Did Dinosaurs Really Exist? Defend your answer.
Of course they existed. We have found fossils of dinosaurs of many types all over the world.
How long ago will a dinosaur expert or a textbook say that the dinosaurs “ruled the earth”?
Millions of years ago. Their answers may vary but most say the dinosaurs were around for 140 million years or so and died off about 65 million years ago.
God tells us something different in the Bible. Read the following passages and answer the questions.
Exodus 20:11
For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them...
How long did it take for the Lord to make everything?
Six days.
Genesis 1 (selected verses)
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth....And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day….And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day….And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day….And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day….And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day….And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
How do we know that these are 24-hour days and not thousands or millions of years?
The whole context gives us the meaning of the word day. A normal 24 hour day has an evening and a morning. The amazing thing is not that God created everything in such a short time but that he spread it out over six days. He could have spoken the word and had everything come into being at once.
In Genesis 5, God gives us the genealogy from Adam to Noah. In Genesis 11, God gives the genealogy from Noah’s son Shem to Abraham. Using round numbers, we can place Abraham’s life about 2100 B.C. Using the genealogies in Genesis 5 & 11 we can put Adam and Eve and therefore creation at least 1900 years before Abraham. Adding in the time from Christ until today, approximately how long has the earth been around?
About 6,000 years. Some will say a more. Some will give an exact number of years. But it is obvious that the Bible says the earth and creatures and people have been around for thousands of years. Not hundreds of thousands. Not millions or billions. Just thousands of years.
The real issue between what God reveals in the Bible and what evolutionary scientists teach is not that dinosaurs existed but when they existed. Evolutionary proponents argue this way—If the dinosaurs were around millions of years ago and the Bible says that everything came into being thousands of years ago, the Bible must be nonsense.
Dating Methods
Scientists determine the age of a dinosaur fossil by determining the age of the rock in which it was found. They determine the age of rocks generally by radiometric dating methods. Most of these dating methods measure the amount of certain substances in the rock. Carbon-14 dating might be the most well known. It is used on things that were once living. Other radioactive decay combinations are used to date non-living things. In order for these dates to be accurate they have to know these things:
1) The original amount of the isotopes
2) The decay rate
3) The environmental influences (was anything added or taken away?)
How can someone prove that a rock is 100 million years old?
No one can prove it. In scientific studies a theory must be able to be tested by actual observation to be proven. No one can devise an experiment to form a rock and let it sit around for a million years to see if the dating methods work.
How can you prove that God created the universe and everything in it thousands (not millions) of years ago?
We can’t prove it. Scientists rely on circular reasoning because they believe in millions/billions of years and therefore the dinosaurs and rocks must be millions of years old. Christians believe what God says and therefore believe that God created everything thousands of years ago. Both come down to faith. Does a person assume that God is right or do they assume that the scientific theory of the day is right?
This miner's hat is rock hard. It was found in a mine in Tasmania where it had been covered with water for more than 50 years.
First published: Creation 17(3):52. June 1995
Fossils do not take a long time to form. Most fossils form in a short time by being quickly buried in mineral-rich water. Can you think of some event in world history that fits with the following facts?
1) There are billions of fossils in the world
2) Fossils are found on mountains and deserts and almost everywhere
3) Fossils are buried in rock layers that seem to be deposited by water
A global flood as recorded in Genesis 6-9 fits such a description. Millions of creatures died, were quickly buried under mud and sedimentary layers all over the earth.
Clock
in a rock
Rock layers can form quickly. This clock was found in 1975 near a jetty at Westport, Washington. It is encased in rock that formed around it. Concrete forms into solid ‘rock’ quickly, why can’t other rock form quickly?
How do Dinosaurs fit in with the Bible?
Genesis 1:24-31 (selected verses)
And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”….31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
When were the dinosaurs created?
They were created on the sixth day with the other land creatures.
How did the dinosaurs fit on the ark? Noah was to take 2 of every land creature with him. That meant dinosaurs had to come too. Can you think of some possible explanations?
First, the ark was huge. It could hold a lot. A 60 ton sauropod might be a little too big for the ark. Most likely, God sent the younger animals. Many adult dinosaurs were small anyway, but the larger ones were small when they were young too.
Take a look at what the Lord describes in Job.
Job 40:15-24
“Look at the behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox. 16 What strength he has in his loins, what power in the muscles of his belly! 17 His tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are close-knit. 18 His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like rods of iron. 19 He ranks first among the works of God, yet his Maker can approach him with his sword. 20 The hills bring him their produce, and all the wild animals play nearby. 21 Under the lotus plants he lies, hidden among the reeds in the marsh. 22 The lotuses conceal him in their shadow; the poplars by the stream surround him. 23 When the river rages, he is not alarmed; he is secure, though the Jordan should surge against his mouth. 24 Can anyone capture him by the eyes, or trap him and pierce his nose?
What animals might fit this description?
The elephant or hippo may fit the description. A dinosaur could fit too. We do not have enough information to definitively say what animal it was. We just know that the Lord made it and all creatures and is more powerful than the most powerful of them.
The term ‘dinosaur’ was first used in 1841 by Sir Richard Owen. The term means “terrible lizard.”
If dinosaurs and humans lived together since creation , wouldn’t there be stories and legends about people hunting great dinosaurs or at least keeping out of their way? Why don’t we find stories about dinosaurs living next to people?
The stories do not call dinosaurs, dinosaurs. They call them dragons, monsters, serpents, lizards, etc. There are many stories like these, some of them in the not too distant past.
Why don’t we see dinosaurs today?
They died off because of climate change (after the flood), hunting (who wants a T-Rex living in the backyard?), lack of food, competition just like animals go extinct today.
What do we learn from the dinosaurs?
Romans 5:12
Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.
When did death enter the world if the Bible is correct and dinosaurs were created on the sixth day along with humans?
Death came in when Adam and Eve sinned sometime after the seventh day of creation some 6,000+ years ago. There was no death before that.
When did death begin if dinosaurs were around millions of years before humans?
Death would have been around for millions of years before humans.
How is death viewed by someone who trusts God’s words in Genesis to be the true history of the world? How is death viewed by someone who allows for millions of years of death before humans?
Death is a horrible separation of body and soul for those who trust God’s Word. It is a terrible result of sin that Jesus came to pay so that those who believe in him would have eternal life instead of eternal death (separation from God forever).
Death is just a way to get to the next evolutionary step for those who believe in millions of years. Death is necessary and part of God’s plan then. There is no need to be saved from death because it allows something better to come after you.
Reconciliation
What is wrong with or what harm could come from adopting these attempts to reconcile current popular scientific beliefs and what God says in the Bible?
Each day of creation in the book of Genesis was millions of years so that people came millions of years after the dinosaurs.
This allows for death before sin, while the Bible clearly states that death came after sin. Day can only mean a normal 24 hour day in the context of Genesis chapter 1. God created dinosaurs on the same day he created humans. This does not reconcile science and the Bible, it changes the Bible to match science.
God used evolution to make the creatures of this world.
This is an attempt to keep God in the picture but deny what he has clearly said in the Bible. It is always dangerous to reject something that God has said. If the story of creation is a myth, then why trust the story of Jesus Christ? But the story of creation is true and so is the rest of Scripture.
Dinosaurs never really existed. God just put bones in the ground and made the earth look old.
This is an attempt by some Christians to believe the biblical accounts and the scientific theories. They believe that the rocks and fossils really look millions of years old because God ‘faked’ their ages. There is no biblical or other evidence to support this. This compromise makes God look to be a deceiver and a liar.
Real Reconciliation
2 Corinthians 5:19
God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
(If you would like to learn more about dinosaurs and other Genesis issues, check out www.answersingenesis.org—Remember, the Bible is the final authority. Much of what creation scientists write is also theory unless they are saying what the Bible says.)