“I am sure you may get into Q.R. [Quarterly Review] what will free the science [of geology] from Moses, for if treated seriously, the [church] party are quite prepared for it. A bishop, Buckland ascertained (we suppose [Bishop] Sumner), gave Ure a dressing in the British Critic and Theological Review. They see at last the mischief and scandal brought on them by Mosaic systems. …
I conceived the idea five or six years ago, that if ever the Mosaic geology could be set down [put aside] without giving offence, it would be in an historical sketch, and you must abstract mine, in order to have as little to say as possible yourself.”
Charles Lyell: Letter to George Scrope [fellow uniformitarian geologist and Member of Parliament], 14 June 1830
InLyell, K [Lyell’s sister-in-law]. Life, Letters and Journals of Sir Charles Lyell, Bart. I:268-271. John Murray, London, 1881.
[Items in square brackets added for clarification]
Editorial Comment: It comes as a surprise to many that there was a time when geologists actually accepted a Mosaic or Genesis framework to their thinking. Lyell the lawyer knew that no separation exists between a religion or philosophy and the way people look at the world around them, i.e. science. By advising his followers to reject and replace Moses, Lyell (who kept up the appearance of being a church supporting believer, as did most UK gentry of the day) was actually establishing an alternative history wherein the authority of the God of Moses over the real world of rocks, fossils and eventually all living things was ultimately rejected.
Charles Lyell is regarded as the founder of modern geology because of his popularisation of the uniformitarian view that the present is the key to the past. This concept is foundational to all modern dating methods which invariably produce an age for the earth much older than a literal reading of Genesis. So, did they tell you in your university course on Historical Geology, you were being taught anti-Christian Philosophy and not science?
Since Jesus warned that those who reject Moses eventually reject His words (John 5:46-47), it shouldn’t surprise us that this is what actually happened to one of Lyell’s most devoted disciples, Charles Darwin. (Ref. Christianity, Religion, Anglican Church)
Evidence News, 16 December 2009