# Geologic Time



## Southern Presbyterian (Apr 6, 2010)

How recent is the concept of geologic time, i.e. the idea that the earth is immensely old? Did it just come about as another means to support the theory of evolution?

*And in case you're wondering, Yes, I've been watching the History Channel again *


----------



## Bookworm (Apr 7, 2010)

Southern Presbyterian said:


> How recent is the concept of geologic time, i.e. the idea that the earth is immensely old? Did it just come about as another means to support the theory of evolution?



No, the idea that the world was ancient came first. By the mid 1700s, most naturalists had come to accept that the world was very old (mistakenly in my view) and that helped to pave the way for the adoption of evolutionary ideas in biology.


----------



## sastark (Apr 7, 2010)

Yes, as Paul said, geological time came before Darwin's theory of evolution. Read up on James Hutton and Charles Lyell to get more info about "geologic time".


----------



## jwright82 (Apr 7, 2010)

As far as an old wolrd interpretation of things it is the oldest point of view sort of. Most ancient people accepted that reality was cyclical and infifnite. For centuries the doctrine of creation out of nothing was taken on faith until science proved the second law of thermodynamics, entropy always increases. But as far as the geologic time goes this view may not be so proven as they would like to think, I will give an example.

Two people walk up to a pile of sand and decide to go to their seperate tents to decide how this pile was formed. The first guy decides that the only way it could have formed was someone or something dropping the whole pile at once and thus he concludes that the pile was formed very quikly or soon. The second guy decides that the only way it was formed was grain by grain so he calculates that the pile was formed very slowley and in the distant past. So who is correct? they both brought their own interpretations to the table of science.


----------



## JennyG (Apr 7, 2010)

That's a pretty neat analogy, James.
I would say that ultimately, yes, the idea of a very old earth *did* develop as a means of supporting the theory of evolution - in the mind of Satan, and as a fundamental part of one of his most successful stratagems


----------

