1 October 2026

James Hutton, the Scottish geologist,  wrote the  ‘Theory of the Earth’ and published it in 1788. In it, he argued that the age of the earth was incalculable. ‘With respect to human observation, this world was neither a beginning nor an end.’ It wasn’t eternal – just unknowable!

This observation wasn’t without controversy. Until then, the Church had worked out a date for the dawn of creation – 23 October 4004BC. Amazingly enough, that’s six thousand and twenty-two years ago this month! Who is celebrating?

Actually, the Bible says nothing about the date of creation. However, scholars analysed the text and deduced that the earth was about six thousand years old. From this, they were able to give dates to other major Biblical events.

Hutton’s controversial observations seemed to question the veracity of the Bible. But history has vindicated him. The Scotsman was right. With major scientific advances, the earth is now considered to be 4.6 billion years old!

From the perspective of the Scottish Enlightenment, it is amazing that some parts of the Church still argue against Hutton and his successors and hold fast to the chronology incorporated into the Authorised Version of the Bible in 1611.

Their problem is that they consider Genesis not only to be a book of faith but also a book of science. But Genesis isn’t science. It is poetry. So we read the first chapters of Genesis not as scientists studying a scientific document but as poets whose imaginations are stimulated by the beauty of the text.