Why don’t we find dinosaurs and humans together in the fossil record?

You assumptions are quite inaccurate. We should have human remains with dinosaur remains, but you reject this illogically. We have human remains in the fossile recirds whenever there were other beasts with us at the time. To call out some immacualte exception to this with respect to dinosaurs is incredulous, at best.

—M.D., U.S.

You assumptions are quite inaccurate. We should have human remains with dinosaur remains, but you reject this illogically.

I deny the assertion that humans and dinosaurs should be buried and fossilized together. But for the sake of understanding, let’s think about this logically for a moment. If there were a worldwide flood today (that is, a marine catastrophe that overtakes the land), what are the odds of the few Emperor penguins that would get fossilized in Antarctica being buried with the few humans that would get fossilized around the rest of the world? Pretty slim. If the two aren’t buried together, this does in no way indicate that humans and penguins didn’t live at the same time. There are many possible reasons for humans and dinosaurs not to be buried together: (1) We know that both dinosaurs and humans were vegetarian in the beginning. However, after the Fall, behaviors changed. Some dinosaurs may have developed carnivorous diets (as evidenced in the fossil record by fossilized dinosaurs found with other animals in their stomachs), and therefore humans may have not chosen to live near them. Of course, after the Flood, God permitted man and animals to modify their diet to include meat; (2) humans are very resourceful and may have been able to survive by hanging on floating debris, swimming or other means to keep from being buried as easily as animals, which would keep their burial separate; (3) given the amount of sedimentary rock, we still have a great deal to explore before we could say with any confidence that the two aren't found together. Not finding the two co-fossilized doesn't support or detract from either biblical or evolutionary viewpoints—it is not “proof” of much of anything—it only proves that at that specific time, in that specific place, under those specific conditions, that the two weren't together.

We have human remains in the fossile recirds whenever there were other beasts with us at the time.

Perhaps some, but coelacanths, ginkgo trees, Laotian rock rat, and so on, aren’t buried with humans, and yet we live together today. The problem is the way you are looking at the fossil layers. Don’t be afraid to question that what you think (or perhaps what you were taught in school) about the fossil record: that there are no other possible (and, we would submit, more plausible) explanations.

The bulk of the fossiliferous layers are really an order of burial, not a record of millions of years.

In light of the biblical account of a worldwide Flood about 4,400 years ago, we can offer another interpretation of the physical evidence. The bulk of the fossiliferous layers are really an order of burial, not a record of millions of years. So the fossil layers often called the Jurassic, Cretaceous, and so on that contain dinosaur fossils were laid down over the course of a year about 4,400 years ago.
 
Human fossils have been found in the layers often called the lower Pleistocene and Pliocene1 (which most creationists consider post-Flood probably during the dispersion from Babel less than 4,200 years ago)! So looking at the layers from a biblical perspective, fossils of man and dinosaurs were formed within 200–500 years of each other!

To call out some immacualte exception to this with respect to dinosaurs is incredulous, at best.

I have a chapter that dives into this topic in more detail in the New Answers Book. I want to encourage you to get a copy and read it. I also want to encourage you to read and trust what God says in His Word. The history in the Bible is true and explains the world and because its history is true the message of the gospel is also true.

In kindness,

Bodie