The nineteenth-century English theologian and biologist Gosse (1810–88) had a problem. He was a devout Christian who accepted the Creation story as set out in Genesis in the Bible but he was also a...

The nineteenth-century English theologian and biologist Gosse (1810–88) had a problem. He was a devout Christian who accepted the Creation story as set out in Genesis in the Bible but he was also a practising scientist who was well aware that the geological and fossil studies by Lyell and others seemed to show that the Earth was very old, perhaps millions of years old. How could he resolve this confl ict? By the simple hypothesis that the Earth was created by God in 4004 BC complete with the fossil record which made it look as though it was much older. Of course no amount of evidence could establish or refute his claim.