mirrored file at http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ For complete access to all the files of this collection see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php ========================================================== That is the notion of gradual change. This is a theory of the Earth, not a general principle of science, but uniformitarians often didn't appreciate the distinction. For them anyone who challenged the idea of gradual change must also be challenging the notion of the invariance of physical laws. By separating the geological theory of gradualism from scientific principle of invariance, Gould showed that uniformitarianism was ill conceived from the outset. His argument can summarized by saying "invariance is true but gradualism is false." We need to go back to when the ice ages were first proposed by Agassiz to see how his idea was transformed into the uniformitarian theory that it is today. This historical review can help us see how ice core dating is ultimately flawed. From the outset, Agassiz envisioned the ice ages as events that were suddenly thrust upon the Earth: "A sudden intense winter, that was to last for ages, fell upon our globe; it spread over the very countries where these tropical animals had their homes, and so suddenly did it come upon them that they were embalmed beneath masses of snow and ice, without time even for the decay which follows death." [1]NEXT References 1. file://localhost/www/sat/files/stws8.htm