Re: Geology

Ed Brayton (cynic@net-link.net)
Fri, 24 Apr 1998 12:08:25 -0400

Ron Chitwood wrote:
>
> >>>Glen Morton said 'Geology is not an "opinion". It is a field of study
> with well
> > established methods of study.'<<<
>
> It is in some areas. When a Geologist dates his strata by the fossils
> found therein while a Paleontologist dates his fossils by the strata
> they're found in that is known as circuitous reasoning, most definitely
> expressing an opinion.

Actually, it was me who said that, not Glenn, though I'm sure he would
agree with it. He does have a PhD in that field, after all. As for index
fossils, it is true that index fossils are used in the field to identify
strata, but only tentatively. There are methods that provide double
checks on it, of course. And, even if you were right about this, that
still doesn't make it just an "opinion". The use of index fossils is
based upon many decades of field work correlating fossils and strata and
this was work was done long before there were any evolutionary
assumptions to influence it.

Ed