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Acknowledgments
Once again, Anne patiently endured stacks of books piled up on our dining room table for months on end. Her insight, suggestions, and ideas greatly improved more chapter drafts than one should really ask a spouse to read. My editor at W. W. Norton, Maria Guarnaschelli, helped me frame and shape the story, and tremendously improved the manuscript. I greatly appreciate her taking on this book and her help in crafting it. Her assistant, Melanie Tortoroli, deserves extra special thanks for helping to focus and streamline the narrative, consistently offering up ways to improve the story. Janet Byrne helped polish the manuscript with insightful copyediting. Several people were instrumental in helping with the artwork. Harvey Greenberg made all the wonderful maps. Véronique Robigou helped conceptualize and sketched exceptional draft figures on very short notice. Alan Witschonke also produced beautiful illustrations. I am indebted to Susan Rasmussen and Jessica Cromheecke for help running down source materials, Rachel Walcott for organizing a trip to Siccar Point, Mike Summerfield for sharing his personal library, Lewis Owen for enduring a trip to the Creation Museum, and Charlotte Schreiber, Blake Edgar, Ronald Numbers, Roger Wynne, and Art McCalla for reading draft manuscripts and offering suggestions for improvements along the way. Ray Troll’s song “Rocks Don’t Lie” was inspirational. And I am deeply appreciative of Oliver Korup and the Swiss Federal Research Institute for hosting an extended visit to work on the manuscript. Finally, in addition to finding the book a great home, my agent, Elizabeth Wales, offered timely advice and enthusiasm when it was sorely needed.
I would also like to thank several colleagues at the University of Washington for their companionship and assistance in the field. Among them, Bernard Hallet graciously allowed me to use his photograph of the Tsangpo moraine dams, and Amanda Henck Schmidt translated key conversations described in chapter 1. Alan Gillespie, Allison Anders, and Noah Finnegan also played key roles in uncovering the Tibetan lake story. The opportunity to work with wonderful people in an inspirational landscape is a tremendous side benefit of geological fieldwork.
Naturally, I am particularly indebted to scholars whose works I relied on, especially Norman Cohn (Noah’s Flood: The Genesis Story in Western Thought), Arthur McCalla (The Creationist Debate), Ronald Numbers (The Creationists), Martin Rudwick (Bursting the Limits of Time), Davis Young (The Biblical Flood: A Case Study of the Church’s Response to Extrabiblical Evidence), and Dorothy Vitaliano, whose classic Legends of the Earth: Their Geologic Origins remains both inspirational and informative. In condensing so much into this book, I have had to telescope the evolution of geological and theological thought into the lives of selected major players. As influential as these key protagonists were, in many ways progress was the fruit of incremental discoveries that contributed to setting the intellectual context for the issues and views of their day. To the reader offended at my neglect to cover his or her favorite historical character(s), I can only plead that a sincere desire to prevent this book from mushrooming beyond appeal to a general readership made such oversights inevitable. And instead of naming a few of the key players in developing the theory of plate tectonics, I chose to respect the extended nature of the network of many individuals who transformed the way we see Earth’s dynamic surface.
As this book is intended for a general audience, I abandoned traditional academic footnotes and instead document the source materials I drew upon at the end. Naturally, I encourage the enthused, skeptical, or outraged reader to consult them for additional detail, material, and perspectives. Of course, I alone am responsible for any inadvertent errors and the inevitable sins of omission given the
tremendous amount of material—and wildly divergent opinions—on the subjects considered in these pages. And finally, I must confess to taking a few inconsequential liberties in recalling my hike out of the Grand Canyon.
Index
Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.
ABC News Poll, 259n
Abraham, 150, 151, 152, 171, 264n
Accademia del Cimento (Academy of Experiment), 58–59
“adamah,” 167
Adam and Eve, story of, 39, 55, 68, 69, 85, 165, 179, 181, 190, 228
descendants of, 96, 97–98
African elephants, 84, 87, 88, 110
Agassiz, Lake, 213–14, 214, 219
Agassiz, Louis, 140
Age of Reason, The (Paine), 164–65
Akkadian language, 154–56
Alexander Polyhistor, 157–58
Algonquin Indians, 213
alluvium, 112, 122
Alps, 45, 55, 58, 77, 81, 82, 125
chaotic interior of 65–66, 65
American Association for the Advancement of Science, 209
American Civil War, 183
American Geophysical Union, 260n
American Revolution, 164–65, 182
American Scientific Affiliation (ASA), 194, 226, 237
ammonites, 80, 87, 89, 90, 189
ammonium chloride (sal ammoniac), 103
Andes mountains, 80
Anglican Church (Church of England), 68, 120–21, 123, 125, 129
Annals of the Old Testament (Ussher), 97–98
anthropology, 168, 172–73, 175, 248
Appalachian mountains, 195–96
apparent age, doctrine of, 231
Aquinas, Saint Thomas, 40
Ararat, Mount, xiii, 238
Arbuthnot, John, 72–73
Arca Noë (Noah’s Ark) (Kircher), 44
archaeological excavations, 143–54, 212, 217, 227, 230
of cuneiform tablets, 143–50, 144, 152–54, 222–23
by George Smith, 148–50, 153–54
of Kish, 151–52
of Nineveh, 145–46, 148
of Ur, 150–52
Aristotle, 35, 106, 110
Arno River, 58
Ashurbanipal, King of Assyria, 145–46, 148–49
Assyrians, ancient, 144, 145–50
asteroid bombardment, 245
Astruc, Jean, 163–64
atheism, 10, 109, 249, 254–55
Atlantic Ocean, 241, 243, 245
ancient closing and reopening of, 95–96
Atlantis, myth of, 217–18
Atlantis II, 220
Atrahasis, 149, 154–56
Augustine, Saint, 37–38, 40, 48, 131, 140, 173, 251
Babylonian exile, 156–57, 165, 166, 168, 170–71
Babylonians, 98, 143–50, 144, 153, 154–59, 168, 170–72
backwater floods, 204, 208–9, 210–11, 213
Baghdad, 153, 169
Bakewell, Robert, 123, 129–30
Baptists, 182, 197, 226
basalt, 131, 132, 202–3, 204, 206, 207, 239
Beginnings of History, The (Lenormant), 171–72
Beowulf, 175
Berossus, 157–58
Bible Defended Against the British Association, The (Cockburn), 138
biblical chronologies, 96–98, 109, 122–23, 130, 237–38
“Biblical Evidence for a Recent Creation and Universal Deluge, The” (Morris), 226
biblical inerrancy, doctrine of, 183–85, 188, 228, 237
biblical interpretations, xii, xiii, 12–14, 120, 133, 161–64, 182–85
figurative vs. literal, 35–43, 47–51, 57, 63, 65, 76, 91, 96–98, 106, 114, 126–27, 129, 163, 183, 184–85, 226, 227, 237–38, 250
by individuals, 162–63, 183, 250
biblical scholarship, 161–68, 169, 184
biblical translations in, 39, 161–63, 166–67, 252
Genesis in, 160, 163–68
Big Bone Lick site, 86, 88
biogeography, 240
bitumen, 235
Black, Joseph, 104–5
Black Sea, 11, 135, 219–23, 219, 248, 253
Böklen, Ernst, 168
Bosporus, 219–20, 221
boulders, stray, 28, 106, 115, 117, 119, 121, 124, 125, 140, 202–3, 204
Branch, Glenn, 260n
Bretz, J Harlen, 203–11
critics of, 204, 207–9, 210
fieldwork of, 203–6, 209, 210
Penrose Medal awarded to, 210
scablands topography studied by, 204–7
scientific presentations of, 205, 206–7
Bridgewater treatises, 128–29, 136–37
Bright Angel Shale, 22–23, 27
Bright Angel Trail, 29
British Association for the Advancement of Science, 138, 140
British Museum, 143–50
Bryan, William Jennings, 190–91
Buckland, William, 120–31, 135, 136–39, 140
as Anglican minister, 120–21, 123, 125, 129
Bridgewater treatise of, 128–29, 136–37
critics of, 126–27, 137
diluvialism of, 120–28
fieldwork of, 121, 123–25, 136
Buddhism, 5–7
koras (pilgrimage treks) of, 5
Buffon, Baron Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de, 98–101, 106
cometary Creation theory of, 99, 101
geological epochs posited by, 100
Bureau of Reclamation, U.S., 209
Burma, 153
Burnet, Thomas, 65–69, 72, 73, 75–76, 79, 102, 108, 137
burrows, fossil, 22–23, 25, 41, 243
orientation of, 231
calcium carbonate (CaCO3), 23, 27, 103
calcium sulfate (gypsum), 196–97
Caledonian mountains, 95–96
Calvin, John, 43–45, 46, 163
Cambrian Period, 22
Cane Ridge Revival of 1801, 182
Cappel, Louis, 161–62
carbon-14 (14C), 5, 192–93, 192, 230–31, 259n
see also radiocarbon dating
Carnegie Museum, 185
carnivores, 111, 180
Cascade Range, 202, 204
Cascadia subduction zone, 216
catastrophism, 74, 114, 115–41, 210, 250
mass extinctions and, 90–91, 141
new, of Price, 187–89
uniformitarianism vs., 108–9, 117, 119–20, 128–29, 130, 133–35, 136, 140–41, 178, 198–99, 203, 210, 211, 226, 235, 237
see also floods, catastrophic
Catesby, Mark, 85–86
Catskill Formation, 96
caves, 55, 61–62, 67, 113
European, fossil assemblages in, 124–25, 127
Celsus, 36, 37
channeled scablands, 201–13
Lake Missoula as source of, 207–11, 208
landforms similar to, 211–12
topography of, 204–7
Charles I, King of England, 97
Chicago, University of, 192–93, 194, 204
China, 84, 97, 190
flood stories of, 172, 173–74, 248
Chippewa (Ojibwa) Indians, 214
Christianity, xii, xiii, 9–14, 29, 31, 34, 35–51, 96–98, 123, 140, 141, 150, 182, 220, 223, 227, 235–36, 251, 254–55
mainstream, 197–98, 248
missionaries of, 168, 169–70, 172–73, 175, 212, 216–17
see also Protestants; Roman Catholic Church
Christian Philosopher, The (Mather), 85
Christian View of Science and Scripture, The (Ramm), 197–98
Christie, Agatha, 152
Christina of Lorraine, Grand Duchess, 47
Chronicles, First Book of, 264n
Chronologia (Julius Africanus), 97
Church of England (Anglican Church), 68, 120–21, 123, 125, 129
Church of Scotland, 167
cinder cones, 131, 132, 135, 136
Civil War, American, 183
Clallam Indians, 216–
17
Clark, Robert, 220
clay, 24–25, 101
Clement of Alexandria, 37
Clement VII, Pope, 45
Clovis Culture, 213
coal, 186, 189
Cockburn, William, 137–39, 140
Coconino Sandstone, 25, 26, 27
Colenso, Bishop John William, 169–70
Colorado Plateau, 29
Colorado River, 16, 20, 23, 28
Columbia River, 202, 204, 205–9, 208, 212
Columbia University, 194, 218
comets, 73–75, 76, 113
as Earth’s progenitor, 99, 101
communism, 236–37
conformable layers, 21
conglomerate rock, 124, 249
Constitution, U.S., 252
continental drift, 239–44, 244
see also plate tectonics
Copernicus, Nicolaus, 45–49
coprolites, 212–13
coral reefs, fossil, 189, 234–35
cores, see drill cores
cosmic rays, 230–31
coulees, 202–3, 205
Council of Trent, 48, 162–63
Creation, 12, 13, 50, 53, 60–61, 64–69, 74, 81, 106, 114, 121, 122–23, 128, 130, 133, 135, 137, 164–65, 177
Babylonian version of, 146, 148, 150, 159
Buffon’s cometary theory of, 99, 101
contradictory stories of, 165
dating of, 96–98, 99, 100, 190
day-age theory of, 123, 184, 186, 188, 236, 250
Earth as perfect sphere at, 39–40, 65–69, 75–76
as epic poetry, 251
fossils as placed at, 140, 231
gap theory of, 123, 184, 186, 188, 191, 236, 250
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