by Mike Collins - What do we know for certain about dinosaurs?
We know that they existed because we have dug up their remains. Beyond that, we have two very different versions of events.
The Evolutionary story is that dinosaurs evolved over millions of years and became extinct around 65 million years ago.
The Biblical version is that they were created alongside mankind roughly 6,000 years ago. So humans and dinosaurs existed together! All air breathing vertebrate land animals (including dinosaurs) perished in the global flood around 4,500 years ago except those preserved aboard Noah’s ark.
Are dinosaurs described in the Bible?
The word ‘dinosaur’ does not appear in the Bible. It’s a relatively modern word, coined in 1841.
Can we find anything in the Bible that may refer to dinosaurs?
Look at Job 40:15-19
“Look at Behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox.
What strength it has in its loins, what power in the muscles of its belly!
Its tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of its thighs are close-knit.
Its bones are tubes of bronze, its limbs like rods of iron…”.
Behemoth is sometimes translated as elephant or hippo but an elephant or a hippo doesn’t have a tail like a cedar which is a huge tree. It’s a great description of a Brachiosaurus. See article Tall tale of the hippo’s tail - creation.com
So arguably, dinosaurs are mentioned in the Bible, just under another name.
So, of our two opposing histories, which version is right?
The scientific approach is to take an idea (a hypothesis) then use the idea to predict what evidence we would expect to find if it were true.
In this case our Biblical hypothesis is that:
- The vast majority of dinosaurs were wiped out in a global flood.
- They co-existed with humans.
- The flood survivors were alive within the last 4,500 years.
If our Biblical hypothesis is true, then we should find supporting evidence. So what supporting evidence is there?
- Regarding their almost complete destruction in Noah’s flood.
Many dinosaur fossils show signs of rapid burial in flood-like conditions. They are found buried in sedimentary rock which is rock formed in bodies of water.
There is lots of evidence that they were buried rapidly. E.g., dinosaurs fossilised in the process of giving birth or eating. Also the arched back posture in many fossils is evidence of death by drowning.
We find dinosaur tracks all over the world, and they are almost always in straight lines which indicates that the animals were panicking. Animal tracks tend to meander when they are relaxed. See article Dinosaur footprint treasure trove found in Britain - creation.com
We also find swim tracks left by dinosaurs suggesting that the animals were on tiptoes trying to move through deep flowing water.
So there’s lots of evidence of many dinosaurs being wiped out in a global flood.
- Regarding the co-existence of people and dinosaurs.
We would expect to find evidence of dinosaurs in recorded human history.
While we don’t find historical references to dinosaurs, (because the word dinosaur is a modern word), there are many historical references to dragons. The descriptions are remarkably consistent, and the range of evidence is huge.
We find historical references to dragons from Europe, across Asia and into China, which match modern reconstructions of dinosaurs from fossil evidence.
We have found a wide range of visual images; sculptures, paintings, tapestries, vases, ornaments etc. where people have depicted dinosaurs that they must have seen first-hand because of incredible detail in the representations. We have found man-made representations of dinosaurs on every continent except Antarctica!
Carlisle Cathedral in Britain has a tomb for Bishop Bell. Around the tomb are brass engravings which depict Sauropod dinosaurs along with various other familiar animals. These engravings were made over three centuries before the fossil bones of these creatures were dug up, described and named. See articles Bishop Bell’s brass behemoths! - creation.com and Were dragons real in medieval times? - creation.com
The temples of Angkor in Cambodia have 800-year-old glyphs depicting what appears to be a Stegosaurus.
The Chinese word for Dinosaur - Konglong - literally means fearsome dragon.
So we have lots of evidence of dinosaurs co-existing with humans.
- Regarding dinosaurs existing relatively recently
The evolutionary story is that dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago.
A discovery by Palaeontologist Dr Mary Schweitzer in 1993 threw huge doubt into this idea. It turns out that many dinosaur fossils are not completely mineralised.
Dr Schweitzer identified fresh looking soft cellular tissue inside a T. Rex femur and dinosaur blood vessels ‘still flexible and elastic after 68 million years’ and ‘apparently intact cells’. There is no way this cellular tissue could last for 65 million years.
There have been many attempts to explain away this discovery, but Schweitzer’s findings have since been repeated and confirmed multiple times.
Rates of decomposition of the proteins found, and especially DNA, which is extremely fragile, show that they could not have lasted for the presumed 65 million years since dinosaur extinction.
And more recently was the revelation that all tested dinosaur fossils contain carbon 14. C14 has a very short half-life and it has been estimated that there should be no detectable C14 in anything much older than 60,000 years at most. This is very powerful evidence against the millions of years dogma about dinosaurs.
So our Biblical hypothesis is that:
- The vast majority of dinosaurs were wiped out in a global flood.
- They co-existed with humans.
- The flood survivors were alive within the last 4,500 years.
This is thoroughly supported by the evidence we find today.
Hopefully you can see how thinking biblically leads us in the right direction and is confirmed by the evidence.
Mike Collins is a speaker with Creation Ministries International. Mike is a great supporter of PK and has been a popular elective speaker at PK Christchurch events in recent years.