The Bible and Dinosaurs

[desopny]

There are some problems with carbon dating process, espeially of older samples. Check the following link for some useful information.

http://www.ndt-ed.org/EducationResou...rbondating.htm

As far as dinosaurs and the Bible, I see no problems with either. There is no commandment "Thou shalt not believe in dinosaurs."

[Etienne]

Carbon dating doesn't need to be pinpoint precise in the case that interests us. Also we have so many samples, that the estimate is rather precise. Same with archeology, most of the items they date, they date it because, ex: they know X Greek pot was there at X time, and they find one alike in Egypt where they don't know the period, but the correspondence between the two pots allows to settle the time period of the Egyptian discoveries.

[El Viejo]

There are at least as many varieties of Christianity as there are of dinosaurs. Some sects have denied the findings of science, others have tried to bend the findings of science to fit the text of the Bible, and vice versa. Still others have opted to see the Bible as other than precisely and literally true in every word. I've had the fortune/misfortune to have been, and to and been acquainted with, each, and to have called each fools or heretics.

When on a long trek a herd spreads out. Stragglers drop further and further behind, while others scout far ahead. This is true of animals seeking a new watering hole, and it's true of humanity in our endless march towards knowledge.

Whether the Bible is scientifically factual or not, it contains some nuggets whose worth and meaning are rarely questioned. The sermon on the mount comes to mind.

[Captainqt]

My question is this: Since Dinosaurs did exist (and I don't think that anybody here is trying to deny that), than how does that take anything away from the story of Creation? Would it not instead add to the mystery and glory of God? Not everything in the universe is so blatantly clear.

[NikolaiI]

Yes of course. But dinosaurs are not more difficult to understand than any of the deeper things in science. What is the call to them? They were bodied animals, like us. So we are called to them. But in a different language...I mean...look at a leaf, and in it is infinite complexity. Millions of beings and molecules. Are they less alive than dinosaurs?

[confusion]

Well said. I was going to say exactly that myself had I not found that you already said it. Another thing I'd like to add though: why do atheists think that the term "fundamentalist" applies only to religious people? When I hear the term "fundamentalist" I think of a person who has stopped wanting to listen. There are fundamentalist atheists just as there are fundamentalist Christians.

[Prole]

Another thing I'd like to add though: why do atheists think that the term "fundamentalist" applies only to religious people? When I hear the term "fundamentalist" I think of a person who has stopped wanting to listen. There are fundamentalist atheists just as there are fundamentalist Christians.

The word was originally used specificially to loosely describe a group of Christians in America, that's why. It's only recently been used to describe muslims and atheists.
But yeah, there are a lot of narrow minded people in the world, however skepticism can't really be called fundamentalism in my opinion.

[Niamh]

Curious: what do Christian's think about dinosaurs? Especially those who don't believe in evolution... where do dinosaurs fit in with God's benevolent and almighty scheme?

Chuckle, chuckle.

Hehe. reminds me of the Bill Hicks Dinosaurs skit.

I am a professing Christian, and also a professional geologist for 35 years. I do not hold that the "world is only 6,000 years old" or any such thing. The notion that Christians know nothing about (or simply reject) science, that we cannot read with discernment and imagination, and/or that we are a homogeneous group of pre-modern know-nothings is incorrect and extremely unhelpful.

Aluno

I'd be very surprised if you did hold the "6,000 years old" stuff being a geologist. You'd be contradicting yourself constantly!

Okay ex-Archaeologist here. Cardon dating is not acurate to the exact date but it is a give or take 50 years, so close enough! hence why many things that have been dated are "circa (c)" what ever. But some things can botch dating processes, like ash from cigarettes or if some one lit fire close by to an open excavation.
Dendrochronology is another form of dating but i think the farthest back you can go with that is 10000 years.
Geological Stratigrapy i think is the main one used for some aspects of paeleontology. most stratas represent different periods of time, and might cover a few hundred millenia. Dinosaur remains found in these different stratas can help date them. so here is a geological time scale for you all;
c4000 years ago- Bronze age
c7000 years ago- Neolithic-first farmers
c11,000 years ago- Mesolithic
?????????????????- Pleistocene
c1.6 mill years ago- Quarternary (last ice age began. Paleolithic period (early cstone age) started approx 1 million years before this date)
c66 mill years ago- Tertiary-birth of the atlantic
c144 mill years ago- Cretaceous period- first flower
c208 mill years ago- Jurassic-first birds
c245 mill years ago- Triassic-first dinosaurs
c286 mill years ago- Permian-last trilobites
c360 mill years ago- Carboniferous-coal swamps
c480 mill years ago- Devonian- First amphibians
c438 mill years ago- Silurian- first land plants
c505 mill years ago- Ordovician- first fish
c570 mil years ago- Cambrian- first shells
c4,500 mil years ago- Precambrian- first life
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So big difference between life began 6,000 years ago and c4,500 million years ago!

[Prole]

Okay ex-Archaeologist here.

"Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in."
It conjured the Hicks rant in my mind too. I'm actually going to bite my tongue on these forums as part of my new years resolution not to be so militant in my views.

[Niamh]

great skit!
Hey! Whats so funny with "ex-Archaeologist here"?

[goodmanbrown]

Interested in this myself I studied the subject. The story of God creating the earth and the cosmos in seven days is not to be taken as seven days on earth. This is cellestial / heavenly time and is to be percieved as a much, much longer time period. Also the bible says that great beasts inhabited the earth before man.

Note: this is as much an interpretation as anything else when regarding an ancient text that has been edited throughout time.

[kiki1982]

Well, being a (liberal) christian myself, I don't see what the discussion would be about... I asked my mother once, long ago, because I was interested in dinosaurs, and I didn't see how God could create the world in 7 days and how then there would have been dinosaurs before humans... Her answer was very clear and probably very accurate.
Genesis tells us:
1st day heaven and earth
2nd day light and darkness
3rd day waters and land
4th day plants
5th day animals
6th day man and woman
7th day rest

Well, animals come before humans. And is there anyone who does not agree that dinosaurs are animals??? So they come clearly before humans. Is there any specification about how long those days were?

Look at the stories in greek mythology. Do we ask whether Love gave really birth to Light and Day? We need to see the whole old testament, including creation, as Jewish/Christian/Muslim (?) mythology, not as something true. Greek mythogy is looked at neutrally because nobody believes in it anymore, wy can't we do that with the old testament or did Abraham really become 175??

[SirRaustusBear]

Metaphorical interpretations of Genisis are nothing new, and they didn't start with modern geology. St. Augustine argued in the 5th century that God couldn't have taken seven days to create the universe because a truly all-powerful God would not need time, and that the creation would have taken place all at once. He suggested that the seven day account is a way to logically organize creation.

[Granny5]

I think it's arrogant of us Christians to think that we know everything about what a "day" is to God. A God day could be thousands of years as far as we know. I am Christian, but I don't believe that the Earth is only 6,000 years old. I'd have to be pretty silly to believe that with so much evidence that proves otherwise.

[J.D.]

This is a very sensitive subject for me. I was a Pentecostal. My Sunday school teacher gave me the devil-put-the-bones-there-to-fool-us line, and it basically launched my intellectual development. So I owe her a debt.

On the other hand . . .

Never mind. Too sensitive to get into.