This paper will contain a review of the article “Old-Earth Geology and its Ramifications for Life in the 21st Century by Dr. Terry Mortenson, 2003”.
Brief Overview and Main Points The theme of the article covered the long debated topics of the earth and universe being billions of years old, which was an idea with its origin and roots beginning in the 19th century, and was understandably named “The Genesis- Geology Debate”. Today, it is a very important topic, to science students, Christianity’s history along with science; and is also highly relevant to the current growing debate over evolution and or creation. The dominant view of the earth’s age in the 1800’s was mostly the creation theory that

God created the earth in six 24 hr. days. However, by the end of the 1800’s, theories sought to

prove earth’s existence only through natural and evolutionary means. This change in theory was

mainly due to 3 French scientists, whose work revolved around natural laws in matter, time,

chance and nature itself, leaving God out of the picture.

Therefore, during the 19th Century there were 3 dominant earth views: 1) Catastrophists-

who believed that creation was “untold-ages” old and that through catastrophic floods many life

forms were died off, and God recreated new species. 2) Uniformitarians who ignored origins of

life, and believed all geological processes remained the same throughout history without change;

and 3) Scriptural geologists who believed in creation as God stated in the Bible, and that earth

was not millions of years old. Christian catastrophists and uniformitarians tried to find a way to

“blend" the theory of old earth creation with the account of Genesis, which proves the author’s

statement, “A person’s worldview not only affects the interpretation of the facts but even the

observation of the facts. (“Dr. Terry Mortenson, 2003”). Another prominent historian of science

rightly comments about scientists and non-scientists: ‘men often perceive what they expect, and

overlook what they do not wish to see.’... (Russell, C.A., The conflict metaphor and its social

origins, Science and Christian Belief, 1(1): 25, 1989).

The middle of the twentieth century is when the young earth scientists began to re-

emerge. While many would be surprised at this resurgence, God is not. He has a divine

plan, and will always have people in position throughout time to bring about His truth at

the exact moment/s it is necessary.

Article Strengths Although Dr. Mortenson had quite a bit of information in the article, it was very well written. It was concise and precise. He touched on major points of the debate over Old-Earth vs. Young-Earth theory, and brought a relevance to the topic on where the debate is now in the 21st Century. It was a very easy and flowing read.
Article Weaknesses The article, while very well written, with a lot of informative information, (and although he has written a thesis on the topic); he could’ve expounded a little more on the subject of Noah’s Flood and the “specific” evidence of the rocks, and fossils. How were they “screaming” confirmation of the biblical account/history? Also, when he mentions that Darwinism is a “theory in crisis”, a little more elaboration here would have been appreciated.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the article was very enjoyable to read. Dr. Mortenson did a very good, and thorough job in keeping the text flowing, concise, and interesting.