The Geologic Column: Evidence for Evolution, or Noah’s Flood?
The Standard Geologic Column is a hypothetical model of historical geology based on Charles Lyell’s classic book Principles of Geology , published in 1830. Rejecting the biblical catastrophist worldview (Noah’s Flood), Lyell devised a new interpretive framework that rejected God, rejected the Bible’s record, and presupposed that presently observed processes were “the key to the past.” Perhaps because rejecting the biblical view also meant rejecting the moral constraints of the Bible, Lyell’s uniformitarian view rapidly became popular. It soon attracted the particular attention of Charles Darwin, who was happy to discover vast periods of time to make his atheistic model of evolution seem plausible. According to the evolutionary view, the earth is at least 4.5 billion years old, and the 6-8 mile thick blanket of sedimentary rock that covers the earth only gradually accumulated over millions of years. Layers in the “geologic column” are dated by certain index fossils, and reve