Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
remains were only found in unconsolidated surface layers and not in rocks because people
fled to the highest peaks. There, they drowned some time after animals too confused to
flee to higher ground had already become incorporated in flood-deposited sediments. In his
rush to condemn Buckland for abandoning Noah's Flood, Cockburn simply dismissed the
discoveries and evidence that had convinced the devout Buckland to abandon the idea of
Noah's Flood as a geological event. In this way, Cockburn can be viewed as among the first
modern creationists.
Several years later, in 1844, Cockburn had an ideal opportunity to challenge Buckland
when the British Association for the Advancement of Science met in Cockburn's homet-
own of York. On the morning of the second day of the meeting, geologists flocked to wit-
ness the spectacle of Cockburn challenging their findings of the past forty years. With great
composure, the stately Cockburn walked through the crowd and took the stage to stand by
the society's president. In a brief presentation he laid out a theory purporting to explain
all of geology as the result of a global flood. Cockburn insisted that the world's surface
was shaped all at once. Geologists had to explain everything using Noah's Flood, includ-
ing layered rocks. There had been no extinctions. Rivers did not cut their valleys. After
Cockburn sat down and the raucous laughter had died off, Sedgwick rose to deliver a sting-
ing hour-and-a-half response attacking Cockburn's woeful ignorance of geology in remarks
characterized by an eyewitness as marked with “a scornful bitterness beyond the power of
any reporter to reproduce.”
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Cockburn was not easily silenced. Immediately after the meeting, he published his ad-
dress as
The Bible Defended Against the British Association
and challenged Sedgwick to
explain Earth's origin and evolution from the beginning to the present day. Opting not to
answer at first, Sedgwick eventually wrote Cockburn a short note explaining that the an-
tiquity of the world was demonstrated by unassailable geological evidence. Nothing if not
persistent, Cockburn wrote Buckland and Murchison seeking to debate Earth's age. Neither
was interested. Meanwhile, Sedgwick had written a long letter to Cockburn explaining his
position and requesting the favor of no reply. Ignoring this collective dismissal, Cockburn
decided that geologists were just afraid to debate. So he published his ideas as a
New Sys-
tem of Geology
in 1849. That his topic didn't catch on surprised few but Cockburn.
