Dinosaurs

Someone asked how dinosaurs fit in the bible. While I am going to restrict my answer to dinosaurs alone it is obvious that this question pivots on another broader question of evolution

I believe there are two main opinions on this question. We’ll address them separately.

1) Young Earth – dinosaurs must have existed we know this from fossil records and man existed form the beginning of creation so thus they must have coexisted and we might expect a mention or showing in the bible… This is coupled with a few side arguments that explain the disappearance of the dinosaurs later, most commonly it is sited that they didn’t live after the flood.

Evidences in support of this opinion:
a) A plain reading of Genesis with our culture’s understanding of “Day” makes it certainly seem logical – man created in first 7 days… unless dinosaurs died the same day they were created they should coexist!
b) Several passages in the bible describe unknown creatures with characteristics so wild that they might be dinosaurs, here are a short list of them
The Behemoth : Job 40:15-24 (brontosaur)
The Leviathan : Jobe 41:33 and Psalms 104:26 (Kronosaurus)
c) The bible in several places uses the Hebrew word that also means “dragon” and it is often translated differently though. For example in the story of the creation Genesis 1:21 when the NIV mentions “great creatures of the sea” which in the KJV was translated “great whale” is this Hebrew word that is sometimes also translated “dragon”… since the word “dinosaur” certainly wasn’t around then some people suggest this usage should be translated differently,… possibly dinosaur.
d) There is a limited few people who seriously claim that archeological evidence can be found for the existence of various known dinosaurs with well known ancient civilizations, thus proving that man and dinosaur did coexist. Here are two links but I have no idea if this is valid or not!!!!
http://www.rae.org/pteroets.html
http://www.bible.ca/tracks/peru-tomb-art.htm

2) Old earth (ie - evolved earth) – this is the bible doesn’t mention dinosaurs because they were mostly extinct by the time man/Adam evolved.

Evidence for this opinion:
a) Scientist of various beliefs, some Christian, other not, down through the history of exploration have almost entirely agreed with the fossil record. While there are limited attempts to say that the majority of the fossil record formed quickly by Noah’s flood – this is suspect since the no plausible explanation of why the massive flood would so neatly lay down layers that contain only specific species of creatures, then another layer with other species, and another layer with different species –so many layers that show a dynamic growth, dying off, growth, dying off… etc. of the species of the world.
b) The descriptions of leviathan in the bible can be matched up with creatures we are familiar with such as the great whales and odd species such as the Oar fish that resemble massive beasts or sea serpents. Whalers for hundreds of years referred to the whales as the leviathans. The massive Nile crocodiles fit the job description of the behemoth possibly.
c) As for the coexistence of dinosaurs and man… that is obvious to modern scientists and the reason why I said earlier that they where “mostly” extinct. Not only do we coexist with their supposed offspring/relatives the birds; alligator, crocodile, caimans, and gavials are most certainly living dinosaurs that have lived almost unchanged for hundres of thousands of years. Though they’re considered reptiles they are certainly odd since they don’t have scales, have four chambered hearts – while all other reptiles have only 3 chambers…etc… they are only placed there in classification cause they don’t fit anywhere else.
d) The extinction of species has been common for thousands of years – according to the fossil record it has been a long time since there was a diversification of species via evolution. So if the bible mentions creatures that are uncommon to us that is certainly possible, but it doesn’t mean we have to assume it is one of the known dinosaurs of the fossil record. It could be any number of creatures that have gone extinct, but are most likely common animals to us that are described in an ancient unlearned language.


Now for my personal opinion. From my reading and education I land on the side of opinion #2. I think that the enormous weight of evidence for an older earth is hard to argue against. It is more likely in my mind that words, literature, and biblical passages do not have to be interpreted in a way that is so drastically antithesis from scientific observation which is in it’s basic framework without any agenda.