Talk:Catastrophism

Catastrophism

Do we have to repeat history? Around 200 years ago when scientists who we would regard as creationists began elucidating the geologic time scale, they noticed how each layer held its own unique fossils. To account for this, they surmised that "catastrophes" such as Noah's flood had occurred not only once, but many times. A new creation then produced the species found in the different layers. They had to admit, however, that at least some of the species found in successive layers were very similar. "Catastrophism" began to wane in their view, and the notion of evolution began to take hold. All this happened before Charles Darwin sailed on HMS Beagle in the 1830s. With natural selection, Darwin didn't "come up" with evolution. He proffered a method to explain it, which so far has proven quite resilient. If some one is "anti-Darwin", then he/she is against the theory of natural selection. But he/she isn't necessarily anti-evolution. Ahavah, 8 July 2007