James Hutton (1726-1797) is considered the father of modern geology.
Although less well known than
Darwin, Hutton's theory
is one of the cornerstones of the modern rationalist view of the world.
Hutton was one of the first scientists to propose that the Earth
is extremely old, much older than the few thousand years that
a literal reading of Genesis would indicate.
This caused a furour much like Darwin's Origin of Species when it was first
released.
Leonardo Da Vinci had privately speculated about this two centuries
earlier in his notebooks,
noting the presence of marine fossils on the top of mountains,
and estimating the huge amount of time it would take
to carve out river valleys.
But Hutton was the first to reject the 'Neptunian' theory of his day
which saw a universal deluge (presumably, the Noachian flood)
as the source of geological formation.
Instead he proposed a 'Vulcanian' theory, in which processes of
heat from the earth's interior had built up continents and mountains
over a long period of time.
In later times this became couched in terms of 'Catastrophism' versus
'Gradualism,' with the gradualists eventually winning out.
This is why conventional geologists reject ideas such as
Atlantis, Lemuria,
or pole shifts out of hand, working from first principles.
However, 21st century geologists have become less prickly about
the occasional catastrophic event, such as the Oregon Scablands, which
were formed when a glacial dam broke at the end of the ice ages.
The two texts provided here are his 1788 paper
Theory of the Earth, read before the Royal Society
of Edinburgh, and the two extant volumes of his 1795 book of the same name
in which he not only elaborated his views but defended them against
the bitter criticism that had been leveled against him in the interim.
Although his books, filled with long quotes in French,
make difficult reading, Hutton deserves
to be better known as one of the makers of the modern view of the Earth.
![James Hutton (18th century) [Public Domain Image]](img/hutton.jpg)