# Quick question for the relgious! **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 9, 2003, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-for-the-relgious/160125 "2003-03-09T20:11:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sinful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Sinful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinful)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-for-the-relgious/160125/1 "2003-03-09T20:11:39Z")
(Mainly those who follow the bible, dont know enough about the other religions) But do me a favour, and explain dinosaurs. Go on. God created the world in 7 days. Created man on the 6th if I remember rightly. So where did the dinosaurs, and the meteorites that wiped them out come from? (well supposedly wiped them out, we’ll never realllly know). They inhabited the world for millions of years, this is an indisputable fact. So wheres the mention of them? Was this a small oversight on the writers part? Or did God feck up and decide to brush it under the carpet? And since we’re supposed to be made in Gods image. who did make the dinosaurs, since they were around long before mankind as we know now. Answers on a reply below please! (This is not intended to create an argument, I really do want to know how people unquestioningly follow the creationist theory with this big hunk of unexplainedness!) ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-for-the-relgious/160125/2 "2003-03-09T20:17:47Z")
IANA theist, but I believe the concept is: 1. If you take it absolutely literally, you have a problem. And no fact is indisputable. 🙂 2. A day to god isn’t a day to man. What’s a few million years between dieties? 3. Man was not only made after dinosaurs, but after all the other animals, plants, dirt, and stars. The distinction between all this and Man, is that _Man_ was in God’s image, not the rest. 4. And you shouldn’t expect every tiny detail (such as planet-killing meteorites) to make it into the record. How long a book did you _want_? ---
**Author:** ![Sinful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Sinful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinful)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-for-the-relgious/160125/3 "2003-03-09T20:31:12Z")
> [@](#): > > 1. A day to god isn’t a day to man. What’s a few million years between dieties? ok since when? He works on a different working day to us? Does it say this in the bible? ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-for-the-relgious/160125/4 "2003-03-09T20:35:20Z")
No, it says this in the fossil record. 😃 As I inferred in my ‘response 1’; those who choose to take the bible _absolutely_ literally are going to have their own creative answer for your post. I was just relating the explanations I had heard. ---
**Author:** ![MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-for-the-relgious/160125/5 "2003-03-09T20:37:51Z")
The truly diehard young earth creationists think that the 7 days described in the bible are seven 24 hour periods. The less die hard creationists believe that each day could of been a longer period citing a passage from the new testamant which goes something along the lines of “a thousand years is a day to God”. The diehard young earthers believe that the dinosaurs became exinct in the great flood described in the old testamant. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-for-the-relgious/160125/6 "2003-03-09T20:42:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sinful \* > \*\*ok since when? He works on a different working day to us? Does it say this in the bible? \*\* Actually, it does. Do a search on this forum for _creation, creative days, origin of life,_ or anything similar, and you will find enough on this subject to read for several days, creative or not. ---
**Author:** ![Sinful](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Sinful](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sinful)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-for-the-relgious/160125/7 "2003-03-09T20:47:02Z")
Okay, so why is heaven be taken literally either? And id expect something like an extinction level event to be given more priority than some guy walking on water! ---
**Author:** ![DreadCthulhu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DreadCthulhu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreadCthulhu)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-for-the-relgious/160125/8 "2003-03-09T21:37:24Z")
But that guy walking on water saved our souls. The meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs just killed a whole bunch of dumb animals. ---
**Author:** ![Logical\_Phallacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Logical\_Phallacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Logical_Phallacy)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-for-the-relgious/160125/9 "2003-03-09T21:52:22Z")
the bible is practically worthless if taken at face value. there is however infinite wisdom in between the lines. have faith. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-for-the-relgious/160125/10 "2003-03-09T23:00:12Z")
You should probably have addressed your question to Creationists or Biblical literalists, rather that ‘religious people who follow the Bible’, of which group I consider myself a member - assuming that one is allowed to ‘follow the Bible’ without considering it infallible and absolutely literal. I’m quite happy to leave matters such as where the dinosaurs came from (and where they went) in the capable and qualified hands of reputable paleontologists. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-for-the-relgious/160125/11 "2003-03-09T23:34:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sinful \* > > * * * > > ## A day to god isn’t a day to man. What’s a few million years between dieties? > > \*\*ok since when? He works on a different working day to us? Does it say this in the bible? \*\* I do remember a quote from the Bible (might have been the book of Job?) which says: “A day to God is as a thousand years.” ---
**Author:** ![NormanConquest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@NormanConquest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NormanConquest)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-for-the-relgious/160125/12 "2003-03-09T23:45:24Z")
One explanation I’ve heard in Conversations With Creationists (sounds like a talk show…) is that dinosaurs never really existed… God just put the fossils and metorites there for us to have something to ponder, or something. Kind of an “It just is that way” explanation, but it’s mildly entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-for-the-relgious/160125/13 "2003-03-09T23:47:45Z")
It is nonsense to suggest that by merely stretching the timescale from literal days to thousands of years (or longer), the six-day creation account in genesis is rendered reasonable; the events described in Genesis _do not occur in the right sequence_. ---
**Author:** ![FisherQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-for-the-relgious/160125/14 "2003-03-09T23:51:17Z")
Sinful, are you aware that Young Earth Creationists- people who believe that God spoke the world into existance instantly over the course of six solar days, about 10,000 years ago- are actually in the minority of Christians? Me, I was raised as a young earth creationist, but now am taking the point of view that I don’t know nearly enough about science to have an intelligent opinion on the subject yet. I tend to think more about what God is doing now than what he may have done in the distant indefinite past, or what methods he might have used. But if I found out that God was the creative force guiding evolution, my faith would not be in the least bit shaken. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-for-the-relgious/160125/15 "2003-03-09T23:51:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by NormanConquest \* > \*\*One explanation I’ve heard in Conversations With Creationists (sounds like a talk show…) is that dinosaurs never really existed… God just put the fossils and metorites there for us to have something to ponder, or something. Kind of an “It just is that way” explanation, but it’s mildly entertaining. \*\* Likewise the starlight from stars further than ~6000 light years distant (which wouldn’t be here yet if the universe was young. I’m reliably informed that people claiming God created fossils _in situ_ and starlight _in transit_ really exist, but I’ve yet to see it for myself. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2003, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-for-the-relgious/160125/16 "2003-03-09T23:52:12Z")
I’ll have to look for it to get an exact cite, but at one point in the Bible, all the creative days are referred to as one day. Like: “In the day that God created evreything…” or something like that. Seems to me that “day” is more like a figure of speech than meaning a literal 24 hour day. One of our earlier threads had some experts in ancient Hebrew discussing this very thing. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-for-the-relgious/160125/17 "2003-03-10T00:01:46Z")
Don’t think so **NoClueBoy** ; the phrase “And there was evening, and there was morning-the th day” is repeated; I don’t think there’s any way this can be taken to mean “back in the good old days”. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-for-the-relgious/160125/18 "2003-03-10T00:19:01Z")
Genesis 2:4 > [@](#): > > This is the history of the heavens and of the earth when they were created. In the **day** that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens Not day **s** , but day. And this was obviously after listing them as 6 days in Gen ch 1. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-for-the-relgious/160125/19 "2003-03-10T00:21:35Z")
I see, but there’s not a lot of use for one reference that might not mean literal days when there are others that do. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2003, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-for-the-relgious/160125/20 "2003-03-10T00:27:28Z")
**Sinful** wrote: > [@](#): > > Quick question for the relgious! _Sigh_ … Like I always say, there’s no such thing as a “quick question.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quick-question-for-the-relgious/160125.md?page=2)