Such an Important Issue?
Take yourself a tour around, Christians today are focusing
on dinosaur as if they were of some mighty beasts and has many queries about
their existence. However, there were many other amazing prehistoric animals
which aren’t the focal point till today! Woolly Mammoth, Dodo,
Sabre-toothed cat, etc. Why aren’t they focused as much as dinosaurs have been?
Why aren’t questions such as what Bible says about kangaroo or other amazing
animals raised?
Whenever the question about dinosaurs is addressed, one of
the most obvious answer will be two terrifically described beasts in Job 40
and 41 namely Behemoth and Leviathan along with dragons since the very term
‘dinosaur’ was coined recently.[i] Other possible answer will
be dinosaurs were created somewhere around the 5th[ii] or 6th day[iii] of creation week.[iv] A Jewish physician Dr.
Gerald Schroeder[v],
in his book Science of God, said they were mentioned indirectly in Gen. 1:21 on
5th day since they weren’t concern of the chapter nor the then
requirement of audience.[vi]
Children in Sunday schools are also taught dinosaurs joined
the ark during the global catastrophic flood. Whatsoever the case is, answer
to the quest of finding dinosaurs in the scripture has been a debatable,
dubious, and ambiguous subject. As a traditional view of a younger
creation, many prefer to accept their existence alongside with humanity. Dan
Kimball, in his book ‘How (not) to read the Bible’ also brings an interesting
subject of Jesus riding dinosaur issue!
Literally and sincerely, I didn’t want to write on this
topic which has nothing to do with Christian living. However, many debates,
concerns over this topic gave me tonic attack. Dinosaurs were one of my
interesting topics when I was in my school days. I used to read their books. I
almost knew many names and could recognize even by figures! Once I also had
the same thirst to know where are these amazing giants in the Bible since we
all are taught: “The Bible is Inspired Word of God and is True!”.
There is one form of dogmatic position known as Biblicism.
They insist that we just need to believe in the Bible only as if the Bible is a
book intended to provide overall knowledge of this universe. Is it true? I
would say it is rather not. Why? Am I against the Bible? They say yes you are!
Here the reason is at the peak: There has been great misunderstanding in
knowing the purpose of the Bible.
Answers in Genesis mentions:
Dinosaurs were created by God on day six of creation,
approximately 6,000 years ago. Dinosaurs were originally vegetarian. During the
global flood, many were buried and fossilized, but two of each kind survived on
Noah’s ark. Dinosaurs eventually died out due to human activity, climate
changes, or other factors.[vii]
This is a typical belief about dinosaur that is taught even
today. The reputed websites of Recent Creationism propagate scientific
evidences on behalf of their co-existence along with humanity. The Creation
Museum has even made a provision for dinosaur exhibition with real fossils,
skeletons of dinosaurs, life size sculptures and their eggs.[viii]
Some straightforward responses are based on the origin and
usage of the word itself.
https://www.gotquestions.org/dinosaurs-Bible.html
notes ‘the Bible does mention dinosaurs, though it never actually uses the
word “dinosaur.” Instead, it uses the Hebrew word tanniyn, which is translated
a few different ways in our English Bibles. Sometimes it’s “sea monster,” and
sometimes it’s “serpent.” It is most commonly translated “dragon.” The tanniyn
appear to have been some sort of giant reptile. These creatures are mentioned
nearly thirty times in the Old Testament and were found both on land and in the
water.
In addition to mentioning these giant reptiles, the Bible
describes a couple of creatures in such a way that some scholars believe the
writers may have been describing dinosaurs. The behemoth is said to be the
mightiest of all God’s creatures, a giant whose tail is likened to a cedar tree
(Job 40:15). Some scholars have tried to identify the behemoth as either an
elephant or a hippopotamus. Others point out that elephants and hippopotamuses
have very thin tails, nothing comparable to a cedar tree. Dinosaurs like the
brachiosaurus and the diplodocus, on the other hand, had huge tails which could
easily be compared to a cedar tree.’
Learning that these were prehistoric beasts which got
extinct in academics while children are learning their co-existence with humanity
itself creates a great gulf of confusion. The Bible teachers or even
preachers usually are found saying Job 40 and 41 are enough for us to know
about dinosaurs.[ix] So,
what are we to do with it?
Regarding the evidence, both the Progressive/Old as well as
Recent/Young creationist have made efforts to push the case on their position.
One has to spend a lot of time to go through all their arguments and
counter-arguments that maybe not less than time needed to calculate number of
cells in your body! The conclusion might be an asymptote indeed! So, I
will leave this task to the readers itself. Navigate both creationism positions
because a typical Christians rarely prefer theistic evolution and grab your
position.
[i] https://youtu.be/USSk2X_2NDQ,
7/19/2021, 7:12 pm
[ii]
Dr. Hugh Ross. Hidden Treasures in the book of Job.
[iii] https://www.answers.org/newlook/nlchptr6.html,
7/19/2021, 7:38 pm
[v]
For his view of Genesis 1, refer: https://apologeticsimpact.blogspot.com/search/label/Creation%20Controversy
and http://geraldschroeder.com/wordpress/?page_id=53
[vi]
Dr. Gerald Schroder. Science of God. Free Press, 1997. Epilogue section.
Available at: http://library.lol/main/B05680EFB945FF5B99744AC899177C69
[vii] https://answersingenesis.org/dinosaurs/,
7/17/2021, 2:31 pm
[viii]
https://creationmuseum.org/dinosaurs-dragons/dino-den/,
7/19/2021, 8.04 pm
[ix] https://youtu.be/Uw_ovUEfgtM,
7/17/2021, 2:45 pm
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