To accuse someone of having sold snake oil is not singing the highest praise. Yet that is exactly what Warren Allmon said of Charles Lyell, the father of uniformitarianism (1). Uniformitarianism is the belief that the present is key to the past. Or, as Peter puts it, “all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation” (2 Peter 3:4). Not only is this an assumption for which there has never been any evidence (in other words, uniformitarianism is a blind faith), it has been proven false many times over. It is a well known fact that catastrophes drastically affect geology.
While they aren’t quite at the point of acknowledging the truth of Genesis, uniformitarianism is gradually eroding in the scientific community. Instead, scientists have been forced to accept what is called neo-catastrophism. That is, they acknowledge that catastrophes can and do happen, but uniformitarianism applies the rest of the time. The problem with this is that scientists have to pick and choose when they think catastrophes happened. To arrive at long ages, they must assume that no catastrophes occurred at any point in history. Unfortunately, that means the flood is rejected for no other reason than that it is not gradual. Of course, Peter also talks about the rejection of the flood (2 Peter 3:5-6).
Lyell’s intention for his geologic beliefs was to “free the science from Moses”. Far from being objective, evidence-based science, Uniformitarianism is a religious philosophy imposed upon science, and it actually rejects evidence. Don’t be fooled. Evolutionists do not have a monopoly on science. The evidence fits better with the Bible.
References
1. Allmon, W.D. Post Gradualism, Science 262:122–123, October 1, 1993