Why don't some Christians believe that the dinosaurs existed over 65 million years ago?
2007-01-12 02:26:29 · 38 answers · asked by Maverick 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Notice the use of the words: "some Christians."
I'm not accusing the entire religion here.
2007-01-12 02:29:33 · update #1
Notice the use of the words: "some Christians."
I'm not accusing the entire religion here.
2007-01-12 02:29:39 · update #2
Why aren't Dinosaurs Mentioned in the Biblical Creation Account?
Why would God have left out a description of the dinosaurs from the creation account found in the Bible? Skeptics claim that this omission proves that the Bible wasn't written by God's inspiration, but is just a compilation of the words of fallible men. First, we should understand the origin of the Genesis creation account and its purpose in the Bible. The first five books of the Bible, including Genesis, were written by Moses. Since nobody except God was present at the creation, the Genesis creation account was given to Moses by God. If one is attempting to second guess the Author of Genesis, one must take these facts into account.
God was not interested in giving Moses a scientific treatise on the creation of the world. The Bible indicates that God's communication to Moses was centered on the relationship between God and man and the rules by which God wanted man to live. Therefore, the creation account mirrors the content of the rest of the Bible, which centers on mankind and his relationship to God. The question, "Why would God leave out a description of the dinosaurs?" is a bad one to begin with. A more appropriate question should be "What would God want to relate to man about His description of the creation?"
There are some technical problems that God would have faced in including dinosaurs in the creation account. There is no word for "dinosaur" in the Hebrew language. Now, God could have invented a Hebrew word for dinosaur and explained what those animals were like and how they had died out. However, this is a one page description of the creation of the world and life in it. Trying to explain about an extinct group of creatures would have taken a lot of space and distracted from the rest of the creation account.
Obviously, there were a lot more creatures than just dinosaurs that were left out of the creation account. If God were to have included every creature in the creation account (well over one billion), such inclusion would have completely lost the spiritual significance of the passage (and would be much longer than the Bible itself). The purpose of the Genesis creation account is to give an account of how God created mankind and provided for him. The account, like the entire Bible, centers on God and His miraculous workings for mankind. Therefore, in the creation account, we find the supernatural creation of the universe by God, indicating that the universe wasn't always here, but created by God for man. Next, it talks about the creation of plants, which are important to humans, since we eat them, and also important to the animals that we rely upon, which also eat them. Then, it talks about the sea creatures and birds, which we also eat. It next talks about the beasts of the field, which we eat and use for labor. Then it talks about the creation of mankind and how he is to have dominion and manage the earth and its creatures.
The second chapter of Genesis gives a spiritual account of the creation of mankind and man's relationship to God. The entire account is centered on God and man. Therefore, one would expect the creation account to describe events that are important to mankind.
Those who claim that the lack of dinosaurs in the creation account is a mistake are looking at the topic on the basis of our modern perspective, which values sensationalism over practicality. Dinosaurs are fascinating! The idea that these creatures walked the same earth that we live on intrigues us. However, the fact that they lived has virtually no effect upon our practical lives.
Some might say that dinosaurs were important in providing fossil fuels (which products were important even in biblical events1). Even the fossil fuel argument is not a strong one, since the overwhelming majority of oil came from the bodies of plants and trees - not dinosaurs. Most of those who complain about the lack of dinosaurs in the Bible are looking at the natural world from an evolutionary perspective, in which mankind is just an evolutionary fluke - a recent upstart who doesn't figure prominently in the overall evolutionary history of the earth. Even from an naturalistic perspective, dinosaurs are a failed evolutionary experiment that couldn't compete with their mammalian descendents.
The fact is that dinosaurs are as unimportant to us as they were to the Hebrews to whom the creation account was given. The purpose of the creation account is to provide an explanation of how God provided for mankind and created him as the one spiritual animal on earth. The account is purposely brief and centered upon mankind - the only creature God created on earth to enter into a personal relationship with Him. The Genesis creation account contains all the information necessary to fulfill the purpose given for the recording of the pages of the Bible. As an exercise to illustrate the point, you might want to write your own one page creation account. In doing this, you should center the account on mankind and the creation miracles God used to prepare the earth for him. What you will find is that there is not room to discuss dinosaurs or any other extinct species of life.
2007-01-12 02:30:55 · answer #1 · answered by rodandalisonthompson 4 · 7⤊ 6⤋
I can explain Dinosaur Fossils by a World Catastrophe called in Spanish "Diluvio". That killed all creatures that were left from Noah's Ark. Genesis explains that evil people of Noah's time was given to impurities and mixing animals with human beings and between other beasts. Those experiments undoubtedly gave some monster results like dinosaurs. That was one of the motives for God to destroy the world with a big flood. That's why you see the Grand Canyon in Colorado, the Atacama Desert in South America with a lot of rare marine fossils and so on. There is an idea that in some parts of our planet, there were an oceans... We, Christians have the explanation on Genesis, that easy!
2007-01-12 02:51:55 · answer #2 · answered by Pincayo 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Before the flood, when there was more oxygen in the air, and more air pressure, Dinosaurs could live. That was about 6000 years ago. When the flood happened the world changed, so dinosaurs could no longer live, so Noah didn't take any into the ark. Lock Ness monster, and lake Champlain monster are probably dinosaurs who survived, since they live in cold deep water. The magnetic field of the earth is declining by half every 1500 years (that is a very well established fact) If you look back 10,000 years the magnetic force would be so great that life would not exist on planet earth. The mathematical probability of live happening by chance is about 1 chance in 10 to the 168th power. I have faith to believe in an Almighty creator. I do not have enough faith to believe in that kind of an impossibility
2007-01-12 02:45:19 · answer #3 · answered by hasse_john 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋
As many have said, all Christians don't believe it. Your question said "Christians" in general. But I am having a hard time determining your real question. Let's split it up to better discuss.
The question itself is about dinosaur fossils. No Christian has any problem with the fossils or about dinosaurs in general. That's an ignorant myth.
The follow up is about the age of the earth. There is great conflict among Christians about the age of the earth. Both sides agree that the geneologies are incomplete. Any discussion I've seen agrees with that. The relevant questions are: how incomplete they are, whether Genesis 1-2 means what they seem to mean at first reading, and how much dating methods can be trusted. (I leave out people who doubt the entire historicity of Genesis 1-2, because most of them don't fall into the category of Christians.) I myself, "fundamentalist" though I am, tend to believe in an old earth.
But I would not be dogmatic about it - I think we should accept what science tells us, but don't go beyond into philosophical speculation like the neo-Darwinists. When you get into philosophy, you're dealing with the same realm as religion, and "my religion can whip their philosophy" any day - because my God can whip their materialism, because He created the very basis for it.
2007-01-12 02:41:04 · answer #4 · answered by Gary B 5 · 1⤊ 2⤋
We should have learned in sixth grade that fossils are not just indents in rock they are actual bones found in tar pits and other ways or preservation over the years. How do they time fossilized bone?
"Since the early years of the twentieth century, absolute dating methods, such as radiometric dating (including potassium/argon, argon/argon, uranium series, and carbon-14 dating) have been used to verify the relative ages obtained by fossils and to provide absolute ages for many fossils. Radiometric dating has shown that the earliest known fossils are over 3.5 billion years old." - Wikipedia
What do forensic annalists use to date bones of a dead person in a crime the same method I'd say it's accurate given many cases we're solved using it. (note)
They also date bones by the sediments they were in. (note)
What does this all prove? The world was in fact not created and made to cater human beings. We just adapted where others could not. A meteor caused the temperature change and killed most of the life.
How did life prevail well if you believe in dinosaurs, and evolution. Than you'd know we came from water after the ice had melted.
If you pay attention to the features of animals you notice gradual change. Fish and lizards have eyes on the sides of their head as you go up to mammals it gets more straight forward. As do other features change I don't want to overwhelm you guys. Just by looking at features changing and the way the intelligence and adaption changes you can see a very obvious pattern in the survival and intelligence in species.
(additional notes) fish, lizards, etc... can't adapt to temperature change but, mammals can. We hold mammals with the highest respect of adapting to their environment and ability to comprehend. Humans being one of them.
Are these bones made up?
Many cultures of people including religious past till now have been documented discovering these bones as well as average people today.
2007-01-12 03:13:43 · answer #5 · answered by obscure 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Errm...Christians believe dinosaur's existed but far less than 65 million years ago. Why can't people understand that even scientist can not say for certain how many years ago dinosaurs existed? The way in which scientist date bones and fossils is not an exact science in an of itself. In any case, the existance of dinosaurs or extreemly large reptiles and fish IS mentioned in the bible.
2007-01-12 02:35:14 · answer #6 · answered by drivn2excelchery 4 · 3⤊ 2⤋
This Christian who holds the orthodox Catholic faith explains dinosaur fossils this way:
The dinosaur(s) in question died on a Mezozoic flood plain or volcanic basin, and were covered in ash, mud, or dirt before decay set in fully. Over time, soft parts (usually) decayed, but minerals seeped into the harder material along with the surrounding material, over time displacing the carbon and calcium but retaining the same shape as the bone being replaced.
Eventually, as plate tectonics did their thing, and the now hardened geological layers were brought back to the surface and exposed. Intrepid paleontologists recognize these exposures, and using specialized tools, are able to excavate the now mineralized skeletons of these ancient animals.
How's that for a Christian's explanation?
2007-01-12 02:34:42 · answer #7 · answered by evolver 6 · 1⤊ 2⤋
I think their explination is that the Bible isn't a complete history of the Earth and there are gaps therein. Whatever its all a fairy tale anyway. I'm sure there are historical facts like Noah and the Ark and stuff but the tree and the serpent and the rib making a woman, thats all a story created by man to ensure faith in the religon.
2007-01-12 02:46:21 · answer #8 · answered by michael f 2 · 1⤊ 2⤋
It is only a theory that dinosaur bones are from 65 million years age. The fact is scientist throw out numbers when dealing with fossils and creation and they have no proof. Go to web site www.answersfromthebible and you'll get both a scientific explanation and historical one. From a Christian.
2007-01-12 02:35:56 · answer #9 · answered by run7days 2 · 3⤊ 3⤋
Dinosaur fossils: impressions in stone made by dead dinosaur bones. Not very scientific, but that's how I explain them. I have no problem believing dinosaurs existed, and I spend little or no time obsessing about the age of the Earth.
2007-01-12 02:30:40 · answer #10 · answered by Char 7 · 2⤊ 2⤋
In the Bible where it talks about terrible lizards....I'm going to go out on a limb and say that they were talking about dinosaurs.....
And seeing as how the scientific community updates and changes it's aging techniques every decade or so I don't see how they can claim any dating process to be accurate......yet anyway....and if the earth is millions and billions of years old and we know this....why is the american calander based off the life of somebody who many people claim didn't exist?
2007-01-12 02:31:39 · answer #11 · answered by s_h_a_r_k_k_y 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋