Time’s Arrow Time’s Cycle
The impact of science on human life remains an issue of contention among different groups of people. On the positive end, science brings new ideas and makes contributions to human thoughts. On the negative side, science is blamed for taking away crucial aspects of rational thought. For example, the human race had been founded on the belief that the earth is the center of the universe until Isaac Newton came forth with the idea of gravity. Also, the invention of the Darwin theory changed the perception that the human race had held concerning the development of the human race. Stephen Gould bases his argument in the book, Time’s Arrow, Time’s Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time on the claim that scientific inventions left out the idea of viewing science as geology and treating time as a profound aspect.
“Time’s Arrow, Time’s Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time” was written at a time when history relied on primary data, and technology was not developed enough to support the different claims. Different authors used to have different opinions. Stephen Gould, for example, believes that the world is old, and none of the inventions attempts to explain the real age of the earth. His belief goes in line with that of Thomas Burnet, who says, “We must not only consider how things are but how they came to be so… [we should view the way nature] added new parts and still advanced it by little and little, till it came to this greatness and perfection,” Gould, (1987). The quote presents the idea of the explanation done by science on the age of the world. Generally, Burnet believes that the other forms of science cannot explain the real age of the earth without demonstration. Also, Gould believes that human imagination is not sufficient to explain the age of the earth hence the need for a science that uses the illustration to explain the ideology. An example of a scientific explanation that uses the demonstration to create an image on the real age of the world is the Darwinian theory. The theory attempts to explain the selection procedure, and humans can relate to the age of the earth by the stages that organisms have gone through before reaching their present state.
The difference in opinions between Gould and Burnet ends with Gould choosing Burnet’s idea of retrospective history. According to Gould, the concept of deep time stems from geology, and geological processes can only explain the time that the earth has existed. Gould says, “Deep time is so alien that we can only comprehend it as a metaphor. And so, we do in all our pedagogy. We tout the geologic mile,” Gould, (1987). The idea of geology uses the explanation from the fossils found in the sea. The geologists explained the patterns of the fossil deposits and were, therefore, able to estimate the time that the earth could have existed. Unfortunately, the efforts of the geologists have been underestimated and misinterpreted by historians. The quote by Gould shows that he was not for the idea of believing purely in religion to explain the age of the world. Gould is explicitly against the idea of biblical explanation given by Thomas Burnet on the changes that the earth has gone through over time. The historians who were unable to get the idea behind the age of the earth diverted the reality from geology into scientific myths.
Gould’s book is founded on two images that create contradicting perceptions from the readers. The first image is based on time as an arrow. When time is viewed as an arrow, history is defined as a one time and progressive aspect that does not go back. Time is generally considered as progressive and evolutionary. However, the first image concerning time creates significant differences between Gould and other historians.
Moreover, Gould views history as an aspect that depends entirely on time. Gould says, “One stroke of a nail file on his middle finger erases human history” to mean that history is not based on concrete foundations (Brown & Johnson, 2019). The other picture from Gould’s story is the one that views time as a cycle that comes at the same point more than once. When time is treated as a cycle, history is said to be repetitive. The second picture on Gould’s story puts him in agreement with the quote from Thomas Burnet. Burnet based his arguments on the biblical belief that happens to borrow immensely from the idea of repetitive history. Generally, Gould does not necessarily differ from all the historians who existed during his times.
Geological evidence has been used by historians to create self-satisfying ideologies on history. The self-satisfying ideologies are created as myths to justify the questions that could be created by critics. Geological time forms the basis for the argument that Gould rises concerning the experience of man throughout time (Brown & Johnson, 2019). Challenges were faced in coming up with theories to support the explanation of man’s experience concerning time. Generally, the Mosaic theory of creation dominates the human race, and even historians are carried into believing in the theory. Therefore, historians face a challenge in trying to come up with theories that contradict the Mosaic theory. The conflict between history and religion continued to come between historians, and the ability to solve crucial human questions. Thomas Burnet was a strict advocate of biblical theories and history at the same time. Stephen Gould was, however, not compromised between religion and history and only borrowed the ideologies that fitted into his doctrines. For example, Stephen Gould only agreed with Burnet’s belief in retrospective history at the expense of all other arguments by Burnet. Therefore, Gould did not allow his position on history to be compromised by religious theories but his firm belief in geology and science.
In sum, “Time’s Arrow, Time’s Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time” is based on the claim that scientific inventions left out the idea of viewing science as geology and treating time as a profound aspect. The difference in opinions between Gould and Burnet ends with Gould choosing Burnet’s concept of retrospective history. Burnet based his arguments on the biblical belief that happens to borrow immensely from the concept of repetitive history. Generally, the historians who were unable to get the idea behind the age of the earth diverted the reality from geology into scientific myths. However, Gould did not allow his position on history to be compromised by religious theories but his firm belief in geology and science. Generally, Stephen Gould bases his book on the argument that history is based on geological science.
References
Brown, M., & Johnson, T. (2019). Time’s arrow, time’s cycle: Granulite metamorphism and geodynamics. Mineralogical Magazine, 1-16.
Gould, S. J. (1987). Time’s arrow, time’s cycle: Myth and metaphor in the discovery of geological time (Vol. 2). Harvard University Press.