Omphalos: An Attempt to Untie the Geological Knot (Originally Published: London: J. Van Voorst, 1857) [Paperback]

Philip H. Gosse (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1881987108 | ISBN-13: 978-1881987109 | Publication Date: February 1998

Gosse argued that fossils are not really the remains of creatures which existed. God had created the world in six days, but had made it look like it was already ancient, complete with the remains of non-existent pre-historic life. Gosse's work was popular with neither Christians nor evolutionists.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 376 pages
• Publisher: Ox Bow Press (February 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1881987108
• ISBN-13: 978-1881987109
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,990,514 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Omphalos--A Meditation on the Concept of Creation ex nihilo, April 28, 2000

By 

MR J W MEALY (Oakland, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Omphalos: An Attempt to Untie the Geological Knot (Originally Published: London: J. Van Voorst, 1857) (Paperback)

Philip Gosse's little book is a gem of quiet, reverent thinking by a talented biologist. He simply (and unusually, for his age) was courageous enough to ask the question, "how would the earth and all its various interconnected systems look different than they do now, if the world had been created in an instant by a single creative act?" To explore this question, he asks his contemporary young earth creationists to follow him on an imaginative journey back to the very first day of the earth's creation, and he examines the nature of various living things that he sees. Do the trees have rings? Are there seeds just now sprouting from the ground? Do Adam and Eve (and all the mammals) have hair? Teeth? Bones? Belly-buttons?

Every living thing in the world, he begins to prove, is part of an interconnected temporal system, and has a four-dimensional nature that goes to its very core. Nature cannot be created ex nihilo without creating time ex nihilo and nature's whole process "in medias res", so to speak.

This is where Gosse's meditation has been so misunderstood. His argument is that IF the world has been created out of nothing by an act of creative power, AND that event happened recently as his fellow churchmen were fond of claiming, THEN there could be no physical evidence of the point at which that creation took place. To put it crudely, the world is by nature a spinning top, and if it has been created at all, it has been created spinning, and there will be no finger-marks on it, no scars of a sudden acceleration.

Gosse's thoughts were directed at the believers of his time, and were not intended to convert skeptics. It is sad that his prejudice against Darwin and the evolutionists (which he shared with most people of his day, believing and non-believing) has been held against him.

The next step for a 21st century person of belief is to think beyond Gosse about the Big Bang.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Valued as a primary source, June 30, 2000

By 

Jeffrey W. Trexler (Carbondale, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Omphalos: An Attempt to Untie the Geological Knot (Originally Published: London: J. Van Voorst, 1857) (Paperback)

Grosse was apparently the first to publish the idea that God might have created the earth with the appearance of age. For this reason, and its value in understanding the history and philosophy of science, I give the book four stars. Otherwise the book was a good example of nineteenth century scientific writing: too many words, excessive examples and illustrations. There are a few very quotable lines spread throughout the text, but most of the book is redundant.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Did Adam have a belly button ("omphalos")?, January 28, 2009

By 

Dirk van Leeuwen "dlw" (Antwerp, Belgium) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Omphalos: An Attempt to Untie the Geological Knot (Originally Published: London: J. Van Voorst, 1857) (Paperback)

Gosse was an eminent zoologist and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was also a staunch defender of a fairly literal interpretation of the Bible as was normal among the Plymouth Brethren of his time, of which small evangelical Christian grouping he was a member and a lay preacher.

He knew Darwin of course personally and although they fundamentally disagreed there was no animosity between them. Gosse argued that Darwins theories were incompatible with Bible teaching and offered a reconciliation approach - much maligned by the contemporary press. His book "Omphalos" flopped.

The question whether Adam had a belly button remains unanswered. Does that matter?