Dinosaur Files

Dinosaurs in the bible?

I'm very confused about Christianity.... And for some reason, my pastor brother can't give me an answer to my many questions. They're just questions, I'm not being a smart@$$. So we have dinosaurs in museums. I learned about lots of them way back when, and I also remember Pangea (you know, when Earth only had basically one big chunk of land and then a meteor hit it and it broke into the continents we have today). So um.... when did this all happen? Is there any mention of it in the Bible? This is why I'm so confused. I was raised in a church but always had questions and everyone always just told me "Just believe, that's all you can do". Well too bad so sad. I am only looking for honest answers. Not trying to get an argument started. Hmm... still confusing because it says "In the beginning". I take that as meaning literally in the beginning. Who's God's parents? Ergh... I get too frustrated too quick.

Public Comments

1. There are no dinosaurs in the Bible. The reason is that the Bible is a book of faith; about God's relationship with humanity. It is not a science text book. The Bible is God's Word for humans; the Word of hope and salvation. You read the Bible to learn about God and what God wishes for us, not scientific facts. For this reason, science and religion, do not contradict each other.
2. The Bible is mythology. At best, it might contain a little accurate history, but that's about all it's worth. For anything scientific you need real science.
3. Dinosaurs aren't mentioned in the Bible because they were long dead and buried before the Bible was ever written.
4. You might be interested in reading <The Language of God> by Frances Collins. It addresses the relationship of religion and science. Like Collins, I don't see that religion needs to answer scientific questions. Religions that state that you must find scientific answers in a book designed for your spirit are misguided and insecure.
5. Because the bible is not the word of god. It was written by men that had no idea that things like dinosaurs existed.
6. Keep asking questions and find a new Church or new belief. That's my advice.
7. in the beginning....and don't be confuse...a lot of people will tell you that the earth is only 7thousand years old ...the earth is million of years old always remember that there are 3 earth ages. we are in the second the first has past and the third is yet to come
8. In the book of Job, can’t recall the chapter or verse, you’ll find the “Behemoth”, which is a dinosaur from the first earth age.. Edit: Here it is, Job 40:15-24 15 ¶ Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox. 16 Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly. 17 He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together. 18 His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron. 19 He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him. 20 Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play. 21 He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens. 22 The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about. 23 Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth. 24 He taketh it with his eyes: his nose pierceth through snares.
9. No, they're arent but creationists seem to think there was because they're a big problem. Kids love dinosaurs and can instantly recognize them that's why creationists needs to explain their existence in the Bible in order to brainwash them into believing creationism. There were millions of species that existed before and after the dinosaurs but creationists just completely ignore them because they know kids don't care about them except the occasional wooly mammoth and sabertooth tiger. So putting dinosaurs in creation is just another tool they use to brainwash the new generations. An asteroid didn't split up Pangea they split up very slowly due to continental drift. Continental drift is still happening now and the asteorid that killed off most of the dinosaurs happened 65 million years ago.
10. The men who wrote the Bible didn't have knowledge of dinosaurs and other facts of science.
11. Actually, a meteor didn't break up Pangaea. It was plate tectonics that did that. The earths crust is made up of "plates" that basically float on the molten rock below. They often bump into one another, rub up against one another, or one will submerge into another. This is why we have mountains and earthquakes. It is theorized that a meteor killed off the dinosaurs. I can't give you the dates for the break up of Pangaea, or for the mass extinction that took the dinosaurs, but I can tell you that the time periods are much larger than the Bible's. It sounds like mere belief isn't going to sustain you. Try looking to science for explanations for the physical world. If your faith is still important to you, you can look to that for spiritual reasoning.
12. There is no literal beginning of God, for He is not finite as we perceive things to be in this age. The history of mortal man and his seeming material history, including dinosaurs, is really of little or no importance in ones Godward path, but to discern things spiritually is the work of a lifetime. Science explains evolution and all seems to be in "perfect" order, until the war between the spirit and the flesh take the stage in this seeming "life" we use. One must realize that the Bible has many reversals of spiritual truth, and this is used to stir thought and lead it away from confusion into understanding. The literal readers will be missing much in this age, and will never feel the depths of peace, even in the midst of seeming darkness and chaos.
13. two words: evolution & science
14. There is the mention of Behemoth and Levithan in the book of Job, but the original Hebrew seems to translate that those references are speaking of Hippos and snakes. I believe Dinosaurs were extinct millions of years before the Bible was written, so it makes no mention of them. I tend to be more of the opinion that the universe is some 14 billion years old, the earth 4.5 billion years old, yet also believe in Creation. The Bible says God created all things in 6 days, but this was using the Hebrew word Yom, which could be interpreted as a day, an age, or indefinate space of time. The Bible also teaches that God is timeless, so a blink of an eye to God could be billions of years. In some ways the Genesis account matches what people believe to be in agreement with Evolution. The Bible does not say HOW God created all things. There are some things about Evolution that are correct, other things totally speculation. Perhaps God used some Evolutionary means to create. Still I do not believe we evolved from monkeys, I have a real hard time with that one. We were created in God's image from the dust.
15. Dinosaurs - scientific theory claims that dinosaurs pre-date man. There is nothing in this contrary to the bible, *unless* you assume that the days of creation mentioned in Gen chapter 1 are literal, 24-hour days, based on the rotation of the earth with respect to the sun. Considering that the sun was not created until the 4th "day", this is an invalid assumption to make. That being said, there is no reason why scientific theory, in this particular instance, should be considered to contradict the bible. The account in Genesis claims that land animals were created on the 6th "day" - following the creation of plants, water animals, and flying animals (insects?). Since the bible clearly claims that man was not created until after land animals (including dinosaurs), and since scientists are in agreement with this, all we can say for certain is that it occurred in prehistory. As an aside, the theory that a meteor separated land into separate continents is just that - a theory - and also does not seem relevant to the discussion at hand. Interestingly, the bible does not record every major catastrophic event that has ever occurred on the earth - nor does it claim to do so. "Hmm... still confusing because it says "In the beginning". I take that as meaning literally in the beginning." So do I. "Who's God's parents?" He has none. According to scripture, God "is from everlasting to everlasting". In other words, he has always existed and will always exist. Some interpret this to mean that God existed before the creation of the dimension of time. Since God is not a physical object, time (the 4th dimension) may not be necessary to his existence as it is to mass and energy in our universe. Jim, http://www.jimpettis.com/wheel/