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Testing Uniformitarianism
If you could invent a time machine and travel back in time, you could easily test the assumption of uniformitarianism. In the absence of time travel, how do you think scientists have been able to test uniformitarianism? The principle has been verified numerous times and is accepted as true. Take a look at just one example from geology.
Charles Lyell, who advanced Hutton’s first proposal of the idea of uniformitarianism, later traveled to the Canary Islands and studied the volcanic rocks in the mountains there. He believed that the mountains had been formed by very slow processes because they were so immense. It would have taken millions of years for them to form if they did so at the rates of rock formation Lyell observed in the present.
Lyell’s assertion about the mountains has been proven true today with the help of modern technology. With satellite measurements, we can see that the mountains are currently growing at about an inch a year, but that some of that growth is offset by erosion. Due to the absolute dating of rock samples from incremental depths in the mountains, we can see that the mountains have been growing this way for millions of years. We observe that the mountains grew anciently at the same rate at which they grow today.
