The Earth's Shifting Crust by Charles Hapgood - wire of information

66 EARTH'S SHIFTING CRUST
supposed to explain. Could there be a better example of
reasoning in a circle? Colbert cites evidence that the Devo-
nian animals were spread all over the world, and then remarks
that therefore ". . . it is reasonable to assume . . .
that the Devonian Period was a time of widely spread equable
climates, a period of uniformity over much of the earth's
surface" (375:255). According to him, the same situation held
true through the Paleozoic and Mesozoic, and even much
later periods (375:268). Other paleontologists reasoned in the
same way. Goldring, for example, remarked: "The Carbonif-
erous plants had a world-wide distribution, suggesting rather
uniform climatic conditions" (177:362). She drew the same
conclusions from the world-wide distribution of Jurassic flora
(177:363). But it is clear that when a theory
has been con-
cocted to explain a given set of facts, those facts themselves
cannot be adduced as proof of the theory. This is circular
reasoning. A theory must, first, be shown to be inherently
reasonable, and then it must be supported by independent
facts.
Is such a theory inherently reasonable? The answer is that
it is not. It involves, in the first place, ignoring the astro-
nomical relations of the earth. The theory requires us to
assume the existence of some factor powerful enough to coun-
teract the variation of the sun's heat with latitude. As Pro-
fessor Bain, of Amherst, has pointed out, in an article to be
discussed further below,
. /'. The thermal energy arriving at the earth's surface per day
per square centimeter averages 430 gram calories at the equator but
declines to 292 gram calories at the 4Oth parallel and to 87 gram
calories at the Both parallel . . . (18:16).
What force sufficiently powerful to counteract that fact of
astronomy can be suggested, and, more important, supported
by convincing evidence?
It was thought at first that universal temperate climates
might be accounted for by the theory of the cooling of the
earth. Those who proposed this theory (253, 292) argued that