Dinosaurs Living with People—The Biblical Worldview

by Dr. Tim Chaffey
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Tim Chaffey, AiG–U.S., responds to yet another hostile reader, who takes particular offense to the idea that dinosaurs and humans coexisted.

I was just informed my my aunt that my cousin had to do a report on dinosours for school. He found your website and was so interested in your theory about dinosour he decided to write his paper based on your beleifs. After I was informed of his failing grade and a parent teacher meeting that ended with his teacher informing my family that she was stupid I had to inventigate. I looked up your website and read your theory myself. This by far was the most bizzare and retarded thing I have ever read in my life. Dinosours and humans lived together?

Dinosours lived only a few thousand years ago? Your website tells that animals and humans were vegetarians at first because that was God's wish correct? Now animals eat meat; thats evolution idiots. Whoever approved this nonsence should go [vulgarity removed] and quit analyzing things in the bible that are not there.


Greetings,

Let’s take a look at your comments, minus the vulgarity in your last sentence, since that sort of language has no place in rational discourse. But then again, you obviously weren’t attempting to engage in rational discourse or else you would have refrained from the personal attacks and logical fallacies.

I was just informed my my aunt that my cousin had to do a report on dinosours for school. He found your website and was so interested in your theory about dinosour he decided to write his paper based on your beleifs.

We’re glad he was able to find our website and that he’s interested in learning about the biblical perspective on dinosaurs.

After I was informed of his failing grade and a parent teacher meeting that ended with his teacher informing my family that she was stupid I had to inventigate.

I’m confused. Your cousin is a “he” and your aunt is a “she,” but your family cannot be a “she.” So did the teacher tell your aunt that “she was stupid” or that your cousin was stupid? As a former teacher, I would grade based on how well the paper was researched and written—and not necessarily on whether I agreed with the conclusions of the paper. Numerous typos and poor syntax are items worthy of a lower grade, but failing a student simply because the teacher has a different starting point is academic censorship and unprofessional.

I looked up your website and read your theory myself.

That’s good. I’m glad you took some time to search this out for yourself rather than simply listening to what others say about us.

This by far was the most bizzare and retarded thing I have ever read in my life. Dinosours and humans lived together? Dinosours lived only a few thousand years ago?

First, resorting to offensive language generally occurs when someone has no substance to an argument.

Second, we have numerous articles about dinosaurs, including some that discuss dinosaurs living at the same time as people. You can either find information by searching for dinosaurs on our website or checking out Get Answers: Dinosaurs. You see, since the Bible is the Word of God, and since God cannot lie, then the Bible is trustworthy. That is our starting point. We are told that land animals were created on Day Six, and this would include dinosaurs. Since Day Six is also when man was created, we certainly believe dinosaurs lived at the same time as man.

How do you explain the various petroglyphs of dinosaurs found around the world? How do you explain the fact that so many dragon legends from around the world describe creatures that match what we know about dinosaurs from their fossils? How do you explain the biblical account that seems to describe something like a brachiosaurus, called behemoth in Job 40:15–24? The easy answer to these questions is that people have lived with dinosaurs, which were often called dragons. Yet this conclusion is unthinkable for those who believe in billions of years. Instead, it is the evolutionists who have come up with bizarre answers, like this one from an A&E documentary on dragons.

After an extensive study of the various dragon legends from around the world, and even making the comparison to dinosaurs, Dr. David E. Jones (Anthropology professor at University of Central Florida) provided this strange explanation to account for human knowledge of these creatures. This example provides a great illustration of how one’s worldview affects the way he views the data. Source: The Quest for Dragons. DVD. A&E, 2007.

For all those people who saw dinosaurs and drew them or wrote about them, I think it would have been very bizarre for someone to tell them dinosaurs and humans didn’t live together.

Your website tells that animals and humans were vegetarians at first because that was God's wish correct? Now animals eat meat; thats evolution idiots.

Genesis 1:29–30 tells us that humans, “every beast of the earth,” “every bird of the air,” and “everything that creeps on the earth” were originally supposed to eat plants. It wasn’t God’s wish; it was His command as the Creator.

Some animals eat meat today, but not all of them. I’m not sure how that’s supposed to be an example of evolution—an animal that originally ate plants, let’s say a cat for example, now eats meat, but it’s still a cat. How is that evolution? Now if that cat’s descendants eventually turned into a dog, that would be an example of evolution—one kind of animal changing into another kind—but something like this has never been observed. Please note: the biblical word kind should not be equated with species.

We have often addressed the issue of the change in animal diet that occurred at some point after the Fall, so there is no need to revisit that here.

Whoever approved this nonsence should go [vulgarity removed] and quit analyzing things in the bible that are not there.

So instead of making a rational argument, you resort to ridicule. That’s quite immature, and would earn you zero points in a debate.

How could we possibly analyze something in the Bible that is “not there”? Speaking of things that aren’t in the Bible, you won’t find any mention of evolution or millions of years of earth’s history, because those things did not happen. But the Bible does tell us that God made the land animals on Day Six, and that would include dinosaurs, so we can analyze that.

God has given us His Word so that we will read it, and the Holy Spirit aids Christians in understanding the Bible. We are called to share God’s Word with others and to give an answer or defense to those who ask us the reason for the hope that is in us (1 Peter 3:15). Since people continue to attack Genesis, it is our duty to defend it. When people ask sincere questions, we are obligated to reply.

I encourage you to spend time reading the Bible instead of attacking it. You can learn the truth about both man and God. Like the rest of us, you have rebelled (Romans 3:23) against the very Creator who gave you life (Acts 17:25) and deserve the appropriate punishment (Romans 6:23)—eternity in the lake of fire (Revelation 20:15). The good news is that God loved the world so much that He sent His Son to become a man and die on the Cross for sinners like us (John 3:16). He bore the punishment we all deserve (Isaiah 53:6) and then conquered death by rising from the dead a few days later (Acts 2:24; 1 Corinthians 15:4), just as He had prophesied (Matthew 20:18–19). Those who turn (repent) from their rebellion (sin) and place their faith in Jesus Christ will be given eternal life (Acts 3:19, 16:31). Those who refuse the Lord’s gracious offer of salvation will endure everlasting destruction (2 Thessalonians 1:9). If you have not already done so, I urge you to seriously consider your sinful condition before God and look to Christ for forgiveness.

Sincerely,
Tim Chaffey, AiG–U.S.

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