charles_darwin

Glossary of Selected Terms
to catastrophists such as Georges Cuvier. Darwin applied Lyell’s ideas
about uniformitarianism to speciation. In The Origin of Species, the
transmutation of a species occurred after it underwent small changes
or adaptations over a long period of time.
Woodwardian Hypothesis. The explanation suggested by the British natural
historian John Woodward (1665/1668–1728) for the geology of the
Earth. Woodward argued that the Earth had been destroyed by the
flood described in the Bible; God suspended the law of gravitation,
which enabled the flood to occur and alter the face of the Earth rapidly,
in a few months. Fossils were living creatures killed in the flood.
Young Earth. The idea that the Earth is between 6,000 and 10,000 years
old. The idea is based on a literal reading of the Bible, particularly the
first chapter of Genesis and the genealogies found in books such as
Numbers, Deuteronomy, Kings, and Chronicles. Creationists are the
main proponents of a young Earth.
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