Martin Rudwick's book Earth's
Deep History: How It Was Discovered and Why It Matters came out in
2014. So did my book YES - Young Earth Science which refutes
much of Dr. Rudwick's content.
Martin Rudwick is professor emeritus of history at the
University of California - San Diego as well as affiliated scholar in the
Department of the History and Philosophy of Science at Cambridge.
Rudwick seems to think that Aristotle and Plato go
against the young earth view. Both
philosophers favored biological essentialism.
See chapter nine in my latest book on how essentialism naturally leads
to supporting a planet of relatively recent origin. Plato wrote of the disaster that destroyed
Atlantis. Once you favor huge
catastrophes, then most of the rock record was formed rapidly. If there is no major time gap between the
layers (search "paraconformity"), then the "Millions Of Years
Ago" (MOYA) goes extinct.
Interestingly, Earth's
Deep History gives a critique of those scientists who go for Young Earth
Science (YES) in an appendix at the back of the book. A more balanced and related book is by my
History of Science professor David Kitts, TheStructure of Geology. Kitts work is
one of the primary tomes on the Philosophy of Geology. Kitts studied with Dobzhansky, GG Simpson
(the greatest paleontologist of the 20th Century) and taught in 3 departments at
the University of Oklahoma - History of Science (where he was chairman),
Geology and Philosophy.
Kitts not only stresses the importance of presuppositions
and worldview as geologists practice their trade, but also calmly discusses the
challenge of overthrusts (older strata over younger beds) to mainstream
science. [1] Kitts realized that much of
our geologic knowledge is limited, even with respect to radioactive dating.
[2] He further pointed out that the
philosophical basis for saying that the fossil record "proves"
evolution is weak. [3] You can hear my
interview with Dr. Kitts here.
Surprisingly, Rudwick's book does not contain the name
"Ager" in the index. Former
President of the British Geological Association, Derek Ager, wrote an entire
book on episodic geology - The New
Catastrophism. He even wrote a book
as early as 1973 defending the thesis that most formations were created rapidly
(The Nature of the Stratigraphical Record). On the other hand, Rudwick does cover
catastrophism to some extent, such as the Great Missoula Flood which was
highlighted in a NOVA episode.
Rudwick deals with the Ice Age which is no problem for
young earth theory. I argue in my book Is a Young Earth Possible? that a recent
global catastrophe is the key to explaining the Ice Age. [4] Huge volcanism causes massive evaporation and
precipitation.
In chapter ten of Earth's
Deep History, Rudwick writes on the oceans.
The ocean floor in many places is covered with Manganese (Mn) nodules
which are somewhat like pearls and grow from small bits of basalt and other
materials. The measured growth rates of
these nodules indicate an age of only thousands of years. [5]
Rudwick deals with the Cambrian period many times in his
book. In the Cambrian, we find larger
life forms compared to the Pre-Cambrian, some up to two feet. It's a seldom mentioned fact that there is a
Great Unconformity at the Pre-Cambrian/Cambrian boundary, as you can see in the
Grand Canyon, which points to a global catastrophe which agrees with YES.
Rudwick explains radiometric dating on a number of pages,
but does it really deserve the trust as a magic clock that many scientists give
it? Geologist Bates McKee, writing in a
book on the geology of the Pacific Northwest (McGraw-Hill), makes this stark
admission:
One might imagine that direct methods of measuring time [radiometric dating] would make obsolete all of the previous means of estimating age, but these new "absolute" measurements are used more as a supplement to traditional methods than as a substitute. Geologists put more faith in the principles of superposition and faunal succession than they do in numbers that come out of a machine. If the laboratory results contradict the field evidence, the geologist assumes that that there is something wrong with the machine date. [6]
Please consider writing a positive review of my latest
book, Is a Young Earth Possible?, on
Amazon.
So, what do you think about Rudwick's book Earth's Deep History? Let us know:
Notes:
1) The Structure of
Geology by David Kitts (SMU Press, Dallas, 1977), pp. xviii, xix, 79-82,
110-113.
2) Ibid., p. 32.
3) Ibid., pp. 160-162.
4) Is a Young Earth
Possible? by Jay Hall (Institute for Catastrophism and Tectonics - iCAT, Big
Spring, TX, 2019), pp. 264-266.
5) Ibid., pp. 66-68.
6) quoted in Deep
Time Deception by Michael Oard (Creation Book Publishers, Powder Spring,
GA, 2019), pp. 105, 107.
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