A Case for Creation 101: What about the Dinosaurs?

What most people know, or believe, about dinosaurs usually comes from the little they have been taught in public education. It goes something like this:

“There have been five major mass extinctions over the course of Earth’s history. Dinosaurs went extinct in the fifth mass extinction 65 million years ago. Beginning about 235 million years ago, dinosaurs dominated life on land for roughly 150 million years. They evolved from the “thecodonts,” an extinct group of crocodile-like reptiles. During their long history, dinosaurs changed a great deal, in part because the world they inhabited changed. Thus, dinosaurs represent a long parade of change and adaptation.” Taken from the (currently in use) California High School Textbook: “Holt Biology,” 2007.

Students must memorize this information and then are required to pass tests regurgitating the above without being allowed to investigate alternative, viable, theories. We are, roughly, in the third generation of this type of evolutionary indoctrination in our public schools and it is now accepted as fact by most educators, even though it does not meet the requirements that other scientific theories do, based on the scientific method. The major problem for evolutionary theory and their dinosaur “story” is that it does not match up with the actual available evidence – see previous posts on evolutionary theory: Creation or Evolution? and 12 Things Evolution can’t answer, but Intelligent Design Can.

Recommended Christian websites with sources for both children and adults on the topic of dinosaurs and more:

Institute for Creation Research: icr.org

Creation Ministries International: creation.com

Creation Today: creationtoday.org

Dr. Dino: drdino.com

So what is true about the dinosaurs? First, it is important to understand that there are two main philosophies on how living things came to be, and Secular Humanism’s evolutionary theory is the only one allowed to be taught in the public school curriculum, Creation Science/Intelligent Design is basically outlawed, and teachers can lose their jobs for presenting it:

1) Secular Humanism:  This “philosophy” is responsible for evolutionary theory’s monopoly in public education. What is taught within this theory often differs in opinion as to when animals like the dinosaurs existed, when they became extinct, and how. In reality, The fossil record does not support the various dates given, nor does it contain the transitional forms required to support evolutionary teaching on animals like the dinosaurs. What we really find in the fossil record are species unique unto themselves, appearing suddenly in full form as we have today. We also find massive groupings of fossil with evidence of death caused by a sudden water laid event, all over the world.

2) Creation Science/Intelligent Design: According to the Biblical worldview, God created the dinosaurs (all land animals) on the sixth day, same day as humans. Noah was able to take a pair of dinosaur “kinds” on the Ark that would carry the genetic information for all of the species that would exist after the Flood (see post on Noah’s Flood). Most of the fossils we find today show evidence of a rapid mud or water laid catastrophe.

Dinosaurs have been cited in historical records around the world, living at the same time as humans after the Flood. The word “dragon” or “monster” is used in these records because the word dinosaur is a more modern term that began to be used in the mid 1800’s. We also have evidence of dinosaurs in recent history because archeologists and paleontologists have found dinosaur bones with soft tissue still in it, indicating that these fossils are not millions of years old, but only a few hundred to a few thousand years old.

Watch this one minute clip on dinosaur soft tissue, by “That’s a Fact” Videos:

• The ice age that followed the Flood (this is actually in agreement with some evolutionists, except they believe the ice age was caused by asteroids or another catastrophic event, not Noah’s Flood)
• Lack of food sources that were abundant before the Flood; most dinosaurs were herbivores (plant eaters)
• Humans, over time, killed off most of the dinosaur species after the Flood (conquests are found in many historical records)
• Long life spans declined after the Flood and dinosaurs were not living long enough to reach previous large sizes

Dinosaurs are reptiles and we still have many of them with us today in the form of alligators, lizards, iguanas etc. If these modern reptiles could live a few hundreds years they would be enormous because most reptiles continue to grow as they age. The word dinosaur actually means “terrible lizard.” It is important to remember that the word “dinosaur” did not exist until it was coined in 1840, prior to that time words like “dragon” were used.

Watch this short clip by “That’s a Fact” on Dinosaurs and Humans: