There’s a Christian bookstore that doubles as a (mostly) secular teachers’ store in my town. I went there to get some fall classroom decorations for my mom, who is a third-grade teacher. Most of the stuff they sell there is benign: multiplication flash cards, phonics books, mini chemistry sets, seasonal decorations, etc. But one book on dinosaurs, from “one of the most well respected creation scientists in the world” (he’s even got a PhD in biochemistry!) had me howling. It’s aimed as a legitimate science book for young kids.
I learned the following things:
[ol]
[li]We know God created the dinosaurs, because God created every living thing (:smack: of course!)[/li][li]Methods like radiometric dating are highly inaccurate tools of the “evolutionists”, whose theory crumbles under the weight of creation. To prove this, there is even a picture of a scale with “CREATION” and “EVOLUTION” on either end, with “EVOLUTION” crumbling.[/li][li]Before the Fall of Man, all dinosaurs were herbivores. Nevermind the sharp teeth; pandas and gorillas have sharp teeth too, and they’re herbivores.[/li][li]After the fall, dinosaurs started eating each other, and God gave some of them natural armor to protect themselves[/li][li]Noah had dinosaurs on his ark! To keep all the animals from eating each other and overrunning the ark with feces, God put them all in hibernation (:smack: duh!)[/li][li]Dinosaurs may have lived well into the 1890s, since one newspaper story from the time talked about a couple of cowboys who shot down an animal fitting the description of a pterodactyl.[/li][li]There is ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE for evolution in the fossil record. Even those animals that were essentially lizards with wings were birds, because “only birds have feathers.”[/li][li]Dinosaurs may exist today. The Loch Ness monster may be a dinosaur, for example.[/li][/ol]
In short, there is no evidence to suggest to the author, who has a PhD don’t forget, that there is any doubt about God’s Word.
I felt it was my duty to point this out on a board that prides itself on fighting ignorance.
But it’s all true. There are even museums that showcase this, so you know it’s fact!
In fact, I visited one of these lovely institutions (The Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY – a creation of Ken Ham’s Answers in Genesis) to see it with my own eyes. You can see some of their unshakable logic here (including a slideshow of their displays).
[li]Noah had dinosaurs on his ark! To keep all the animals from eating each other and overrunning the ark with feces, God put them all in hibernation (:smack: duh!)[/li]
[li]There is ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE for evolution in the fossil record. Even those animals that were essentially lizards with wings were birds, because “only birds have feathers.”[/li][/QUOTE]
This brings to mind the question of whether dinosaurs, especially the ones with feathers, were kosher.
The author is Duane Gish, PhD. I think his degree was from a real university too, not a degree mill.
On that, I know that universities have rescinded PhDs awarded to individuals if they have been caught plagiarizing material. But that seems rather innocuous compared to disseminating information that is factually, demonstrably incorrect. Even if the person genuinely believes the nonsense, I would argue that misrepresenting current scientific knowledge harms many more people than plagiarism. But, I guess plagiarism is a nice “bright line.”
No, silly. The book says the dinosaurs that weren’t on the Ark died. But here is where there is some controversy among scientists.
According to the book, God influenced the instincts of all creatures to make them head toward Noah’s ark (he can do that because he created the dinosaurs). So, why did some dinosaurs not “listen” to their instincts? This issue is still debated today.
I think we can logically deduce that at least the larger dinosaurs were not kosher.
So, we know that dinosaurs were on the ark. And we know the ark measurements, and dinosaur measurements. And we know that Genesis 7:2 says “Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female”.
So, if Apatosauruswas kosher we’d have to fit 14 on the ark… and <quick calculations> if that were the case I make them filling up about 1/2 the cubic volume of the ark, give or take…
(Assuming they can’t be fitted together like an Escher print).
Incidentally, browsing for the dimensions of the ark, I’ve discovered that a) only generic “types” of animals were on it, b) the dinosaurs on board were probably juveniles to save on space…although interestingly the Apatosaurus appears to have matured to adult size very quickly… and c) that the Babylonian flood myth details a cube shaped – and thus un-seaworthy boat – showing the “the difference between truth and badly recorded legends”. (creationtips.com) twitch
Just having a Ph.D, even in a hard science degree from a real university, is not proof against being a raving loon and/or idiot. Hell, there are any number of Ph.Ds with crazy ideas. Gish has just worked very, very hard to promote his own brand of craziness, that’s all. He prefers to ignore any evidence that contradicts his beliefs, he misquotes other people…and I do think that his degree should be revoked.
Jack Chick (Chick Comics) relies very, very heavily on Gish and Kent Hovind (Dr. Dino). I’m sure that if he could present other scientists who were sympathetic to his cause, he would. However, he can only really present these two crazies. There’s all kinds of fun stuff on the Hovind page, incidentally. Hovind’s “doctorate” was earned at Bible college, which is only allowed to grant religious degrees. However, he regularly claims that he has a doctorate in education.
How dare they disrespect my theory! My theory is that dinosaurs were psychic and realized humans would build telephone wires. In order to sit on the wires, the dinosaurs morphed into birds.
I do hope he covered how kangaroos and kiwi birds were able to get from Australasia to Mount Sinai and back? Llamas, guinea pigs and suchlike from and back to South America? All without getting drowned, sidetracked or eaten. This ought to be entertaining.
