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Geology Quotes

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Geology Quotes

“On the first page of the Bible there is an instance of how literalism is but an invitation to transcend the image to which literalism points. That first page is not geology, biology or paleontology; it is high religion. For there we are told who we are in terms of our constititutive text. And if we could understand that, we would worrying about whether the antelopes or the cantaloupes came in a certain order.”

IfsFirstsCertainOrderTermWorryPagesInstanceWho We AreBiologyInvitationsGeologyPaleontologyAntelopes
Author:Joseph Sittler
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“After my return to England it appeared to me that by following the example of Lyell in Geology, and by collecting all facts which bore in any way on the variation of animals and plants under domestication and nature, some light might perhaps be thrown on the whole subject.”

WayWholeFactsLightMightAnimalSubjectsExampleReturnEnglandPlantFollowingThrownBoresVariationCollectingGeology
Book:Life and Letters of Charles Darwin: the Evolution
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“There is a relative order to the fossilized species of plants found in the geologic record for which Flood Geology cannot account, unless you can imagine apple and orange trees with Nike sneakers on their roots, racing past the magnolias and primitive mammals, leaving the ginkgoes back there with the dinosaurs when the Flood waters began to rise.”

PastOrderFoundWaterRecordsImagineTreeEvolutionRootsAccountsPlantSpeciesLeavingApplesRacingRelativePrimitiveFloodOrangeDinosaursGeologyMammalsSneakersNikeMagnoliasApples And OrangesOrange Trees
Author:Frank Zindler
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“A garden is the place millions of people go to touch the earth, to smell flowers - to use some of that fabled human brain power in the cause of better participating with natural processes in the place they call home. It serves as an art project, an organic produce market, a spiritual practice, a pharmacy. It offers ongoing lessons in ecology, biology, chemistry, geology, meteorology. Gardening imparts an organic perspective on the passage of time. It bestows on its practitioners a genuine sense of admiration for the plants, the soil, the sun, the water.”

PeopleHumansArtUseHomeEarthSpiritualCausesProcessWaterNaturalBrainPracticeMillionsSunProduceFlowerPerspectiveLessonsOffersProjectsGardenPlantSmellGenuineSoilBiologyAdmirationChemistryPassagesGardeningEcologyOngoingParticipatingImpartHuman BrainGeologySpiritual PracticePassage Of TimePharmacyBrain PowerMeteorologyArt Projects
Author:Jim Nollman
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“To say that there is a soul in stones simply in order to account for their production is unsatisfactory: for their production is not like the reproduction of living plants, and of animals which have senses. For all these we see reproducing their own species from their own seeds; and a stone does not do this at all. We never see stones reproduced from stones; ... because a stone seems to have no reproductive power at all.”

DoeSoulSeemsScienceOrderAnimalRocksStonesAccountsPlantSpeciesProductionsSeedsSensesReproductionGeologyReproducing
Book:Book of Minerals
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“I may remind you that history is not a branch of literature. The facts of history, like the facts of geology or astronomy, can supply material for literary art; for manifest reasons they lend themselves to artistic representation far more readily than those of the natural sciences; but to clothe the story of human society in a literary dress is no more the part of a historian as a historian, than it is the part of an astronomer as an astronomer to present in an artistic shape the story of the stars.”

HumansMayArtReasonFactsStoriesLiteratureStarsNaturalMaterialsShapesDressesAstronomyArtisticBranchesManifestHistorianRepresentationHuman SocietyGeologyAstronomersNatural ScienceLiterary Art
Author:J. B. Bury
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“Civilization just takes it as a given that the whole world was flooding. Then science came and you had geology and modern astrophysics, and time became well understood going back billions of years. So enlightened religious people, as a necessity, had to shed the magical elements of the Bible. A little known fact is that Thomas Jefferson did just that. There's something called the Jefferson Bible. It's not widely publicized because it sort of conflicts with certain people's ideas of what the founding fathers were.”

PeopleWorldYearsWellsLittlesIdeasWholeFactsCertainFatherGivenReligiousKnownModernCivilizationConflictElementsUnderstoodBillionsWhole WorldEnlightenedShedFoundingGeologyFloodingAstrophysics
Author:Neil deGrasse Tyson
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“I think the Bible is completely inspired by God in its overall messages. But, for the people of those days to know what was going to happen 4,000 years later in a world of astronomy or subatomic particles. They didn't have access to the knowledge that we presently have about geology. So, we know now that the world was created many of billions of years ago, 13 or 14 billion years ago. As far as they knew, the earth was the center of the universe. They thought that stars were little twinkling things in the sky where as now we know stars are very distant and much larger than the earth.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsWorldYearsLittlesHappensEarthUniverseStarsSkyMessagesYears AgoInspiredAccessBillionsAstronomyParticlesGeologyCenter Of The UniverseTwinklingSubatomic Particles
Author:Jimmy Carter
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“The so-called Christian nations are the most enlightened and progressive ... but in spite of their religion, not because of it. The Church has opposed every innovation and discovery from the day of Galileo down to our own time, when the use of anesthetic in childbirth was regarded as a sin because it avoided the biblical curse pronounced against Eve. And every step in astronomy and geology ever taken has been opposed by bigotry and superstition. The Greeks surpassed us in artistic culture and in architecture five hundred years before Christian religion was born.”

YearsHas BeensUseChristianReligionCultureNationsBornChurchSinChristianityStepsTakenFiveAtheismHundredDiscoveryInnovationArchitectureAstronomyArtisticGreekCurseSpiteEnlightenedBigotryProgressiveSuperstitionsBiblicalScience And ReligionAvoidedEvery StepChildbirthGeologyScience ReligionChristian AtheistScience Vs ReligionChristian NationAnesthetics
Author:Mark Twain
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“No Geologist worth anything is permanently bound to a desk or laboratory, but the charming notion that true science can only be based on unbiased observation of nature in the raw is mythology. Creative work, in geology and anywhere else, is interaction and synthesis: half-baked ideas from a bar room, rocks in the field, chains of thought from lonely walks, numbers squeezed from rocks in a laboratory, numbers from a calculator riveted to a desk, fancy equipment usually malfunctioning on expensive ships, cheap equipment in the human cranium, arguments before a road cut.”

HumansIdeasScienceWalksRoomsNumbersHalfCreativityCreativeCuttingRocksFieldsArgumentLonelyNotionBoundsMythologyBarsShipsObservationChainsFancyExpensiveInteractionDesksCharmingEquipmentLaboratoryGeologyCreative WorkSynthesisGeologistUnbiasedCalculators
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
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“But just in proportion as this process of extermination has acted on an enormous scale, so must the number of intermediate varieties, which have formerly existed, be truly enormous. Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such finely graduated organic chain; and this, perhaps, is the most obvious and serious objection which can be urged against the theory. The explanation lies, as I believe, in the extreme imperfection of the geological record.”

BelieveDoeLyingI BelieveProcessNumbersRecordsSeriousTheoryEvolutionObviousExtremesI Believe InScalesEnormousChainsVarietyExplanationProportionLinksImperfectionFossilsFormationObjectionsGeologyDarwinismTheory Of EvolutionOrigin Of SpeciesExterminationPaleontology
Book:On the Origin of the Species and The Voyage of the Beagle
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“Does the evolutionary doctrine clash with religious faith? It does not. It is a blunder to mistake the Holy Scriptures for elementary textbooks of astronomy, geology, biology, and anthropology.”

IfsMeanDoeScienceFaithReligiousMistakeEvolutionHolyConflictCreatorAstronomyScriptureAriseDoctrineSymbolsBiologyImaginaryScience And ReligionAccusedReligious FaithClashAnthropologySystematicTextbooksBlasphemyGeologyBlundersHoly ScripturesEvolutionary BiologyNothing Makes Sense
Author:Theodosius Dobzhansky
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“I have devoted my whole life to the study of Nature, and yet a single sentence may express all that I have done. I have shown that there is a correspondence between the succession of Fishes in geological times and the different stages of their growth in the egg,-this is all. It chanced to be a result that was found to apply to other groups and has led to other conclusions of a like nature.”

MayDifferentDoneWholeScienceFoundGrowthNatureResultsStudyGroupsStageEvolutionFishesSentencesWhole LifeConclusionEggsDevotedSuccessionGeologyCorrespondenceSingle SentenceGeological Time
Book:Agassiz on Evolution: Methods of study in natural history
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“So says the most ancient book of the Earth; thus it is written on its leaves of marble, lime, sand, slate, and clay: ... that our Earth has fashioned itself, from its chaos of substances and powers, through the animating warmth of the creative spirit, to a peculiar and original whole, by a series of preparatory revolutions, till at last the crown of its creation, the exquisite and tender creature man, was enabled to appear.”

MenBookWholeEarthLastsScienceSpiritCreativeWrittenCreationRevolutionEvolutionCreaturesOriginalsSeriesChaosAncientSubstanceSandWarmthPeculiarCrownsClayExquisiteMarbleGeologySlateLimesCreative Spirit
Book:Outlines of a Philosophy of the History of Man
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“In the great debates of early-nineteenth century geology, catastrophists followed the stereotypical method of objective science-empirical literalism. They believed what they saw, interpolated nothing, and read the record of the rocks directly.”

ScienceRecordsSawsRocksCenturyMethodDebateObjectivesObservationNineteenth CenturyGeology
Book:Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History
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“We cannot see how the evidence afforded by the unquestioned progressive development of organised existence-crowned as it has been by the recent creation of the earth's greatest wonder, MAN, can be set aside, or its seemingly necessary result withheld for a moment. When Mr. Lyell finds, as a witty friend lately reported that there had been found, a silver-spoon in grauwacke, or a locomotive engine in mica-schist, then, but not sooner, shall we enrol ourselves disciples of the Cyclical Theory of Geological formations.”

MenHas BeensMomentsEarthScienceFoundResultsExistenceWonderProgressCreationTheoryDevelopmentEvidenceWittySilverProgressiveEnginesDiscipleFormationSpoonsGeologyOrganisedLocomotivesSilver Spoons
Author:George Julius Poulett Scrope
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“Astronomy concerns itself with the whole of the visible universe, of which our earth forms but a relatively insignificant part; while Geology deals with that earth regarded as an individual. Astronomy is the oldest of the sciences, while Geology is one of the newest. But the two sciences have this in common, that to both are granted a magnificence of outlook, and an immensity of grasp denied to all the rest.”

TwoWholeEarthFormScienceUniverseIndividualDealsCommonConcernAstronomyGrantedVisibleDeniedInsignificantOutlookGeologyMagnificenceImmensity
Author:Charles Lapworth
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“Geology does better in reclothing dry bones and revealing lost creations, than in tracing veins of lead and beds of iron; astronomy better in opening to us the houses of heaven than in teaching navigation; surgery better in investigating organiation than in setting limbs; only it is ordained that, for our encouragement, every step we make in science adds something to its practical applicabilities.”

DoeScienceHouseLostHeavenStepsTeachingCreationBedEncouragementAddBonesAstronomyPracticalsSettingOpeningSettingsDryIronSurgeryVeinsLimbsRevealingEvery StepGeologyInvestigatingNavigationTracingDry Bones
Book:The Religion of Ruskin: The Life and Works of John Ruskin; a Biographical and Anthological Study
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“A sound Physics of the Earth should include all the primary considerations of the earth's atmosphere, of the characteristics and continual changes of the earth's external crust, and finally of the origin and development of living organisms. These considerations naturally divide the physics of the earth into three essential parts, the first being a theory of the atmosphere, or Meteorology, the second, a theory of the earth's external crust, or Hydrogeology, and the third, a theory of living organisms, or Biology.”

ShouldFirstsEarthScienceThreeSoundTheoryDevelopmentEssentialsThirdsPhysicsPrimariesAtmosphereCharacteristicsConsiderationBiologyDividesOrganismsGeologyLiving OrganismsMeteorology
Author:Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
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“Considered as a mere question of physics, (and keeping all moral considerations entirely out of sight,) the appearance of man is a geological phenomenon of vast importance, indirectly modifying the whole surface of the earth, breaking in upon any supposition of zoological continuity, and utterly unaccounted for by what we have any right to call the laws of nature.”

MenWholeEarthLawScienceMoralSightImportanceMereAppearanceSurfacePhysicsConsiderationPhenomenonLaws Of NatureContinuityGeologySuppositionModifying
Book:A Discourse on the Studies of the University of Cambridge
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“Geology is the science which investigates the successive changes that have taken place in the organic and inorganic kingdoms of nature; it enquires into the causes of these changes, and the influence which they have exerted in modifying the surface and external structure of our planet.”

ScienceCausesTakenInfluencePlanetsStructureSurfaceKingdomsOur PlanetGeologyModifying
Book:Principles of Geology: Being an Attempt to Explain the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface, by Reference to Causes Now in Operation
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“Geology, perhaps more than any other department of natural philosophy, is a science of contemplation. It requires no experience or complicated apparatus, no minute processes upon the unknown processes of matter. It demands only an enquiring mind and senses alive to the facts almost everywhere presented in nature. And as it may be acquired without much difficulty, so it may be improved without much painful exertion.”

MindMayMatterPhilosophyFactsScienceProcessNaturalAliveMinutesDemandDifficultyPainfulComplicatedSensesContemplationDepartmentGeologyExertionNatural Philosophy
Author:Humphry Davy
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“It is to them [fossils] alone that we owe the commencement of even a Theory of the Earth ... By them we are enabled to ascertain, with the utmost certainty, that our earth has not always been covered over by the same external crust, because we are thoroughly assured that the organized bodies to which these fossil remains belong must have lived upon the surface before they came to be buried, as they now are, at a great depth.”

BodyEarthScienceTheoryRemainsDepthSurfaceCertaintyOrganizedCoveredBuriedFossilsAssuredGeologyCommencement
Author:Georges Cuvier
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“Millions of our race are now supported by lands situated where deep seas once prevailed in earlier ages. In many districts not yet occupied by man, land animals and forests now abound where the anchor once sank into the oozy bottom.”

MenAgeScienceAnimalRaceMillionsSeaLandAccountsBottomForestsAnchorsGeologyDeep Sea
Book:Principles of Geology: Being an Attempt to Explain the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface, by Reference to Causes Now in Operation
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