Religion - how do the religions explain dinosaurs?

Great Debates
1

I have a couple of questions to ask those that have much more religious study and knowledge that I do. This is the first one. I know the following couple of paragraphs greatly simplifies the story, but bear with me for a moment,

The accepted Judeo-Christian religious model basically states that man was made in Gods image (please, if I make a glaring mistake, correct it, I don’t claim to be a religious scholar). I don’t know what Muslims believe (or any other religion for that matter) when it comes to the creation of man. However, from what I understand, no mainstream religion that believes in God believes that evolution took place. God, it seems to be agreed upon, created us and populated the earth with us (as well as all other life forms).

So, given this, how are the hundreds of millions of years of dinosaurs owning the planet explained? This was a very successful life form, which existed in the air, water and on land. Granted, they don’t seem to be an especially intelligent group, but they must have had more brains than we give them credit for. They were amazingly successful. Much more successful from a longevity standpoint than humans, and most other life-forms which have appeared and then disappeared from the earth over the approximately 4.6 billion year life of the earth.

Man and dinosaurs did not cross paths. Dinosaurs lived for an extremely long period of time, and if the scientists are to be believed, a major cataclysm wiped out their existence in a very short period of time. The probable culprit being a large asteroid that slammed into the earth somewhere, possibly near Mexico, causing the sun to be blocked out and killing the plant-life, which led to the death of most animal-life. Certainly animals the size of dinosaurs were doomed if this is what actually happened. But if it didn’t happen, (or something similar) there is no reason to believe that dinosaurs would not continue to be the dominant life force on the planet, even if god DID decide to throw humans into the mix with them at the same time.

So, without getting too deep into the details of why they disappeared (unless you have to), how do the religious explain the existence of dinosaurs at all? Why did god populate the planet with animals that were NOT made in his image (obviously), and permitted them to live and flourish for what seems to be an extraordinarily long period of time? Animals are certainly still here, and I suppose one could make the argument that if man was on earth at the same time as dinosaurs, that he’d figure out a way to use them for his own personal benefit… Although given the size difference, I don’t exactly see how. Unless the carnivores were all driven to extinction and the herbivores domesticated somehow, but since that didn’t happen we don’t have to deal with the issue.

So essentially, if you could think of it in today’s terms, he created a world with every animal we currently have here on the planet with us right now… Except us, of course. Basically a world-sized zoo, with animals living and dying based on their intelligence, aggressiveness, speed, and a bunch of other factors that would kick the process of natural selection and (gasp) evolution into gear.

I don’t recall anything in the bible that addresses this question, but shouldn’t it be asked? After all, God just doesn’t take the time to create a species, let them succeed and flourish, and then wipe them out without a good reason, does He?

I know there isn’t a factual answer to this, but I am very curious as to how its dealt with. Or is it something that is just ignored?

2

Does the Roman Catholic Church count as a mainstream religion? If so, then you are flat our wrong. In fact, most Christian denominations have no problem with evolution. It is only certain Evangelicals and Fundamentalist branches that don’t accept evolution.

3

Simple. Evolution and the existence of God, even the truth of Scripture are perfectly reconcilable. See the Framework theory for details.

4

“God guided evolution”

“Satan put the fossils there to deceive us.”

“God put the fossils there to test our faith.”

“Scientists are lying, dinosaurs never existed.”

“They died in the Flood.”

“Tyrannosaurs were vegetarian in the Garden of Eden, which must have been hard with their teeth.”

“Such thoughts are sinful, you are evil for having them.”

5

But I once read a Jack Chick comic book where one of the discoverers of the remains of Noah’s Ark says, “I found a room big enough for dinosaurs!” I guess they died later.

BTW: I recall a Far Side cartoon: NOAH: “So much for the unicorns! From now on, all carnivores will be confined to ‘C’ deck!” :mad:

6

If God can make a planet that seems to be billions of years old, he can make a few dinosaur skeletons just to mess with us.

7

And the evidence of evolution just to monkey with us.

8

:dubious: Go to your room.

9

Seconded. That’s a behavior you don’t want to ape.

10

Regarding which, see the Omphalos Hypothesis, and Last Thursdayism.

11

:dubious: :mad: Go to your Hell.

12

Its the one down the hall - next to the tree of ---- oh, the flaming sword tree!

13

Your whole OP is based on this erroneous premise, probably deriving from being in the US where some very noisy minority religions have decided to make a big deal of taking an anti-evolutionary stance.

Generally the long lasting religions are flexible and vague enough in their teachings to be able to gradually incorporate compelling new worldviews. In countries where evolution is accepted, that is for the most part what religions in those countries have done.

14

Which God? There’s more than one, you know.

15

And the vast majority of Anglicans/Episcopalians. And large percentages of Lutherans, Methodists, etc. And I think a lot of the creationists are “old earth,” which makes justification easier.

My theory:

[ol]
[li]The Bible doesn’t mention dinosaurs.[/li][li]Postulate: dinosaurs are freaking sweet.[/li][li]If dinosaurs existed alongside humans, then the Bible would want to mention something so cool.[/li][li]Therefore, humans existed after dinosaurs died out.[/li][/ol]

16

They are “noisy” because there’s an awful lot of them.

[QUOTE=Gallup]
Forty-six percent of Americans believe in the creationist view that God created humans in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years. The prevalence of this creationist view of the origin of humans is essentially unchanged from 30 years ago, when Gallup first asked the question. About a third of Americans believe that humans evolved, but with God’s guidance; 15% say humans evolved, but that God had no part in the process.
[/QUOTE]
American is a deeply delusional nation.

17

You are right of course. However, my question really wasn’t about evolution, per se. However, if that thrower you off, take that to part out of it. My point was that I don’t know any religion based on a god (whichever one you choose), people did not evolve from apes, walking fish, or anything else. That’s the scientific view, not the religious view. Can we at least agree on that? Human beings did not evolve from apes, monkeys, or any other animal. But yes, religions have altered their stance on the concept of evolution as the science becomes more overwhelming.

Again, skip evolution. That really wasn’t what I wanted to focus on. I wanted to focus more on the appearance of the dinosaurs, and their domination of life on earth.

Whichever one makes you happy… Pick the god that doesn’t believe in the second amendment. :p. (Seriously that was a joke)

18

I should have known that this would not be taken seriously, but it was meant to be serious.

I have no idea, for example, what Muslims believe on the origins of man on Earth. do they believe in a story similar to Adam and Eve? I honestly don’t know. But they believe in one god, correct?

19

Leviathan was a plesiosaur, behemoth was a sauropod, and Ziz was a pterosaur. Obviously!

20

To Young Earth Creationists, dinosaurs are covered under the terms “Leviathan” and “Behemoth.”