Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
the Alps were towering wrecks composed of “wild, vast and, indigested heaps of Stones
and Earth.”
2
The confusing internal structure of the Alps forced Burnet into a theological crisis. Be-
lieving that God made all things in beauty and proportion, he found the Alps a chaotic place
lacking order or design. He could not believe God's divine hand would create such mon-
strous forms. Surely the Creator would make a beautiful, symmetrical world—something
more like Burnet's England. Mountains must be the remains of a wrecked planet, crum-
bling ruins of an originally perfect sphere. Just what had happened?
Illustration of the deformed interior structure of the Alps visible in the pattern of rock outcroppings
(
by Alan Witschonke
based on lowermost panel of plate XLVI of Johann Scheuchzer's
Sacred Physics
(1731
)).
After three years of travel, Burnet returned to England committed to determining how
God set up a perfect world destined to disintegrate. He carefully estimated both the amount
of water in the oceans and how much it would take to submerge the highest mountains.
There was nowhere near enough water on the planet. It would take eight times the volume
of the world's oceans. Even forty days and nights of rainfall at the astounding rate of two
inches an hour would only amount to 160 feet of water. Burnet refused to invoke miracles.
To assert that God simply made more water when and where He needed it was too easy, to
