Where did dinosaurs come from religionwise?

Question

Me and my brother have been talking alot about the bible and dinosaurs lately. He's really skeptical about the bible and there has to be logic behing everything and me on the other hand I'm more with Faith. But this one question of his has me stuck. I believe dinosaurs did roam the earth but then why are they not mentioned ANYWHERE in the bible!

Answer 1

Because they died out long before any human being ever existed.

The prehistoric times on earth go back even farther than the dinosaurs and lasted for millions of years. This stretch of millions of years is usually divided into three big sections called Eras. First there was the Paleozoic Era, then the Mesozoic Era, and then the Cenozoic Era. We call most of this time prehistoric because it happened before there was any way of writing down, or recording, history. Most of what we know about these early times comes from fossils.

The Paleozoic Era lasted from about 570 million years ago to about 240 million years ago. This was hundreds of millions of years! During this long stretch of time the earth went through lots of changes. The landmasses that we call continents today drifted and changed places. At the end of the Paleozoic Era the continents were probably all attached in one giant land mass that has been named Pangaea. Shallow seas probably covered most of the earth. There was life on earth during this era, but no dinosaurs yet. First would have come the tiny life forms such as bacteria. Invertebrates such as trilobites, jellyfish, and worms probably developed early on. Then came early vertebrates, maybe starting with little fish. Still no dinosaurs.

The era from about 240 million years ago to about 65 million years ago is called the Mesozoic Era. At the beginning of this era, the earth still had just one giant continent, Pangaea, but by the end the land had drifted apart until the continents were separate and almost like they are today. The Mesozoic Era is called the age of reptiles, and that includes DINOSAURS! During the almost 200 million years of the Mesozoic Era many, many kinds of dinosaurs lived on earth from little ones about the size of a chicken to the giant of giants, the 85 foot long Brachiosaurus. At the end of the Mesozoic Era all of the dinosaurs died out in a huge extinction. No one is sure how it happened.

The Mesozoic Era is divided into three parts called the Triassic Period, the Jurassic Period, and the Cretaceous Period.

The Triassic Period (248 - 208 million years ago) was the beginning of dinosaurs time on earth. Small, fast dinosaurs lived during this period, as well as other life forms including sea reptiles and flying reptiles. There were already crocodiles and turtles on earth during the Triassic Period, and there were already some mammals too. Triassic dinosaurs included a 10-foot long fish-eating dinosaur called the Mastodontosaurus, and what may have been the first plant-eating dinosaur, the Massospondylos.

All of this was well before humanity, or even its humanoid ancestors, arrived on the scene. So naturally, the Bible writers didn't know anything about them and didn't include them in their religion.

Answer 2

They were already extinct by the time the Bible was written, but some people claim that Leviathan and Behemoth are descriptions of dinosaurs. Leviathan is clearly a poetic description of something that is not an animal at all, such as a volcano. Behemoth could be any number of large mammals.

But there's no law that says ancient men had to be ignorant of dinosaurs either. They may have run across dino fossils too and imagined what the creatures must have looked like.

A bigger disturbance to you I would think is not the absence of mention of dinosaurs, but rather, the mention of mythical creatures like Unicorns that clearly never existed.

Answer 3

They were talked about twice in the Bible, in Job. Did you know that the book of Job is actually after Genesis. Also there is a thing called petrified wood. Believed to be millions of years old. Well when Mt. Saint Helen erupted, the wood all around the volcano became petrified. The carbon dating said the wood near Mt. Saint Helen was millions of years old when scientist knew that it was only a few years old. This disturbed evolutionists. They had to rethink their idea of petrified wood being so old. They now changed their story, saying that anything catastrophic can age things. Maybe like a flood!!

There also is the story of Brontosaurus and Brachiosaurus. The same dinosaur. If you look in old books they have Brontosaurus. Modern books have Brachiosaurus. No big deal, just a mistake. They put two different dinosaurs together.

Then there is the story of the loch ness monster. Nessy really hasn't been proven, but the Japanese found a large mammal, plesiosaur, they think in the 1970's. It was dead, but the Japanese made it the star of their fair. With a postage stamp commemorating it.

The Bible talks about a large swimming animal in Job 41 Leviathan. Then in Job 40:15 Behemoth.

Darwin said that studying a beehive could crush his whole theory of evolution.

Someone above "Jerry Springer" said something about hippos and crocs. I agree with him! Hippos don't have a tail that can bend like a cedar. Job 41:33, nothing on earth is like him. Can't be a croc. ; alligator, cayman are just like a croc.

Answer 4

I always had a theory that I think Christians can use to combine science and religion. A lot of the things mentioned in the Bible are figurative and symbolic. So, when it comes to the story of Creation, and how God created x on the x day, maybe the days mentioned in this story are actually millions of years. For God, it's probably not a long time, and the Bible may have been written that way to make it easier for people to understand.

It would be harder to read & understand "And on the 400,711,008th day God created creatures of the sea and winged animals" instead of "And on the 5th day God created creatures of the sea and winged animals."

So, perhaps on whatever day of creation the category of dinosaurs would fit in, the era of dinosaurs began and ended in the same -figurative- day.

Answer 5

Dinosaurs don't come from anywhere "religionwise".

Why not? Because dinosaurs roamed the earth thousands of years before humans did, and the people who wrote the Bible DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT THEM. They didn't have the fossils we do now.

The excuse by Christians that the "leviathan" and the "behemoth" spoken of in Job are dinosaurs is really quite ridiculous. The leviathan and behemoth are mentioned as monsters, and I think it's fairly obvious that they are poetic devices...unless you believe in dragons and unicorns, which are ALSO mentioned in the Bible.

Answer 6

Dinosaurs were gone from the earth before there were any men. We know about them from excavating their bones. They did no such excavations in biblical times, so they simply did not have the knowledge that dinosaurs existed. The bible was written by men, limited by their own knowledge, and the agenda they wished to promote.

Answer 7

Read Job 40:15 - 18, what animal would that be? Dinosaurs were created with all the other animals.

Answer 8

the bible was written by men who had no idea about dinosaurs. isn't it funny that in some states they want to teach our children that the dino's walked with man at the same time? more proof to me the bible is man made to suit his needs for the times.

Answer 9

They are not mentioned because the bible was written by people who only believe what someone else told them was the truth. That particular book makes a good story,but I don't believe you should make a religion out of it.

Answer 10

Dinosaurs where died before man was ever created. They are not mentioned because dinosaurs had no religous background.