ROBERT HOOKE, EVOLUTIONIST AND SUPER ROCK STAR

Robert Hooke (1635-1703) gave a series of lectures to the Royal Society of London over a period of some thirty-odd years that essentially laid down the foundation of the modern science of geology. These lectures were published posthumously in 1705. He recognized the true nature and importance of fossils at a time when the prevailing thought was that fossils were a trick of nature, a product of some magical or astrological force, or at best mere relicts of Noah's Flood. His studying of fossils he collected led him to express a theory of biologic evolution that was startlingly on target. His examination of the rocks and sediments on the shores of his native Isle of Wight convinced him of the cyclic nature of terrestrial processes and that the time needed to accomplish all that he witnessed in these cycles of erosion, sedimentation, consolidation and uplift had to be much longer than was allowed by the Scriptural Chronology. He insisted that the Earth had to be older than the 6000 years allowed by the Bible, and most of his contemporaries considered his attitude tantamount to a derogation of God. His lectures, therefore, not only contain ideas of biologic evolution, they contain the foundation of modern geology. There is evidence that both Steno, Hooke's contemporary, and Hutton in the 18th century may have benefited from them. The geological community has shown reverence for Steno and Hutton. Hooke should be acknowledged and honored by geologists and historians of geology as a precursor of Darwin and a true founder of the science of geology.