With a good bullshit story and gullible people anything is possible.
(Please accept my apology if you were being facetious)
Thanks I had forgotten to check Jack for new Holloween comics. Off to read “Stinky” this years addition.http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/1065/1065_01.asp
I’m as fervently atheist as a person can possibly be, so yes, I was being facetious. So my thoughts exactly.
Not at all. It’s the only item on the list that there’s any evidence for at all.
There are newspaper reports from throughout the 19th century of people sighting – and in some cases shooting – creatures that to some extent fit the description of pterodactyls, and which are sometimes even called pterodactyls in the report.
How much credence you put in the stories is another matter, of course, but at least they actually exist.
Oh dear. I experience almost physical pain.
Although, to be fair to the man, although most of those are tragically more unsuportable than a standard biblical ltieralist account, I don’t think they ALL are. I don’t know if most people who believe in a literal garden of Eden imagine there are dinosaurs. But if there were, presumably they (and other carnivores) WOULD have been herbivorous, and then changed their teeth later, or had sharp teeth all along because God planned it that way. After all, if you believe a literal account, presumably any fossils come from AFTER the expulsion from the garden.
And – I suppose – there would be dinosaurs on the ark, if you count crocodiles and maybe birds.
Of course, that doesn’t excuse treating a religious tradition as scientific fact (although I certainly know intelligent and good people who disagree).
Hmmm, what if there really were dinosaurs on the Ark? Artist’s rendering. 
More like birds and maybe crocodiles… if you go down the phylogenetic tree trying to get to dinosaurs, once you’re into the vertebrates you branch away from fish, then mammals and amphibians, then reptiles, then large birds. Dinosaurs are most closely related to songbirds.
I was very happy the day I found that out.
Dinosaurs are no more closely related to songbirds than they are to large birds such as ostriches (although ostriches are among the first branches from the rest of the avian tree among living birds). All living birds are equally related to dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are more closely related to birds than they are to crocodiles, although crocodiles are the closest living relatives to birds (and crocs are more closely related to birds than they are to lizards, snakes, or turtles).
“Valley of Gwangi” was actually a documentary.
I know triceratops aren’t kosher. Once upon a time, a stegosaurus happened upon a triceratops drinking from a small pond. The stegosaurus, being very thirsty, asked if he could also drink from the pond.
“No!”, cried the triceratops, “This pond is mine. You can’t have any!”
The next day, the stegosaurus again happened across the triceratops, this time eating ju ju berries. The stegosaurus politely asked if the triceratops would share the ju ju berries.
“No!”, cried the triceratops, “This ju ju berry bush is mine. You can’t have any!”
The moral of this tale: Triceratops are shellfish.
I’m glad we got the whole “feces” thing cleared up. That part always did bother me.
So, we’re saying Mel Brooks had it all wrong in History of the World, Part 1?
Damn.
Berry Shellfish.
I suppose the only thing sadder than adults believing this kind of nonsense is when they teach their children that such nonsense is not only true, but that science is inherently flawed because it is not supported by biblical insights.
I had so hoped when I was younger that such atavisms would gradually disappear as I grew older, but here we are in the 21st century and such nonsense is only getter better press.
<sigh>
Related, I promise.
A few months ago, I had a bunch of girlfriends over for dinner and we were all chatting it up about this, that, and the other. Somehow the topic turned to politics and somebody made a joke about Jesus Horses. Of the four of us, there was one Catholic (who doesn’t believe in Jesus Horses, per her religious doctrine), one atheist, one agnostic, and one who goes to church but is a scientist per her occupation. Scientist- who has a stellar educational background- is a hippy dippy type, very much liberal in her social and economic politics, despite a light interest in the church.
So, color me surprised when she blurts out, “But it’s true, dinosaurs were around back then.” We all laughed, thinking she was joking. One person said, “Oh yeah, and there were dinosaurs on the Ark, too!” which caused us all to break out into giggles, thinking we were all in agreement with the ridiculousness of it all. Except Scientist, who got deadly serious and said, “No, it’s true. There were dinosaurs on the Ark, but just not how you and I would think of dinosaurs.” We all got quiet. Things got awkward real fast. We changed the topic.
Aye aye aye.
[quote=“statsman1982, post:1, topic:556705”]
[li]After the fall, dinosaurs started eating each other, and God gave some of them natural armor to protect themselves[/li][/QUOTE]
Based on what? How much God liked them?
*"Ankylosaur? You rock! Have an armored back, spiked sides and giant mace tail!
Go to hell, Iguanodon!"*
And then the ark started moving, it drifted with the tide
The dinosaurs looked up from the rocks and they cried
And the waters came down and started floating them away
That’s why you’ve never seen a dinosaur to this very day.
Oh, you’ll see green alligators and long-necked geese
Some humpty backed camels and some chimpanzees
Some cats and rats and elephants, but sure as you’re born
You’re never gonna see no dinosaurs.
So, I guess the thing to do, once I get my time machine working, is find a copy of his dissertation, zip back to 1943, have it published under someone else’s name, then zoom up to, say 1958, and go to Berkeley and blow the whistle on him…
Wish Bill Watterson was still doing his strip. Would love to see his rendering of dinosaurs on the Ark–“Cool !”, in Calvin’s mind.
If they took Gish’s PhD away it would just add to the evidence that his valuable ideas are being suppressed by a scientific establishment. Besides, is he so much worse (or more dangerous) that vice-presidential candidates who talk about “death panels”?
Funny about are dinos kosher. They are not mammals or seafood, so neither the cloven hoofs and cud-chewing nor fins and scales apply to them. I don’t know precisely what makes chickens, ducks, geese, and (for most Jews) turkeys kosher while song-birds (as far as I know), raptors, and ostriches aren’t.