Catastrophism

Catastrophism, at the barest level, is a hypothesis that holds catastrophic events, including impacts between asteroidal, cometary, or planetary bodies and the Earth, are responsible for the geologic and biologic formation of the planet as it is today, as well as the re-shaping of human culture and history, and, in some forms, asserts that accounts of these events may be found in ancient religious texts, as per the example of the Great Flood described in various world traditions. The term "catastrophism" does not refer to a particular theory or understanding, so much as it encompasses many disparate hypotheses that are focus on a catastrophic event as being an originating point to further global (and local) developments.

Proponents

 * William Whiston
 * Ignatius Donnelly
 * William Comyns Beaumont
 * Immanuel Velikovsky
 * Stanislav Szukalski