What We Believe and the Geologic Record

In our human history, what we believe, as individuals, as groups, as cultures, as nations, as genders, as children matters. What we believe becomes our reality.



In researching the history of Earth for my latest project, a to-scale illustrated geologic timeline, I am encountering many fascinating aspects about our beliefs and the way knowledge and information change us. It wasn't until the mid 1800's that Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace independently came up with the idea of natural selection to explain evolutionary changes that the fossil record was beginning to reveal (Darwin/Wallace).  The work of these two biologists was preceded by work in the field of Geology. The early work in geology and paleontology got the biologists thinking about how species changed and why species became extinct.


  


Around 1800, a British canal surveyor named William Smith, who had little formal education, began to notice patterns of fossils in the rock layers exposed during the six years of the building of the Somerset Canal. He noticed that there were identifiable similarities amongst the layers in different regions in England and was the first to suggest a way to read the stratification of sedimentary layers. He created the first geological map of England. This stimulation of interest in the geologic record became a problem for those who believed the Bible to be a work of nonfiction, and the only truth.

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Creationists using the Old Testament, extrapolating from genesis through the generations following the seven days of creation, dated the Earth at 6,000 years old.  For people in the fields of geology and paleontology, this timetable posed a problem. In the mid 1700's a naturalist named Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, theorized that the Earth was much older than 6,000 years. Based on his estimations of geologic processes like sedimentary rock formation and volcanic activity, he claimed the Earth was at least 70,000 years old. He was one of the first to go against the Church in the name of geology. The church tried to stop the publication of his hypothesis.

Based on Buffon's published works and a fascination with geology, Charles Lyell proposed a more modern view of geologic processes that would give the Earth a much older age than what was thought even by the minds of science. In his first book,  Principles of Geology, published in 1830, Lyell does what would be considered the heretical thing, he goes against the accepted beliefs of the time and explains what he and his compatriots observe.

      

Educated and amateur paleontologists alike unearthed specimens of extinct animal and plant life that bore great resemblance to the minerals in the rock in which they were layered. Mary Anning of Lyme Regis, England, became one of the great contributors of marine fossils to the field of paleontology. She had a keen eye for seeing the fossils exposed in the rocks after storms and spent her life carefully extracting meaningful specimens such as complete ichthysaurus and plesiosaurus fossil skeletons. Fossilized remains of ancient creatures were the supporting evidence for the biologists of the day like Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in their theories about adaption and extinction of animals and plants to environmental changes.




Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace both drew from Charles Lyell's publication when they made their own observations. They independently conclude that living things survive in their particular environments by adaptation. When animal, plant or other species are well suited to a particular environment, they are able to find enough food to grow into adulthood, mate, reproduce, and if their offspring grow up, the cycle continues. When environments change, only the species that are able to adapt will be able to reproduce. In sexual reproduction, offspring get a mix of genetic material from not only their two parents but also a bank of genes not expressed in the parents. This, and the mutation of genes, allows for occasional traits that might be unique to individuals and permit a better chance to adapt to changing environments.

A very tangible example of this is the polar bear. The polar bear blends into it's hunting environment, ice sheets, so that it can gain close enough access to its preferred food to successfully hunt and kill. Its coloration is a trait that affects its adaption to its environment. As the polar ice sheets melt, the polar bear will either die out or it will adapt by finding new food sources or through genetic mutations that make specific offspring more capable of hunting in the changing environment.

This leads me back to the subject of beliefs. Last week, Hurricane Harvey hit Houston Texas. It is being reported as the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the US since Hurricane Charley in 2004. According to Americanrivers.org, Hurricane Harvey has been especially devastating for a number of reasons, and climate change is one. Climate change amplifies storms. Warmer air can hold more moisture and warmer seas cause water to evaporate faster, which means more rainfall during storms—a key factor in Harvey’s extensive flooding. This being said, there are many people in positions of power who believe that climate change is not caused by humans. Beliefs are sometimes more powerful than evidence because in the case of our current administration, it is beliefs that are driving policy for our society, not evidence.

In preparation for creating the to-scale geologic timeline, I am diligently trying to let the evidence presented in the geologic record speak for itself. In science, I have noticed, rarely is any concept final. Since we can not expose every fossil layer the landscape holds, we must extrapolate based on what findings have been made available for scrutiny.  My timetable will be adaptable.

What we believe creates our reality. I believe in science. I believe in my ability to be a conduit of information that will help others to gain perspective. I believe that we are adaptable, especially when we care about each other and the other inhabitants of the planet. I believe the Earth will survive human-induced climate change but that people will inevitably be affected and suffer for it, as they are in Texas, Louisiana from hurricane and tropical storm flooding and in South Asia from Monsoons.

I observe that many important contributions in science, technology and art have come from amateurs. So often "experts" in fields are guided by their beliefs and neglect to maintain a sense of wonder. If you know it all, there is nothing more to learn. I am hoping to never lose my courage to be curious, for I will most likely never know it all.