The Religion of Geology and Its Connected SciencesHitchcock, Edward
Religion
The Religion of Geology and Its Connected Sciences
Hitchcock, Edward
Bible and geology; Religion and science
Secondly. On this theory, at least, a part of the organic remains ought to
correspond with living animals and plants, since the deluge took place so
long after the six days of creation. But with the exception of a few
species near the top of the series, the fossil species are wholly unlike
those now alive.
Thirdly. How, by this theory, can we explain the fact, that there are
found in the rocks at least five distinct races of animals and plants, so
unlike that they could not have been contemporaries? or for the fact, that
most of them are of a highly tropical character? or for the fact, that as
we rise higher in the rocks, there is a nearer and nearer approach to
existing species?
Fourthly. This theory requires us to admit, that in three hundred and
eighty days the waters of the deluge deposited rocks at least six miles in
thickness, over half or two thirds of our existing continents; and these
rocks made up of hundreds of thick beds, exceedingly unlike one another in
composition and organic contents. Will any reasonable man believe this
possible without a miracle?
But I need not multiply arguments on this point. It is a theory which no
reasonable man can long maintain after studying the subject. And if it be
indeed true, that neither in the drift, nor in the fossiliferous rocks,
can we discover any traces of the deluge, then we shall find them nowhere
on the globe. But
_Thirdly. There are no facts in geology that afford any presumption
against the occurrence of the Noachian deluge, but rather the contrary._
The geologist says only, that if any traces of it exist, he cannot
distinguish them from the effects of other analogous agencies that have
operated on the globe at various periods. Some parts of the globe do not
exhibit marks of any powerful aqueous action, such as high northern and
southern latitudes do exhibit. But the sacred record, in its account of
the access and subsidence of diluvial waters, does not require us to
suppose any great degree of violence in their action on the surface; and
although currents somewhat powerful must have been the result, yet they
may not have existed every where, nor have always left traces of their
passage where they did exist. On the other hand, the geologist will admit,
as we have already seen, that in the elevation and subsidence of mountains
and continents, and in volcanic agency generally, of which geology
contains so many examples, we have an adequate cause for extensive, if not
universal, deluges; nor can he say how recently this cause may have
operated beneath certain oceans, sufficiently to produce the deluge of the
Scriptures. So that, in fact, we have in geology a presumption in favor
of, rather than against, such a deluge. Nay, some, who have examined
Armenia, have thought they found there a deposit which could be referred
to the deluge of Noah; but I have no access to any facts on this point.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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