Darwin’s complete dependence on Lyell shows in his comment:
“He who can read Sir Charles Lyell’s grand work on the Principles of Geology, which the future historian will recognise as having produced a revolution in natural science, yet does not admit how incomprehensibly vast have been the past periods of time, may at once close this volume.”
Darwin, 1859, Origin, Ch IX, p282
Editorial Comment: The Biblical history of the world sets out a clearly documented record of the origin and history of life that has the authority of a witness who was there. Lyell’s work gave Darwin the option of rejecting that authority and substituting it with his own. A vast incomprehensible past, undocumented by any witnesses, allowed Darwin to fill it with his own theories about the origin of life and of new and different life forms. (Ref. time, ages, uniformitarianism)
Darwin’s writings, including several editions of the Origin of Species and his many other books and articles are available from The Complete Works of Charles Darwin .
Evidence News, 16 December 2009