Evolution or Creation?
Dinosaurs
From kindergarten through graduate school, dinosaurs often are used as a tool to indoctrinate students regarding the “fact” of organic evolution. In most public school, college, and university settings, when dinosaurs are discussed, it is in the context of their evolutionary origin, development, and extinction.[24]
Since creation scientists can show many convincing proofs that Earth is only about 6,000 years old, how can we explain dinosaurs?
Most people think that because the word "dinosaur" is not found in the King James translation of the Bible, that it does not mention them. Creation scientists believe that dinosaurs were called dragons before the word "dinosaur" was invented by an Englishman, Sir Richard Owen, in 1841. Therefore, the word "dinosaur" does not appear in Bibles like the 1611 Authorized Version, because it was translated well before the word "dinosaur" was coined.[23,25]
The Bible teaches that dragons (dinosaurs) were made on the 5th and 6th days of creation. "And God created great whales, and every living creature that moves" (Genesis 1:21). "And God said, 'Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so'" (Genesis 1:24).[23]
The Hebrew word translated "whale" is actually the word for "dragon." And the word "dragon" (Hebrew tanniyn) appears in the Old Testament at least 21 times. Therefore, if the word "whale" is replaced with "dragon" and "dragon" with "dinosaur," it is quite clear that the Bible does speak of dinosaurs.[23]
The Book of Job may be the oldest book in the world - it was probably written about the time of Isaac: 1800 years before Christ and 600 years after the Flood.[12]
A type of sea dragon called a "leviathan" (see also Psalm 74: 14; 104: 26) was described by God Himself in Job 41:1-34 as a fearsome, fire-breathing (v.21) monster whose scaly hide (vs. 15-17) could not be pierced with sword or spear (vs. 7,26-29). God also described a huge land dragon called a "behemoth" (Job 40:15-24) whose "tail sways like a cedar" and "he ranks first among the works of God," impossible to capture (vs. ,24). Various other dragons are depicted as dwelling in different types of habitats and as being of various sizes (e.g., Isaiah 34:13; Micah 1:8; Malachi 1:3). Some modern translations have rendered "tanniyn" as "jackal," but the Hebrew word means "dragon," or "monster," not jackal.[26]
Most creationists believe that dinosaurs coexisted with mankind from the beginning, only finally becoming extinct in the Middle Ages. This would account perfectly for all the dragon stories, many embellished over the centuries with legendary powers, but at the same time based on a substantial residue of fact.[26]
All nations of antiquity seem to have had an obsession with dinosaur-like animals they called "dragons." Written history is full of dinosaurs they called dragons. Meticulous Chinese history records talk about dragons up until 1260 AD [26] The Incas in America left painted and etched stones that depict easily recognized dinosaurs and men together.[38]
In Utah's Natural Bridges National Monument, there is a painting made by the Indians that even evolutionists admit looks exactly like a great sauropod dinosaur. Fran Bridges, recognized authority on petroglyphs of the American Southwest, stated, "[The] petroglyph. . . bears striking resemblance to a Brontosaurus."[25]
Dragons were described in reputable zoological treatises published during the Middle Ages. Even though they sometimes were said to have supernatural abilities, all these ancient nations regarded dragons as real animals, frequently encountered by humans.[26]
In London's British Museum, the ancient history book, The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles records events that occurred nearly 1,000 years ago including accounts of dragons that lived beside people. The fascinating thing is that the descriptions of these dragons fit the dinosaurs.[25]
An historical account of life in England describes a "dragon" people saw in AD 1405: "Close to the town of Bures, near Sudbury, there has lately appeared, to the great hurt of the countryside, a dragon, vast in body, with a crested head, teeth like a saw, and a tail extending to an enormous length." This description closely fits that of a Dilophosaurus or Cryolophosaurus.[25]
Most contemporary geologists agree that the golden age of the dinosaurs came to a sudden end as the result of a global catastrophe of some kind. Noah's flood, accompanied by tremendous volcanic eruptions, with the implied resulting worldwide climatic changes (Creationists believe that the flood caused the Ice Age.) could well account for the vast dinosaur graveyards and trackways all over the world.[26]
If animals and plants that die are just left on the ground, they decay into dust over time. To form a fossil of an animal or plant, they must be covered by large amounts of mud very quickly, or they'll just disappear. To form millions of fossils in layers that are miles thick in places over the Earth, there had to have been enormous amounts of water and mud, most likely from Noah's Flood.[80]
However, if a few dinosaurs survived the Flood, how could these huge monsters have gotten on the ark? Bear in mind that the ark itself was huge, and young healthy dinosaurs would have had no problem fitting in it.[5]
Several scientific digs over many years have uncovered numerous intermingled dinosaur and human tracks in the riverbed of the Paluxy River in Texas.[22] In addition, 3,000 dinosaur footprints with human footprints right alongside them were recently discovered in Turkmenistan.[5]
Additional evidence that some dinosaurs may have existed until recent times came in 1990 when a very well preserved Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton was found. On examining a cross section of the cells in one of the long bones researchers discovered T-Rex red blood cells. At Montana State University they have been unsuccessfully trying for nine years to prove that they are NOT T-Rex blood cells. If they are, this throws out the whole idea that dinosaurs died out millions [ET*] of years ago.[5]
During the winter of 1856 workmen in France digging a railway tunnel through a layer of Jurassic limestone were startled to find a large creature stumbling out of a recently split boulder, flapping what looked like wings and croaking. It died immediately. A local paleontology student identified the animal as a pterodactyl. The stone in which it was found was consistent with the time period in which pterodactyls are believed to have lived and formed an exact mold of the creature’s body.[47] Is it reasonable to assume that a pterodactyl could have survived entombed in rock for "millions" of years?
Is it possible that there may be a few dinosaurs still living today? See the links on the "Living Fossils" page.
* Evolutionary Time Scale