Martin Rudwick, noted historian of earth sciences, proposes that geohistory originated as an innovative compromise between two "unmodern" traditions: Biblical chronology and Aristotelian eternalism. According to his theory, Enlightenment intellectuals—particularly Georges Cuvier—found a third path that avoided the theological problems of Aristotle’s cosmology and the "empirical" problems of a short Biblical past. Although this analysis is interesting, it minimizes the fundamental anti-Christian spirit of the Enlightenment and fails to make a compelling case for any relevance of Aristotle’s temporal cosmology. Proposals for the eternality of matter arose not from Aristotle but because it is a logical metaphysical alternative to theistic creation. Rudwick fails to differentiate between Aristotle and the post-Christian materialism of the Enlightenment, which was quite dissimilar from Aristotle’s Metaphysics. More importantly, crucial relevant aspects of church history and orthodox theology compromise his theory. Thus, it should be rejected in favor of a historical interpretation of geohistory as part of an integrated secular attack on traditional Christianity—an explanation that better explains developments in Western culture, both then and now.