Like reproduces like. It is only common sense that a field sown in wheat does not produce oats, and that cats do not give birth to puppies. This simple, everyday observation reflects a universal orderliness of nature that would begin to unravel if species could transform one into another. Catastrophism was based on a crude but nonetheless accurate reading of fossil evidence, which truely records several catastrophes such as the great Permian and Cretaceous extinctions, which closed the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras respectively. Refutation of spontaneous generation.
Vitalism renders mechanistic explanation inapplicable.
Although most evolutionary biologists and neuroscientists believe that thought, memory, emotion and personality operate firmly within the domain of mechanistic explanation, that view does not prevail in the wider culture. Extra sessions may be arranged if there is sufficient interest. These may seem like simple, obvious ideas, but they were basic to reconstructing the history of the earth and creating the need for a theory to explain differences between past and present life. At the time when any given stratum was being formed, all the matter resting upon it was fluid, and, therefore, at the time when the lowest stratum was being formed, none of the upper strata existed. Law of Original Horizontality Undisturbed bedding planes are nearly horizontal.