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Uniformitarianism is a research tradition in geology that continues
to hold sway despite the fact that its logical inconsistencies were
exposed in 1965. In that year, Stephen Jay Gould wrote one of his
earliest published papers entitled 'Is Uniformitarianism
Necessary?'. Gould applied logic to the problem and was able to
show that this idea was actually two ideas parading as one idea.

The early uniformitarians, like Hutton and Lyell, argued that
science must not rely upon the assumption that changes of the Earth
could be explained through the actions of supernatural forces. They
put forward a very important principle that became one of the key
foundations of modern science: the idea the physical laws are
invariant. What this means is that the laws of gravity, the
dynamics of physics, are constant in the Universe and do not change
through time or space. The principle of invariance became one of
the pillars not only for geology but also for science itself. It is
an act of faith to believe that physical laws do not vary through
time and space but it is an act of faith that seems entirely
reasonable to most scientists. We also support this notion but the
problem arises when the second of uniformitarianism's dual ideas is
brought into the equation.   [1]NEXT

References

1. file://localhost/www/sat/files/stws7.htm