There are two competing scientific theories about how the world came into existence and where mankind, as well as all the plants and animals came from: evolution and Biblical creationism. Evolution is called “science” and taught as fact, even though it is merely a theory. The late Carl Sagan, speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, gave the following requirements for something to be considered scientific:
- The most fundamental axioms and conclusions may be challenged.
- The prevailing hypothesis must survive confrontation with observation.
- Appeals to authority are impermissible.
- Experiments must be reproducible.
The theory of evolution doesn’t and in some cases, can’t meet those basic requirements. I might add that neither does creationism. We can’t prove that the universe as we know it was created by God, simply because we have a way of reproducing creation. But the evolutionist doesn’t have any means of reproducing evolution either, putting the two competing theories on the same level, scientifically speaking at least.
Even so, we do have something that the evolutionist doesn’t have going for them; we have an eyewitness account of creation, given to us by the creator. That’s what we find in the first two chapters of the Bible, Genesis 1 and 2. While we can’t prove that account as true, there have been many discoveries, both in archeology, as well as other branches of science, which have proven other parts of the Bible to be true, lending credibility to the whole of the Bible.
But that isn’t enough for those who believe in evolution. By and large, they deny the infallibility of the Bible out of hand, not willing to accept it as true. Therefore, we have to have other answers to the questions that they raise; questions that are intended to show that the Bible is not true and evolution is.
Part of answering their skepticism requires showing what the Bible says. But that alone isn’t enough. We also need to show the fallacy of what they believe, so that they will be willing to accept the idea that there might be another possible answer. However, many who believe in the creation account as written in the Bible merely attack evolution, working to show its fallacy, without bothering to provide an alternative understanding. Both are necessary.
Denying physical evidence is poor science and both sides can be justly accused of it. Christians who say that “the devil put those fossils there” are just as guilty of ignoring evidence as evolutionists who ignore fossils which don’t match up with the evolutionary chain. Somehow, all the evidence has to fit into the truth and that evidence must be clearly and accurately interpreted. Any anomaly which doesn’t fit a theory must be examined, looking for other answers to what the evidence is showing.
What Are Dinosaurs?
Let’s start with an understanding of what dinosaurs are. The word literally means “terrible lizard” and has been in use since the mid-19th century. Sir Richard Owen came up with the name in 1841, using it to describe the fossilized bones being found of extinct reptiles.
So, dinosaurs are reptiles… often very big reptiles. That sets them apart from modern reptiles, of which the saltwater crocodile is the largest species, growing to more than 23 feet (7 meters) in length. While large, that doesn’t match up to the Argentinosaurus, which could grow 98 to 130 feet in length, dwarfing modern elephants.
An interesting thing about reptiles is that they are the only category of creatures living in the world today which continue growing throughout their entire lives. One of the reasons why saltwater crocodiles grow so huge is that they live 70 years. In comparison, the Nile Crocodile lives about 50 years and only grows to about 14 feet in length.
What were to happen, if those crocodiles were able to live longer lives? If we accept that they continue growing throughout their lifespan, then the same crocodiles could grow to gigantic proportions. For that matter, various different lizards, some of which look like baby dinosaurs, would grow much bigger than we know them today.
There was such a time, recorded in the Bible. Before the flood, the Biblical genealogy records show that people lived an average of 912 years, roughly 11.5 times as long as we do today. If we use that as a baseline, then those saltwater crocodiles could grow up to about 265 feet long, considerably longer than the Argentinosaurus.
What Happened to them in the Flood?
There is no historic record of what happened to the dinosaurs in the flood. The Biblical record says that Noah brought two of every kind of creature with him in the ark. That would have to include the various types of dinosaurs living at that time.
One of the ways that people scoff at that is to say that the dinosaurs were too big to take in the ark. That was probably true, at least for the full-grown adults. But babies of any species are considerably smaller. There’s no reason why Noah had to take full-grown animals on the ark with him. For that matter, since reptiles lay eggs, he could have brought dinosaur eggs on the ark with him, allowing them to hatch along the way or even after the ark landed on Mount Ararat.
With life-spans shortened after the flood, the baby dinosaurs that Noah took with him wouldn’t grow to be as big as the ones that roamed the earth before the flood. It is possible that they would even look somewhat different, as some of the bone structure that the larger ones had was made necessary by their large size and weight. Smaller versions of the same lizard wouldn’t need such massive bones, making it possible that their bone structure looks slightly different.
What About Leviathan?
One of the questions that comes up when talking about the Bible and dinosaurs is the Leviathan mentioned in the book of Job, as well as Psalms 104 and Isaiah 27:1.
Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook, or snare his tongue with a line which you lower? 2 Can you put a reed through his nose, or pierce his jaw with a hook? – Job 41:1-2 and further
Some have tried to explain this as being a dinosaur of one sort or another. But the truth is, we just don’t know what this animal is. There is no living animal today which matches the description given for this animal in the Bible. Nor is there any dinosaur which matches it either. While it may describe a dinosaur or perhaps a legendary version of someone’s recollection of a dinosaur, there has been no such beast unearthed in all the scientific digs to date.
But Wait… The Dinosaurs Lived Millions of Years Ago
According to evolutionary theory, dinosaurs lived tens of millions of years ago and were made extinct by the arrival of a huge asteroid that struck the Earth, off the coast of the Yucatan peninsula. That would mean that there were no dinosaurs around when people were and especially not in the time of Noah.
This is trying to adjust the Bible to match evolutionary theory. According to the Bible, the world was created by God in six days, with Him taking the seventh day off to rest. In that timeline, birds and fish were created on the fifth day of creation and animals were created on the sixth day. The first man, Adam, was also created on the sixth day, after the animals were. This would mean that dinosaurs were created before man, but only by a few hours, not by millions of years.
This is a controversial subject, even amongst Christians, many of whom don’t accept a “young earth” view of creation. They subscribe to an “old earth” theory, where the “days” of creation were eras, some lasting for millions of years. Once again, this is trying to adjust the Bible to fit evolutionary theory.
There are a large number of natural “clocks” that exist, which show that the earth is not millions of years old. If it was, then the world that we know would look considerably different than it does today.
- The earth’s magnetic field has gotten 6% weaker in the last 150 years. That means that 30,000 years ago the magnetic field would have been too strong to support life.
- The Sahara Desert grows at a rate of 4 miles per year. Based on this, they calculate that it is about 4,000 years old.
- Oil in the ground is at a pressure of up to 20,000 psi. This is greater than the pressure created by the weight of the rock above it. This pressure should have equalized in less than 10,000 yrs. If the earth was as old as evolutionists say, it would not have any pressure, as the petroleum would move into the porosity of the rock around it.
- The common belief is that it takes millions of years to turn biological matter into petroleum; but a factory in Australia can make oil artificially from sewage in 30 minutes
- The Mississippi River is depositing sediment at the rate of 80,000 tons per hour. Scientists have determined that it took about 30,000 years to accumulate the mud currently in the delta.
- Oldest tree in the world is a Bristlecone Pine in California. It is 4,300 years old. If the world were older, why aren’t there any trees older than this?
- The Great Barrier Reef, off the shore of Australia, was partially destroyed in World War 2. After environmentalists watched its regrowth for 20 years, they determined, based on the growth rate, that it is less than 4200 years old.
- Based upon the erosion rate of the cliff edge that the Niagara Falls goes over, it can be determined that the falls have been going over that rocky ridge, eroding it for nearly 9,900 years. If you visit the falls, you can see where they started, before eroding the rock away.
- At the current rate of erosion, the continents will erode flat in 14 million years.
- When the first space mission went to the Moon, the Lunar Excursion Module (the LEM) had one-meter pads on the bottom of the legs. These were to prevent it from sinking into the space dust that was believed to be on the surface of the Moon, after millions of years. Yet that space dust was only about 1/8” thick, indicating a few thousand years, rather than millions.
There are many more of these “clocks” in nature, which defy evolutionary theory, or at least the timeline used to make evolutionary theory possible. While they don’t all agree on the actual age of the earth, they are sufficient to cast serious doubt on the age of the evolutionary timeline.
Were Man and Dinosaurs on the Earth at the Same Time?
Evolutionary theory states that the dinosaurs died out long before mankind arrived on the scene. Yet none of us were there to see it. There are many myths, all around the world, about dragons existing even up until the Middle Ages. While the only proof that exists of these dragons are anecdotal stories and artists’ paintings, there are plenty of dinosaur bones around. Could the dragons those people thought they saw actually have been some of the last dinosaurs to have lived?
But here’s an argument that evolutionists can’t answer, except by ignoring it. In 1908 a flood broke away a layer of rock at the Paluxy River, near Glen Rose, Texas. This exposed a large number of dinosaur tracks, as well as some tracks that appear to be human. There are cases where these tracks are side by side and even one case in which the human looking track is inside the dinosaur track, indicating that the human walked there after the dinosaur, but before the mud dried.
If in fact these are human footprints, it totally destroys the timeline that the evolutionists are using. There is considerable controversy over this, which may very well just be the two sides refusing to look at the evidence of the other. Nevertheless, this opens some interesting possibilities.
One of the weaknesses of evolutionary theory is that it is all based upon a theoretical timeline that keeps changing. Evolutionary scientists keep pushing back the date of the “big bang,” realizing that their timeline doesn’t give enough time for all the mutations necessary to create new species. Radioactive dating is used to “prove” their timelines and the age of the fossils they find.
Theoretically, radioactive dating of any sort is based upon the idea of radioactive half-lives. This is the amount of time it takes for half of a radioactive material to decay down to simpler elements. The half-life of carbon-14, for example, is 5,730 years. All living things absorb carbon, including carbon-14 while they are alive. Once they die, they stop absorbing it, but the carbon-14 that is inside the plant or animal decays. Measuring how much is left, compared to how much carbon-12 is in it, gives scientists a means of determining how long ago it died.
The problem with carbon-14 dating, or any radioactive dating method for that matter, is that each half-life leaves less material to measure. The smaller the measurement, the harder it is to measure accurately. Nine half-lives for carbon-14 works out to about 50,000 years, a whole lot less than is necessary for dating the age of dinosaur fossils.
Other radioactive isotopes have other half-lives, making it possible to use them. However, the farther back scientists try to date something, the harder it is. Dishonest scientists have said that the farther back they go, the more accurate their measurements become; but that is obviously false.
In many cases, it is not the fossils which are dated, but other organic material that is found in the same area. Coal, like petroleum, is made largely of biological material, in this case, trees. As with animals, the trees absorb carbon-14 and other radioactive isotopes, making it possible to carbon date coal.
There are a couple of other problems with radioactive dating. One is that the samples taken from a particular stratum of coal or other material may not give the same results. Readings may vary considerably, forcing the scientist making the measurements to make a judgment call on which answer is the correct one. That will normally be the one which gives him or her the results they expect, with all other samples being labeled as “contaminated.”
Once a particular stratum has been identified, all fossils found within it are assumed to be of the same age as that stratum. Fossils from sedimentary layers below are considered to be older and fossils from sedimentary layers above are considered to be younger.
This dating can have “legs” as well. Once a particular type of fossil has been identified as being from a certain time period, scientists will assume that the same fossil, found in other places, is from the same time period. Hence, the age of other fossils in that area may be given an age, based on nothing more than being co-located with fossils that they think are of a certain age.
It becomes a circular argument. A certain stratum of rock is thought to be from a certain era because a certain type of fossils has been found in it and the fossils are thought to be from that era because they came from that stratum. Everyone agrees and nobody bothers to check and see if there might be a different answer.
But what about fossils that cross through various stratum? There are several places in the world where there are fossilized trees that cross several different strata. Considering that each layer represents hundreds of thousands or millions of years, how is that possible? Those trees couldn’t have grown that long, allowing the various layers of soil to build up around them and be compacted into rock. Not only do trees not live that long; but they would be crushed in the process.
The Bible’s Answer
The Bible actually provides an answer to this, in the story of The Flood. As we know it, Noah’s flood was a worldwide event, with enough water either falling onto the earth or rising up out from under the ground, that the earth was covered with a layer of water high enough to cover the mountaintops.
The process of that much flooding would not only move huge amounts of water; but huge amounts of earth and cause massive amounts of erosion. Once the rains stopped, the waters would be muddy, filled with silt, sand and mud that had been eroded away by the water. That silt would slowly settle, long before the waters could recede, creating layers, as heavier silt would settle first, with the lighter materials settling last. Through time, it would all slowly solidify into sandstone and other soft rock.
This scenario provides for those pesky trees that are sticking up through sedimentary layers. Those layers weren’t laid down over thousands or millions of years; but rather a few months. The trees, which were killed by the flood as well, would be standing up through those layers.
Living animals would be caught in this process as well. Those which are in the lowest layers were probably bottom dwellers in the oceans. As animals decomposed, their bodies would first rise to the surface, then settle to the bottom. How fast they settled and what strata they ended up in would depend on their size, weight and how fast their bodies decomposed. As the waters began to recede, those animal bodies still floating or semi-floating would likely be moved by the water to areas where they would concentrate, finally settling to be covered by more soil and silt.
By the way, fossils don’t happen when animals die and simply lie upon the ground. Those animals are eaten by others and what is left simply decomposes. For fossils to form, the animal’s body must be buried, preferably in mineral-rich mud. Something like that happened in Australia, when a mine collapsed, trapping the miner inside. Fifty years later, the mine was reopened, and a perfectly formed fossil of one of the miner’s hats, a bowler, was found.
The story of the flood explains where the dinosaur fossils came from and why they are often found in concentrations. While the story of the flood doesn’t specifically talk about dinosaurs, it does give us a model to explain why we see dinosaur fossils in various parts of the earth.