconceivable amount of time to observe drastic changes in Earth’s landscape.

The theory also states that these processes have occurred at constant rates throughout natural
history. James Hutton explains this idea in his book entitled Theory of the Earth, “… we find no
vestige of a beginning – no prospect of an end.” Hutton was the first scientist to conclude that the
age of the Earth must be so incredibly old that the mind can’t begin to estimate its length.
Lyell even went to the Paris Basin to observe the rocks responsible for catastrophism, a theory in
direct opposition with uniformitarianism. Based on catastrophism, the forces shaping the earth
are not constant. However, when Lyell observed the mass extinction events in the fossil
succession of the Paris Basin, he drew a very different conclusion. Lyell recognized that cyclical
depositional environments and reoccurring extinctions show that there are controls that cause
these processes to be recurrent. However, Lyell saw these processes as taking place over vast
amounts of time and only appearing to be abrupt because of the scale of time preserved in the
rocks.
Lyell’s theory of uniformitarianism would eventually coincide with plutonism as the foundation
of modern geology. Uniformitarianism is also the first theory to predict deep time in western
science. Deep time is the idea that Earth history is so deep that a person can’t possibly conceive
the amount of time that has passed on planet earth. This further proved that the earth could not be
a few thousand years old, as believed by theologian scientists.

Charles Lyell and uniformitarianism

In opposition to the catastrophist school of thought, the British geologist Charles Lyell proposed
a uniformitarian interpretation of geologic history in his Principles of Geology (3 vol., 1830–33).
His system was based on two propositions: the causes of geologic change operating include all
the causes that have acted from the earliest time; and these causes have always operated at the
same average levels of energy. These two propositions add up to a “steady-state” theory of
the Earth. Changes in climate have fluctuated around a mean, reflecting changes in the position
of land and sea. Progress through time in the organic world is likewise an illusion, the effect of
an imperfect paleontological record. The main part of the Principles was devoted less to theory
than to procedures for inferring events from rocks; and for Lyell’s clear exposition
of methodology his work was highly regarded throughout its many editions, long after the author
himself had abandoned antiprogressivist views on the development of life.

UNIFORMITARIANISM AND DARWIN

Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859) offered a theoretical explanation for

the empirical principle of faunal sequence. The fossils of the successive systems are different not
only because parts of the stratigraphic record are missing but also because most species have lost
in their struggles for survival and also because those that do survive evolve into new forms over
time. Darwin borrowed two ideas from Lyell and the uniformitarians:
1. the idea that geologic time is virtually without limit and
2. the idea that a sequence of minute changes integrated over long periods of time produce
remarkable changes in natural entities.

LORD KELVIN AND THE STEADY STATE THEORY

The evolutionists and the historical geologists were embarrassed when, beginning in 1864,
William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) attacked the steady-state theory of the Earth and placed
numerical strictures on the length of geologic time. The Earth might function as a heat machine,
but it could not also be a perpetual motion machine. Assuming that the Earth was originally
molten, Thomson calculated that not less than 20 million and not more than 400 million years
could have passed since the Earth first became a solid body. Other physicists of note put even
narrower limits on the Earth’s age ranging down to 15 million or 20 million years. All these
calculations, however, were based on the common assumption, not always explicitly stated, that
the Earth’s substance is inert and hence incapable of generating new heat. Shortly before the end
of the century this assumption was negated by the discovery of radioactive elements that
disintegrate spontaneously and release heat to the Earth in the process.