Nicolai Stenonis, known also as Nicolaus Steno, made important advances in
anatomy and stratigraphy; he is credited with founding geology as a
scientific field. He was a creationist.
Steno (1631-1686) lived long before the theory of evolution was
proposed, when the Bible was universally accepted as history. Steno
was a man of his times. Still, his little writing on geography was
noncommital on the age of the earth.
Creationism played a part in keeping Steno's theories -- and geology in
general -- from being widely accepted for several decades. In
particular, belief in a young earth ruled out repeated episodes of
deposition and mountains slowly rising above the sea.
Steno's theories were founded on entirely "naturalistic" rules of
inference. He explained the past in terms of existing processes such
as sediments being deposited on top of older strata and molding to
preexisting shapes (Cutler 2003, chap. 10).
Further Reading:
Cutler, Alan. 2003. The Seashell on the Mountaintop. New York:
Dutton.
