Benjamin Silliman: Geology, Genesis, and Old Ideas

In a recent discussion of Joseph Smith and the day-age theory of creation, I mentioned an appendix to an 1839 geology text that was written by Yale professor Benjamin Silliman. I wanted to highlight it again because it makes for some interesting reading. The appendix was a discussion of various ways to reconcile Genesis with geology, and it shows that a number of the issues and approaches that get discussed today have actually been around for a long time.

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One of his first orders of buisness was to deal with the idea that God created fossils in situ.

With such persons we can sustain no discussion, since there is no common ground on which we can meet: we must leave them to their own reflections, for they cannot be influenced by reason and sound argument, and can, with or without evidence, believe any thing that accords with their prepossessions. And yet we have known such individuals - those who either deny the best established facts, or endeavor to avoid their effect by making the most absurd suppositions, inconsistent alike with the truths of science, and with candor and fair dealing in argument.

Silliman then presented and discussed five proposals, rejecting all but one:

1. "The present crust of the planet has been regularly formed between the first creation "in the beginning," and the commencement of the first day." This is essentially a version of the gap theory of creation, which became very popular in the early twentieth century.

2. "The present crust was formed from the ruins and fragments of an earlier world, re-arranged and set in order during the six days of the creation." This is a form of catastrophism, however it also reminds me of Joseph Smith's 1841 comment about the earth having been formed from broken-up planets.

3. "It has been supposed that the succession of geological events may have happened in the first ages of the world, after the creation of man, and before the general deluge."

4. "It has been supposed that a general deluge will account for all geological events." Although Silliman rejected this view as "entirely inadmissible," it was later promoted in the writings of Seventh-day Adventist George McCready Price, was further popularized by Whitcomb and Morris in The Genesis Flood, and has since remained part of the young-earth creationist framework.

5. "The divisions of time called days in the Genesis are not necessarily restricted to twenty four hours, but may be understood to be periods of indefinite length." As discussed before, this is the day-age theory and appears to be Silliman's preferred explanation.