The Fall and Rise of Catastrophism[T]he scientific issues have been clouded by a supposed association between catastrophism and religion. Rightly or wrongly, it has generally been thought that the catastrophists of the nineteenth century and earlier believed that God was directly involved in determining the history of the Earth... It should go without saying that twentieth century catastrophism, often called neocatastrophism, is founded entirely in science, relying solely on natural forces for its explanations, but was eighteenth and nineteenth century catastrophism completely different? Was it so dominated by supernatural elements that any scientific content it may have claimed was without value? That was certainly the prevailing view for most of the present century. Catastrophists have been condemned for putting dogma before observational science, whereas their rivals, the gradualists (also called uniformitarians) have been praised for taking the opposite stance.
by Trevor Palmer
That misses the subtle difference between gradualism and uniformitarianism, or at least can be misleading to laymen. Uniformitarianism doesn't have to be so strict that there aren't catastrophic events.