A New Theory of the Earth

He draws this from the text, as the account speaks of the waters that existed before God's first creative act on the first day, implying that the Earth predates Genesis chapter one.

He argues that the Newtonian laws of motion provide that matter may never move spontaneously, but only when acted upon by an outside force.

He asserted that the Earth was originally a comet, which God formed from its initial "chaos and void" into a habitable planet.

He also argued that the flood itself was caused when the Earth passed through the tail of a comet, which, it was known by that time, are composed largely of water.

However, many of them are in direct conflict with contemporary scientific understandings; and comets are not mentioned in flood accounts.