When the Bible was assumed to be literally true, the actual verbatim word of god, there were those occasional awkward questions about the accuracy of the translations, but since few people could read at all, much less read Latin, Greek, or Hebrew, this was not an issue of great concern. Martin Luther famously mocked Copernicus by reminding his readers that in Joshua 10:13 it was the sun that was commanded to stand still, not the earth (Luther, Works, vol. 22). He was a theologian, not a scientist, but at that time almost everyone would have agreed with him.
Within two hundred years of Luther, however, it was recognized by educated people that examination of rocks and fossils clearly showed that the world was ancient, far older than a literal interpretation of Genesis could account for. And so, very much to their credit, they simply adjusted their beliefs. If the facts disproved earlier theories, then it was the theories that needed to be changed, not the facts. In a similar vein the modern Catholic church, which at one time burned people at the stake to resolve theological questions, changed their position when the evidence for evolution became incontrovertible; they simply said that god directs evolutionary changes, thus incorporating it within church doctrine with no need for more bloodshed.
It is a sorry statement about modern society that biblical literalism still holds sway with so many people, especially in the United States. According to a 2007 Gallup Poll, one-third of Americans believe the Bible is the actual word of god and is literally, word for word true. As H.L. Menken said, “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”
This book shows how the science of geology came about, and how new discoveries were investigated, interpreted, and contextualized into ever evolving theories about the earth’s history and the monumental changes it has undergone. Geology admirably follows the model of scientific progress as a whole, where tentative hypotheses are developed based on the existing facts, modified as new discoveries are made, and discarded when newer theories emerge that better account for the experimental and observational data. As William Irvine beautifully expressed it in Apes, Angels, and Victorians, “Hypotheses were constantly reaching out into the darkness – slowly, almost inevitably refining and rectifying themselves through empirical contact with reality.”
The author is himself religious, and while he does not allow his beliefs to color the history he reports, he does take time to examine the findings from a metaphysical standpoint. He quickly dismisses the Young Earthers, clinging to their ignorance like children, afraid they might actually learn something. He is much more sympathetic to liberal believers who do not insist on Biblical literalism and whose theology is broad enough to incorporate new discoveries. As he points out, many of the early geologists were clergymen, because at that time the clergy formed the intellectual elite of society. Although their new interpretations of the age of the earth may have dismayed some of their more conservative superiors, they were not punished for their positions nor prohibited from publishing their findings.
The science here is excellent, and the history is interesting and informative. Although my view is that when you apply Occam’s Razor to metaphysical questions they dissolve like smoke on the wind, the author never lets his religion affect the facts. He is dismissive of the views of atheists, but they are most assuredly equally dismissive of his beliefs. So long as we can keep the fundamentalists out of the room, we can all agree to disagree, and nobody needs to be burned at that stake.