Uniformitarianism, in the philosophy of science, is the assumption that the natural processes operating in the past are the same as those that can be observed operating in the present. Its methodological significance is frequently summarized in the statement: "The present is the key to the past."
I stole this from Wikipedia because it accurately describes Uniformitarianism much better than I can.
Now for my two cents.
A geologist called James Hutton studied the principle of Uniformitarianism and it is this principle that helps explain the geology of the planet, and infact why time of the creation of Earth and the way it was formed as explained in the bible is completely incorrect. According to the bible, the Earth took 6 days to form, complete with life, climate, geology and oceans.
It is only common sense that this is impossible and each of these features takes millions of years to form. Some forming entirely by accident.
For example, according to the bible, Earth was created complete with water, tides, orbit etc, but none of this would have happened if there wasn't a collision of a planet sized object hitting the Earth billions of years ago. This collision tore the earth apart, while the debris floated into space and eventually solidified together to form the moon while the Earth under its own orbit pulled the remaing debris into it which helped the formation of our core and mantle, and eventually water. Without this, there would have been no tides and no angle of tilt called the Obliquity which causes the seasons. So you can see so far that most of the Earths vital features happened billions of years ago and most importantly, by chance.
There are four propositions surrounding Uniformitarianism and these are the Uniformity of law, kind, degree and result. But I am not going to look at them, I am just going to look at a few principles surrounding the general idea of Uniformitarianism.
The geographical features we see nowadays, for example mountains, rock beds, cliffs and so on don't just form in a few thousand years. They take millions of years.
There are a few basic principles when examining the age of the earth.
1.) The cooling period - 40 million years ago
2.) Salinity of the sea -100 million years ago
3.) Sediment thickness - 500 million years ago
4.) Oldest Earth rocks - 3.96 billion years old
5.) Oldest meteorites and moon rocks - 4.6 billion years ago
Each and every one has taken thousands of times more than the Bibles stated time of creation, which is 9am on Monday 23rd October 4004 BC, as announced by Archbishop James Ussher in 1654.
Next, we must establish a time history for these rocks. There are many principles surrounding Uniformitarianism, but the main one I shall be looking at is the Principle of Superposition.
Take sand for example, if you pour a small amount into a jar and leave it for a few years, come back and pour more on the existing sand, we instantly have two layers. One layer being the old sand and the new top layer being the new sand. Geology acts in the exact same way. The oldest rocks will always be at the bottom and the younger rocks on top. This is the way it has been since the Earth started and is one sure fire way of determining the age of the Earth. Rocks take millions of years to form (it differs depending if it is metamorphic, igneous or sedimentary) and there is no possible way they can have been created in 6 days. Many people argue about evolution but looking at the geology of the planet is far more accurate and reliable.
The second principle I will look at is the Principle of Faunal Succession. I chose this one because it is one of the only other things that can help us determine that our planet is way older than a thousand years old, and that is Life. These, however, are in the form of fossils. It takes millions of years to fossilise an insect, because the rock has to go through harsh extremes of heat and pressure to metamorphosise the rock and immortalise the insect. The two most well known are Trilobites (Olenoides serratus) and Ammonites (Androgynacerus) which are over 600 million years old.
This shows that animals back then were no more than small insects, simple organisms. This is a very strong contrast to plants and animals today, we are far more complex life forms. This helps support the theory of evolution.
So just by looking at Uniformitarianism and it's principles, not only can they be applied to study the geology and life of this planet, they can also be used to completely contradict the origins and birth of the Earth according to the Bible.
Probably not as interesting as it was anticipated, but that is one way of looking at how the present is the key to the past.
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War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength.
Last edited by Mujahideen; 02-03-2008 at 02:03 AM.
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