| Popis: |
Chapter 2 discusses medieval models of the physical changes of the globe, which often entailed the possibility or “probability” of an ancient Earth. The Bible was not the only source that described the destruction of humankind by a catastrophic flood: Plato, Aristotle, Ovid, and Seneca all posited that a physically and morally “corrupt” Earth was periodically renovated by deluges of water or fire, either universal or local, occasioned by particular astral conjunctions. Scholars like Jean Buridan and Albert of Saxony deployed impressive intellectual efforts to show that new mountains could replace aging ones as they were eroded, since the absence of such a mechanism would have denied the possibility of an ancient Earth. While they could not determine when the world began, they went to great extents to demonstrate that its extreme antiquity was physically plausible as well as compatible with the faith. |
