Semantics watch: Architecture okay in geology, as long as there is no architect

In "Architecture, Gods, and Gobbledygook," by D. C. P. Peacock, a letter to the Journal of Structural Geology, protests the use of the word "architecture" in geology. It's here behind a paywall. However, it reads in part,

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My first criticism of the use of architecture to describe geological features is the origins of the word in the ancient Greek for builder. The word could be taken to imply that geological features have a builder. If so, who was the builder? Does use of the term imply divine construction or a belief in intelligent design (e.g. Sober, 2007)?

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And so forth.

Here, another would-be author in the Journal of Structural Geology, Paul Wilson, insists that structure can have that meaning too but needn't mean anything like that.

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While I would tend to agree somewhat with the first point, it seems that it is difficult to avoid such implications. Peacock mentions the term ‘tectonic’, one definition of which in the Oxford English Dictionary is ‘…pertaining to building, or construction in general; constructional, constructive: used esp. in reference to architecture and kindred arts.’ But a similar problem arises in the use of the term of structure: The Oxford English Dictionary provides two definitions of ‘structure’: i) the action, practice, or process of building or construction, and ii) manner of building or construction; the way in which an edifice, machine, implement, etc. is made or put together. Thus the term ‘structure’ also has connotations of building or construction. Peacock asks ‘Who is the architect?’, but one might just as well ask ‘Who imparted the structure?’ The answer in both cases is that natural processes created the ‘architecture’ or the ‘structure’: I would argue that neither term implies a divine ‘builder’.
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He thinks - and his forthcoming letter will say - that the term "architecture" can be used as long as it is adequately defined. That is, defined so as not to suggest that there is an architect in the -ure.

Well, so they say ... (whistle a few bars past the graveyard)

Incidentally, in The Spiritual Brain, Montreal neuroscientist Mario Beauregard and I reported on efforts to change language to eliminate the idea that people think or make choices. Such language is supposed to be outdated in the age of the human machine.

Note: I am indebted to Paul Wilson for introducing me to the term paywall.