George Young was born southwest of Edinburgh in KirkNewton to John Young and his wife Jean. George was born without a left hand and so like many devote people of the time, his parents educated him for the ministry.

At the University of Edinburgh he distinguished himself in mathematics and natural philosophy. He was a favorite student of Professor John Playfair who was, at that time, becoming the great promoter of James Hutton's uniformitarian geology. After receiving high honors upon completion of his degree in 1796, he studied theology under Dr. George Lawson at Selkirk for five years. In 1806 he became the pastor of the Cliff Street chapel in Whitby where he served for 42 years. He obtained an M.A. from the University of Edinburgh in 1819. In 1826 he married Margaret Hunter. Though married for 20 years they had no children.

Young could read and write in several languages and developed his own short-hand which is still undecipherable. He helped established the Whitby Museum as first secretary and founding member of the Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society. He procured fossil and mineral collections for the Yorkshire Philosophical Society.

Young wrote 22 books on many topics. He wrote on the history of Whitby, on the great solar eclipse of 1836, an acclaimed biography of Captain James Cook, the downfall of Napoleon and a catalog of hardy garden plants.

With John Bird he wrote A Geological Survey of the Yorkshire Coast in 1822 (second edition: 1928); it was followed by Scriptural Geology in 1838.

On May 8, 1848, two years after his wife died, he died from influenza.

As a scriptural geologist, He saw geology as an aid to faith.

“The researches of the geologist are far from being unworthy of the Christian, or the philosopher: for, while they enlarge the bounds of our knowledge, and present a wide field for intellectual employment and innocent pleasure, they may serve to conduct us to the glorious Being.”

He was current in his scientific reading. Publications show that he had read Buckland's Reliquiae Diluvianae (1823) and Bridgewater Treatise (1836), Cuvier's Comparative Anatomy (1802), Greenough's First Principles of Geology (1819), Lacepede's Histoire naturelle de Cetacees (1790), Lyell's Elements of Geology (1838) and Principles of Geology (1834), Macculloch's Description of the Western Islands (1819), Parkinson's Organic Remains (1804-11), Phillips' Geology of Yorkshire (1829) and Treatise on Geology (1837), and Sowerby's Mineral Conchology (1812-1846). He also subscribed to the Edinburgh Philosophical Transactions, Geological Transactions, Philosophical Magazine, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, and the BAAS

Contemporary geologist Martin Simpson described Young's Geological Survey as "in every way worthy of a pupil of the celebrated Playfair." He continued,

"[It] was performed with great accuracy, minute investigation, and care, during four years of assiduous labour. . . In this work a fair and accurate description of the series of strata along the coast was given, which formed an important guide in further researches. The publication of this work, and the visits of the authors [Young and Bird] to various localities, and their intercourse with men of scientifick tastes, gave a great impulse to geological pursuits throughout the district."

Young did not travel extensively, but his acquaintance with this particular part of England was significant for developing a wider view of earth history, because most the geological "column" was to be found in Yorkshire.

Because of the still rather infant state of geology, Young urged caution in geological theorizing.

"It is within the last twenty or thirty years, that geology has begun to assume her proper rank among the sciences; . . . Within these few years, the collection of geological facts has been rapidly accumulating. Still, if we may judge from the jarring opinions held on the subject, we have not obtained sufficient data, for establishing a general theory of the earth; in other words, we cannot satisfactorily explain the natural causes, employed by the Creator to bring our globe into its present state; which, as all agree, is widely different from its original state. The chief thing to be done, therefore, in the present stage of the science, is to enrich it with ample stores derived from actual observation; . . . Every addition to these stores, will serve to enlarge and consolidate the basis, on which a true theory of the earth, if such can be found, must necessarily rest."

More than any of the other geologically-informed Scriptural geologists, Young presented the most thorough explanation at his time of how he conceived the whole geological record could be harmonized with a literal reading of the Genesis account of creation and the Noachian Flood.

Young was aware of the common objection raised against Scriptural geologists concerning the relationship between Scripture and Science.

"An appeal to Scripture on geological questions, is regarded by many as altogether inappropriate; because, from the superior nature of its objects, we cannot expect it to be occupied with matters of science. And it is true, that the Bible is not intended to teach us geology, any more than astronomy: its statements relating to nature, are not expressed in scientific language, but are set forth in the simplest form; being in accordance with the appearances of things, and the views most generally received among men. Yet we are sure, that the facts of science may be reconciled with the sacred page; and we may be permitted to doubt the truth of any theory, which makes that reconciliation impossible. The volume of creation, the volume of providence, and the volume of inspiration, have all one author; and whatever apparent discrepancies [sic] there may be between them, there can be no real opposition. It is an interesting fact, that the progress of science has, in more than one case, illustrated the truth of the sacred records."

He believed that with regard to the origin and history of the earth, the plain teaching of Genesis (as he saw it) should guide the interpretation of geological phenomena, not vice versa. And he attempted to explain many geological formations in light of his Biblical framework of a recent creation and global Flood.