Dinosaurs
Due to films, books, and other media, people, especially children, have become fascinated by dinosaurs. With large animals like Rex, taking the center stage. As such, it is not uncommon for people to ask if dinosaurs are in the Bible. If not, why?
The word "dinosaur" is from Greek deinos, meaning "terrible," and sauros, meaning "lizard". The word "dinosaur" was created by British paleontologist Sir Richard Owen in 1841. So it would be impossible for the word dinosaur to be in the Bible, which was written between 1,500 BC and 90 AD (CE). Does the Bible describe a dinosaur or use a different term? Because dinosaurs are just large reptiles and they existed long before humans appeared, the Bible does not use a different term for dinosaurs.
So are dinosaurs described in the Bible? Some think so, but there are two problems: 1) As noted, they were gone (extinct) long before mankind. 2) The text cited for describing a dinosaur does not match.
Job 40:17 is the text cited as a description of a dinosaur. The text cited a tail like a cedar tree. The Hebrew word for “tail” in this passage, "zanab", refers to the hindquarters and the tail of an animal. Note how well the rest of Job 40’s description fits the body, behavior, and habitat of the hippopotamus. The hippopotamus has huge hindquarters that it often uses as a weapon to attack other creatures and small boats and canoes that invade its personal space. The theme of Job 39–42 concerns the taming of animals. God tells Job and his friends that they have successfully tamed all the nephesh (soulish) animals: Manamal, Birds, and crocodiles. But some of these animals are much more difficult to tame than others. The most difficult to tame are the leviathan (crocodile) and the behemoth (hippopotamus). Dinosaurs are not among the nephesh animals identified in the Bible. See Nephesh life page
God’s primary point in Job 40 is that only a higher being (Humans) can tame a nephesh animal and that some are more difficult to tame than others. Likewise, it takes a higher Being (God) to “tame” a proud human heart, and some are more difficult to tame than others. Job 40 link
Why would God make dinosaurs, when no human ever saw one? Why would God have dinosaurs live on Earth for millions of years?
Dinosaurs were placed on Earth for the future benefit of Mankind. Almost all the oil and natural gas come from the millions of years of dinosaurs living and dying. Petroleum oil and natural gas are fossil fuels formed over millions of years from the buried remains of prehistoric plants and animals, such as dinosaurs. Fossil fuels are rich in carbon and hydrogen, which gives a high energy density (lots of power in a small space). Fossil fuels are extracted through drilling and burned to generate electricity, fuel transportation, and heat. To generate enough energy to sustain the human high-tech civilization, it took millions of years. Dinosaurs thrived on Earth from 252 million years ago until they died out 66 million years ago. The 186 million years of dinosaurs on Earth were at a time when the Earth had vast low-level seas and a warm climate, perfect for cold-blooded dinosaurs. God loves dinosaurs so much (He saw them, and it was very good) that He made three distinct sets of dinosaurs:
Triassic Period (Approx. 252–201 million years ago): with its now famous flying Dino Pterosaurs and horny beak Dicynodontia
All the Triassic dinosaurs died out due to widespread volcanic activity, and were replaced by all-new dinosaurs!
Jurassic Period (Approx. 201–145 million years ago): Had a mini T. Rex called Ceratosaurus, massive sauropods, and armored dinosaurs, such as Stegosaurus.
A slow die-off of Jurassic dinosaurs was replaced by Cretaceous dinosaurs.
Cretaceous Period (Approx. 145–66 million years ago): with its now famousTyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops. Mass die off, extinction event killed all dinos.
There is absolutely no reason to think that the radiometric dating techniques used to determine the ages of geological formations and fossils are unreliable.
How did the dinosaurs end? A massive asteroid impact in modern-day Mexico resulted in the extinction of all dinosaurs. On the Yucatan Peninsula, near modern-day Chicxulub Puerto, just north of Cancun, a large asteroid impact created a 110-mile-wide crater. The impact site was identified by debris rocks in Tennessee and Kentucky, specifically impact melt spherules, shocked quartz, and tektites found in geological layers. This arc of racks provided evidence of the ~66 million-year-old Chicxulub asteroid impact in Mexico. These rocks, known as ejecta, were blasted thousands of kilometers from the crater. The arc of rock is used to form a circle; from the circle, the centerof the circle was found, which is the the Yucatan Peninsula, on the beach. The impact triggered a 1.5-km-high (0.93-mile) initial wave, followed by 50–150 meter high tsunamis. It launched debris worldwide. As the multitude of tiny ballistic rocks fell back to earth, meteors filled the sky, and the atmosphere became red-hot. Fires erupted over the earth's surface, then the global inferno was soon followed by persistent darkness.
What about dinosaur footprints along side human footprints?
Carl Baugh made famous the idea that there exist human footprints alongside dinosaur ones at the Paluxy Riverbed near Glen Rose, Texas. However, the "human" prints are huge at about 2 feet long. In addition, they are highly filled in so that the prints are not clear at all. However, some of the prints show three separate areas, suggesting that they came from a three-toed dinosaur. We don't see any biblical evidence of three-toed people, so we know that the "human" prints are really just the prints of smaller dinosaurs. In fact, ICR president John Morris admitted in 1986 that the Paluxy footprints are probably not human but are eroded dinosaur footprints.
What about cave drawings showing dinosaurs?
We haven't seen any caveman drawings that suggest they saw dinosaurs. Some of the better drawings allow us to identify now extinct large mammals. However, when one is trying to interpret caveman art, they could be just about anything, including aliens, rockets or Twinkies.
Did Noah take Dinosaurs on the ark?
No. There weren't any dinosaurs to take along at that point in time, since they had died 66 million years ago. In fact, since the flood was local in extent, Noah did not take Polar Bears, penguins, kangaroos, giraffes, and many other animals that had not been seen by humans at that time. See Flood Page
Can Dinosaurs Be Resurrected from Extinction? No. DNA cannot survive that long. Jurassic Park is great entertainment, but not science. Useable DNA has a half-life of only 521 years. Short DNA fragments can survive long.
Why did God create dinosaurs? 1) God likes big animals 2) To increase the global availability of nutrients and to permit a greater diversity of life to survive. 3) Large-bodied herbivores play a role in dispersing vital nutrients throughout Earth’s ecosystems. They played a very important role in the distribution of nutrients by large herbivores. Even individuals who feel no particular fondness for reptiles describe an almost irresistible fascination with dinosaurs. These large (and a small) reptile species dominated Earth’s land and sea life from around 250 million to 65 million years ago. Their creation probably belongs to the fifth creation day in Genesis 1.
Does Dinosaur Tissue Challenge Evolutionary Timescales? No. Radiometric dating methods are reliable. It is scientifically conceivable that soft-tissue remnants could survive for upwards of hundreds of millions of years. The soft tissues are somewhat fossilized. The person, Dr. Mary Schweitzer, who found the 68-million tissue keeps saying, "Stop saying these are recent soft-tissues".
Were Dinosaurs Reptiles? Yes. Some scientists have speculated that a few of the dinosaur species were warm-blooded and that some dinosaurs were feathered. These claims are not scientifically validated. Scientists do know that dinosaurs were not mammals. Dinosaurs, like reptiles today, laid eggs. Mammals have placentas, with live birth. The sheer size of the larger dinosaur land-dwellers means they are cool-blooded reptiles. Most plant-eating dinosaurs had small mouths, which means they could not have consumed enough food to maintain high blood temperatures. The claim that some dinosaurs had feathers is not there. Some dinosaurs had a dorsal crest like an iguana's; these are being called feathers. The dorsal crest is also called spines or tubercles. The feather evidence claimed is just not there.
Does the sudden Appearance of Jurassic Dinosaurs show Creative work or Evolution? Despite the destruction caused by the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction event, the mass speciation that followed is surprisingly quick and robust. Within 10,000 years or less, large theropod dinosaurs appeared, and in less than 100,000 years dinosaur species diversity attained a stable maximum. Especially astounding is not just the body size and complexity of the new species but the fact that they appeared amid hostile environmental conditions.
Also see Age of Earth page
Ref - Notes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzrbTjQ1pWw Dino and Bible Video
(Coal is formed over millions of years from dead plant matter in swamps that is buried, compacted, and heated under layers)
Some petroleum comes from prehistoric plankton, algae, and microscopic organisms that inhabited ancient seas for millions of years, where dinosaurs also lived.
Dino fossils are made through a long process of fossilization (usually permineralization) where a dinosaur dies, is rapidly buried by sediment (mud, sand, volcanic ash) near water, and its soft tissues decay. Minerals in groundwater seep into the bones, replacing organic material over millions of years to turn them into solid rock. This is why there are NO human fossils only bones. All fossilized creatures appear suddenly and fully formed in the rock record, with no clear history of evolutionary transitions.
https://australian.museum/learn/australia-over-time/fossils/how-do-fossils-form/
https://www.nsf.gov/science-matters/international-team-finds-oldest-known-dinosaur-fossil-africa
https://www.amnh.org/explore/videos/dinosaurs-and-fossils/what-is-the-earliest-known-dinosaur
https://naturalsciences.org/calendar/news/nanotyrannus-confirmed/
Dinosaur Blood and the Age of the Earth by Fazale Rana (book)
“Does Dinosaur Tissue Challenge Evolutionary Timescales? A Response to Kevin Anderson, Part 1” by Fazale Rana (article)
“Does Dinosaur Tissue Challenge Evolutionary Timescales? A Response to Kevin Anderson, Part 2” by Fazale Rana (article)
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