Old Earth Ministries Online Dinosaur Curriculum
Free online curriculum for homeschools and private schools
From Old Earth Ministries (We Believe in an Old Earth...and God!)
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Lesson 76 - Dinosaurs and Creation Science (Optional)
This chapter will focus mainly on young earth creationism and their beliefs about dinosaurs. Before we address this issue, let's take a look at another issue. Why did God create dinosaurs, and why did God let them go extinct?
Nobody knows the answer to the first question, because nobody knows the mind of God. However, we can make an educated guess about the second question.
Why would God create a creature as wonderful as a dinosaur and then wipe it off the earth. When God created the world, he put in place the laws which govern nature. If you believe in evolution, then you believe God started the evolutionary process, and then He let nature run its course. Thus, it is possible that God simply let nature take its course. He allowed random events that could cause extinctions, such as meteor strikes, and high levels of greenhouse gases from massive volcanic events.
Another possible explanation is that God could have been directly responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs. This particular extinction event paved the way for mammals to rule the earth. Without the extinction of the dinosaurs, life as we know it today would not have been possible. Mankind, or any other mammal, would have been easy prey for carnivorous dinosaurs. Mankind's ruling of this world became possible with the extinction of the dinosaurs.
If God had planned mankind all along, why create dinosaurs, especially if He knew they couldn't co-exist with mankind. Maybe He wanted to give us something to think about concerning earth's past. Maybe He was just playing around. We just don't know. There is no way of knowing God's intentions. Maybe that is something we will find out once we are in His presence.
Young Earth Creationism and Dinosaurs
Because dinosaurs are very popular with children (and adults!), Christians who believe in a young earth (that God created the world only 6,000 years ago) have taken a great interest in dinosaurs. They have come up with numerous theories to explain dinosaurs, such as dinosaurs and man co-existing together, and dinosaurs being on Noah's Ark.
Rather than list answers for all the young earth creationist claims about dinosaurs, we will cover a couple of points to get you started, and then if you desire, you can browse the Dinosaur articles on the main Old Earth Ministries website (links provided below for your convenience).
Dinosaurs on the Ark
Virtually all young earth creationists claim that dinosaurs were on the ark. To make them fit on the ark, they suggest that only juvenile dinosaurs were taken, and only certain kinds were taken. For example, rather than take one of every species of raptors, only one pair of raptors was taken.
The biggest problem is not space on the ark, but what happens after the ark lands and the animals are released. The Flood would have left a barren landscape, with no other animal life, other than that coming off the ark. So, what's a T-Rex, raptor, carnatour, and other dinosaur and mammalian carnivores supposed to eat? The only food around is walking off the ark with them. Within months, carnivorous dinosaurs and mammals would probably have killed everything else on the ark, and then they would have died from starvation. Noah and his family would be easy prey as well for a hungry dinosaur, ending mankind's reign on earth.
The Dinosaurs in the Fossil Record were mostly killed by the Flood
When a young earth creationist sees a boneyard, containing thousands of dinosaur fossils, they immediately claim it was Noah's Flood that killed them. However, the earth's rock layers tell a different story. Young earth creationists accept the most basic law of superposition, which states that rock layers that are deeper in the earth are older than the ones above it. One of the problems with fossil boneyards, is that there are many of them, at different levels in the rock record. That would have to mean the flood killed the dinosaurs, then the water receeded, then the waters rose, killing more dinosaurs, etc. If there was one giant Flood, then there would be one giant boneyard, and not multiple boneyards created at different times.
The biggest problem, however, is the rocks deposited prior to the dinosaurs. Young earth creationists believe that the rock layers of the Grand Canyon were deposited by Noah's Flood. However, there are no dinosaur fossils in these rocks, because they pre-date the dinosaurs. In order for these to be Flood deposits, the dinosaurs must have been really good swimmers, as they had to tread water until they could be deposited in the higher rock layers. Another problem is trace fossils, which are fossilized footprints, dinosaur dung, eggs, etc. All of these are located in the same layers the dinosaurs are found in, indicating that they lived, ate, nested, walked, etc., during the time that supposedly they were being buried by the great flood. And oddly enough, there are none of these trace fossils in rocks which young earth creationists consider as pre-Flood.
Finally, the geologic record shows that there were many local flood events throughout the history of our planet. So yes, the dinosaurs in a mass graveyard could have been killed by a flood, but it was a local event.
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