Gap creationism became increasingly attractive near the end of the 18th and in first half of the 19th centuries, because the newly established modern view of the science of geology had determined that the Earth was far older than common interpretations of Genesis and Bible-based flood geology would allow. Gap creation allowed religious geologists (who composed the majority of the geological community at the time) to reconcile faith in the Bible with the new authority of science. The doctrine of natural theology in this period regarded science as a second revelation, God's word in nature as well as in scripture, so the two could not contradict each other.