Thomas Burnet, an ordained priest and published catastrophist, explained the origin of the Earth through the theology of his religion.  The Bible’s book of Genesis depicts a flood, a deluge that was Burnet’s solitary mechanism for shaping the Earth into its current landscape.  Burnet’s evidence that supported his catastrophic stance was largely theoretical, hypothesizing geological events through religious theology.  Since the greater portions of his claims were in this way, ‘ad hoc,’ succeeding geologists of the eighteenth and nineteenth century, with less concern for religious absolutes, were unsatisfied with Burnet’s lack of evidence.  In their eyes’, a scientific theory must transcend the content of its hypothesis, and foretell similar events under scientific scrutiny.

Hutton and Lyell’s work over the following centuries slowly dissembled the fence of religious overtones in the scientific community, laying bricks of rational, the wall of scientific theory.  Geology led Hutton to doubt the claims of the Catastrophists, field observations that if the Earth had been created in a short period of time, could not be explained.  His first observation was granite intrusions in overlying bedrock; igneous veins that can be seen in exposed rock faces.  The granite veins were likened to the conflict he found with unconformities in layers of bedrock, defying Steno’s law of original horizontality.  Hutton began to view the earth’s history through deep time, and his inklings towards volcanism explained well the controversies he’d observed in the field.  Based upon his geological observations Hutton declared that the age of the earth was limitlessly extensible when opposed to Bishop Usher’s estimation that the earth was born on October 22nd, 4004 B.C.

This notion of deep time alone created enough controversy to last well into the nineteenth century, until Lyell’s geologic evidence substantiated Hutton’s original claims.  Lyell’s research, with large amounts of geological evidence, broadened the scope of Hutton’s theories, and Lyell was able to explain different earth forming mechanisms.  As a lawyer, Lyell’s persuasive rhetoric and mounting evidence became enough to eventually transform the general scientific consensus from catastrophic to uniformitarian.  The Principles of Geology, the volume he published consecrating his evidence towards a gradualist understanding was a landmark the transition between the contrasting world-views.  This piece of Lyell’s work, in collaboration with Hutton’s ideas, offered a substantial hypothesis that anyone can test against the natural world.

This scientific revolution, a transition that occurred over many centuries, was founded upon collected geological evidence.  To be a successful scientific theory, the proposed hypothesis must be rational.  Others must be able to test the hypothesis against a constant, observe the results for themselves and conclude what must be true given the results of the test.  Burnet’s theory of the earth’s catastrophic creation was based upon scientific persuasion, and supported by no evidence that could be tested.