Dinosaurs
Posted on: January 31, 2007 - 1:43pm
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Dinosaurs
Do Christians believe in dinosaurs? I don't think dinosaurs are mentioned in the Bible, which I guess means they don't, because the Bible is the source of all knowledge and truth. But I suppose they could argue that dinosaurs were created by God but were wiped out in the great flood because they were evil -- or perhaps because they wouldn't fit on the ark that Noah built. Or maybe they just couldn't swim.
Or maybe God just made the world with all those fossils under the soil to test our faith.
-- Kirbert
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I read a good book about what creationists believe once it's call Tower of Babel. You can probably get it at your school library or your local public library. It explains the differences between young earth creationism and other creationist beliefs, it's really informative.
There are twists of time and space, of vision and reality, which only a dreamer can divine
H.P. Lovecraft
Is that the Robert Pennock book? If so, I agree that it's an excellent book.
There are actuallly thiests who take the bible and twist some of its sayings so that it looks like dinosaurs did exist when the bible was written or before it.
Well there's Christians and there are creationists. Creationists think the Flintstone's is more of a documentary than a silly cartoon.
When I was a church goer, they told me that fossils were the work of satan to test our faith.
I've heard several different theories, the most common are:
1) The bible mentions monsters and dragons. Some creationists think that these are actually dinosaurs since the word "dinosaur" wasn't created until the 1800s.
2) Fosils were put there to test our faith.
3) There is a large gap of time between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 called the pre-Adamite kingdom.
4) Reptiles are always growing so dinosaurs were really just really big reptiles that survived thousands of years on an earth that had much different living conditions then it does now.
I always make sure I let creationists make their own arguments as to which belief they subscribe to. That way you don't get accused of building a straw man.
"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." - Carl Sagan
Actually, I've often wondered if the myths regarding monsters and dragons could be traced to dinosaur fossils. It's not reasonable to expect that nobody ever saw a dinosaur fossil until the 1800's; it would be expected that they got dug up on a regular basis over the centuries, when a farmer was plowing his field or a flood washed away a hillside. People finding giant bones would be liable to come up with all sorts of stories!
I especially like the thought of some knight in shining armor stumbling across the bones of some long-dead brontosaurus and then making up a story of how he had killed the savage beast in a fierce battle. As the story got shopworn, he added that the thing could fly and breathed fire just to make the story that much more impressive. Even better than Don Quixote tilting at windmills!
A large gap of time? Like, twenty years? The world was only created 6000 years ago, and apparently God created Adam and Eve quite shortly after Earth itself.
Again, when were these thousands of years supposed to fit into the 6000 years that the Earth has existed?
-- Kirbert
That a very interesting theory for response #1
As far as #3 & 4 goes. You are assuming that all creationists are young-earth creationists. Many simply think that the earth was created 4.5 billion years ago as is. Or that One day to their god is like 1 million years to us or something like that.
"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." - Carl Sagan
I am the radical and variable to counter act on your alpha and omega! The One True Juggernaut, and. . . I WILL BASH AND CUT DOWN THOSE THAT CANNOT BE TAUGHT!!!