The inventor of the seawater aquarium was not only a famous 19th century British naturalist, but a member of Plymouth Brethren of sola scriptura fame and the publisher of an 1850s treatise to explain away the increasingly apparent, long geological and biological record. His answer was that God had created that too. In other words, God created the world to look like it did. And thus was resolved the issue of whether or not Adam had a navel, Greek book title "Ompholos". How do you suppose that went over when it was published in the mid 1850s? So well that the end of the publication run was turned to recycle paper. As one commentator says on line:
"In the end, Gosse had made the scientific search for reality into a great cosmic joke. At best God had deceived us. At worst, nothing was worth knowing anyway. After that, we were ready to quit messing with specious logic and to take the fossil record seriously, We were ready to allow that Adam had a navel after all, along with all his forbears. After Gosse, we were ready for Darwin. "
http://www.uh.edu/engines/epi1154.htm
Dr. John Lienhard (quoted above) and his colleagues at the University of Houston based "Engines of Our Ingenuity" have logged over 3000 short radio essays over the decades ( http://www.uh.edu/engines/ ). I would recommend these essays generally and wholeheartedly, but this particular one ( number 1154 from the mid 1990s) was a particularly perceptive one to consider for this forum - and also to examine other leads. Read the original. My paraphrase will not do.
It turns out that Phillip Gosse was an early member of the Plymouth Brethren, a Biblically literal-minded sect originating from Dublin, Ireland. The group claimed among its founders the Reverend John Darby, one of the advocates of Dispensationalism and Divination. None of the constructs we see here today would have been possible without his own Disposition (a third "D").
Phillip Gosse also had a son who was of a much different bend. Edmond Gosse became a poet and literary figure that I am sure that many of our British correspondents would have many anecdotes already at hand. But apparently among his works was an examination of his parents' point of view and why he rejected it ( his mother was an illustrator and had a way with religious tracts).
In effect, when you consider the accomplishments and erudition of Phillip Gosse, his conclusion to Omphalos seems as logical as that of a misguided Dr. Spock and embedded in the notion of "by the book". Curiously enough, a Swiss American contemporary of his, Agassiz, advised his students, "Study nature, not books."
I guess we all get done in now and then by citations.