Development of Evolutionary Theory

Until the late 1700s, what was the general belief about the age of the Earth?

• The Earth was believed to be millions of years old.

• The Earth was believed to be about 6000 years old.

• The Earth was believed to be billions of years old.

• The Earth's age was not considered or discussed.

Tags

NGSS.HS-ESS1-6

What were fossils and remains thought to be the result of before the late 1700s?

• The result of ancient civilizations

• The result of natural geological processes

• The result of the Biblical flood

• The result of extraterrestrial activity

Which scientists presented new ideas in the late 1700s that disregarded the Biblical account of creation?

• Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein

• Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace

• James Hutton and Charles Lyell

• Nicolaus Copernicus and Galileo Galilei

What did James Hutton describe in his 1788 paper?

• A theory that the Earth was only 6000 years old

• A continuous cycle in which rocks and soil are worn down and reformed into rocks

• A method for accurately dating rocks and fossils

• The process by which soil is permanently eroded away

Tags

NGSS.MS-ESS2-1

What conclusion did James Hutton reach regarding the age of the Earth?

• The Earth was exactly 6000 years old

• The Earth was no more than 10,000 years old

• The Earth had to be older than 6000 years

• The Earth was younger than previously thought

Tags

NGSS.HS-ESS1-6

What is the main idea of Uniformitarianism as proposed by Charles Lyell?

• The Earth's crust changes due to sudden, catastrophic events.

• The Earth's crust remains unchanged over millions of years.

• The Earth's crust changes due to continuous and uniform processes.

• The Earth's crust is the result of a single large event.

Tags

NGSS.HS-ESS2-1

According to Charles Lyell, how long did he conclude the geological formations we see today took to form?

• Thousands of years

• Millions of years

• Hundreds of years

• Billions of years

Tags

NGSS.HS-ESS1-6

What is a casual fallacy?

• A mistake in reasoning that occurs when an argument is not logically valid.

• A type of argument that is based on misinterpretation of statistics.

• An error that implies a relationship between two things where one can't actually be proven.

• A logical fallacy that involves an incorrect conclusion in deductive reasoning.

Tags

NGSS.HS-PS4-4

What is one of the primary problems with Hutton's Uniformitarianism theory according to the text?

• Geological processes have accelerated over time.

• We were not present in the past to prove these processes occurred at the same rate.

• Geological processes have become less significant in shaping the earth.

• Hutton's theory was based on biological rather than geological evidence.

Hutton claimed that the rate of geological processes remains unchanged. Since his claims, what has been discovered by modern science?

• Geological processes have stopped entirely.

• There has been no change in the rate of geological processes.

• There have been fluctuations in the rate of geological processes.

• Geological processes have been consistent with Hutton's findings.