DINOSAURS!
Everyone loves dinosaurs! Millions
and millions of dollars are spent on dinosaur movies, toys, T-shirts,
and in fact, anything about dinosaurs. But let's take a closer look at
"dinosaurs" as we know them today. Sure, the fossil bones are real, but
the true facts about them have been buried- replaced by theories which
are positively stated as "fact" but that are really just that -
theories.
The sad truth is that the study of
these giant fossil bones has, from the beginning, been based on the
conjectures of men who have completely discarded any belief in the
Biblical record. In fact, these wild theories are today taught as actual
reality in our schools and universities- a strategy designed by Satan,
himself, to discredit the Bible.
In Genesis, when God created the
animals, He called them, as well as His entire creation "very good",
which indicates His complete satisfaction with them. (Gen. 1:20-31.) We
are also told that He created all animals to be herbivores, or plant
eaters. (v.30). But in time, something happened to His perfect creation
for soon we are told that He "repented" of ever creating both man and
animal:
And finally, we are told that
He did just that: He destroyed "all flesh, wherein is the breath of
life", except those people and animals in the ark. And those animals in
the ark consisted of 2 unclean and 7 clean of every kind of "fowl",
"beast" and "creeping thing" that He had created:
GEN 7:14 "They, and every 'beast'
[living thing] after his kind, and all the 'cattle' [beast] after their
kind, and every 'creeping thing' that creepeth upon the earth after his
kind, and every 'fowl' after his kind, every 'bird" of every sort.'
Were Dinosaurs on the Ark?
The key word in the above verse is
"kind"; the Bible says that God preserved at least two of every "kind"
of animal that He had created. Many people equate this word "kind" with
"species", but we believe it should instead be equated with the word
"genus".
To understand these
classifications, we will present one simple example. "Feline" is a
"genus" classification. The "Feline genus" contains many, many
"species", such as lions, panthers, tigers, leopards, the common cat,
etc. For a moment, let's assume there were just two members of the
"feline genus" on the ark. After the flood, these two cats and their
offspring eventually produced every various species of cat we presently
have on the earth today. And there could have been other species of
felines on the earth before the flood who were not represented in the
gene pool of the two cat members on the ark.
If this were the case, it would be
very likely that fossils of the "feline genus" could exist which are
today unknown, or "extinct". And sure enough, that's exactly the case.
Bones have been found of animals identical to those we have today, but
some have been found of species which do not exist today. Take the
classic case that Darwin quotes- the pigeon. He found that if the almost
endless varieties of pigeons were allowed to breed together, they went
back to the rock pigeon; therefore if there were seven rock pigeons in
the ark, there were thousands of varieties potentially preserved. The
same may be said about others, e.g., the dog.
After all, we don't have
saber-toothed tigers today, do we? They are an extinct "species", but
they are of the "feline genus", which does exist today. The bottom line
is simply this- no one knows for sure exactly which species were
originally created by God, and which ones are the result of
cross-breeding. Scientists may claim that they know, but there is
evidence that man prior to the flood had a great knowledge of genetics
and were perhaps able to cross-breed and produce animals that would not
normally be able to interbreed. It's quite possible that there were not
nearly as many animals on the ark as most people think.
So, What is a "Dinosaur"?
Today everyone is quite familiar
with the common concept of these incredible creatures; but the facts are
not what people would have you believe. While these giant bones had been
known for a long time, it wasn't until the last few hundred years that
men began to "theorize" about them. Before that,
"The general opinion was that the
queer things probably were the bones of animals drowned in the Great
Flood - Noah's Flood."
But there have always been those
who refused to accept God's truth. These men attempted to find
explanations for the things around them- explanations that their feeble
minds could comprehend. They rejected the idea of the Creator. In 1869,
Huxley coined a name for this type of thinking-- he called it
"agnosticism", the doctrine that there is no certain knowledge as to the
existence of God, a future life or the essential nature of things. And
who were the major adherents of this "new religion"?
"...Charles Darwin, Herbert
Spencer, Thomas Huxley, and other prominent scientists and men of
letters in England and America..."
As we are all aware that it was
Darwin who did the most to promote the idea of evolution, we see that
the world today has been essentially "taught" by men who did not and do
not believe in God. They believe, in a nutshell, that the earth sprang
up from chaos, that this matter evolved into lower life-forms, and over
millions of years there were dinosaurs and prehistoric men, and finally,
here we are. Evolution became the vogue ideology of the "learned" men.
And one of their great evidences for this theory is the dinosaur, whom
we are today taught lived millions of years ago. So what are the real
facts?
The huge fossil bones said to
belong to the Dinosauria are truly the largest bones ever found. Most
are reptilian and lizard-like "species" that are not found today. But,
they belong to "genuses" that do exist today. In fact, most of these
bones are almost identical to animals which live today, with the
exception of their size. But, this is a fact that you don't hear. Simply
put, the dinosaurs were gigantic reptiles and mammals for the most part.
But if that's the case, why don't we have them today? Why were they so
large back then?
Reptiles Grow in Size as Long as
they Live
The Bible says that before the
flood, men lived as long as 900 years and then some. If men lived that
long, why wouldn't the animals? And if they did live that long, note
this next fact:
"...a reptile has the potential of
growing throughout its life..."
Unlike other animals, the reptile
has no "cutoff" mechanism whereby it stops growing in size. So, even if
reptiles lived only half as long as pre-flood men, we would have to
expect gigantic reptiles before the flood. John MacKay once told me that
crocodiles (or was it alligators?) grew at the rate of 20 or so feet per
100 years. If that's the case, there should be giant alligators fossils,
right?
In 1991, alligator bones were
found on the banks of the Amazon River- the skull was almost 5 feet
long. Based on this, scientists estimated its height to have been 8 feet
and its length 40 feet.
"Professor Carl Frailey, from
Overland Park, Kansas, said the creature probably weighed around 12
tonnes. `This would make it about a tonne heavier than Tyrannosaurus
Rex... the mightiest of dinosaur predators', he said."
In short, if reptiles today lived
longer, they would be "dinosaurs" in a few hundred years.
Other Giant Fossils
What we don't hear about are all
the other giant fossils that have been found. "Giant animal fossils of
many different kinds have been found all over the world. A book called
Giants From the Past, published by the National Geographic Society,
shows many of these huge creatures of the past no longer exist today.
Fossil remains of the hornless
rhinoceros indicate it was over 17 feet tall. Pigs grew to be the size
of cattle; camels were over 12 feet tall; huge birds towered to a height
of over 11 feet; giant beavers grew to be the size of a pig; deer
antlers measured over 12 feet in width. Ground sloths which grow to the
size of an average monkey today, have been found in the fossil record
over 18 feet in length." Isn't it strange how no one feels compelled to
explain where these giants fall in the "geologic time frame"? And not
only the animals, but plant life was much bigger, as well as man.
"Dinosaur" Bones Much Thicker than
Today's Animals
Galileo, in the 17th century,
first pointed out the principle of the "scale effect"- a lengthy
subject, but one we'll touch on briefly. The "scale effect" concerns
simple relationships of length to surface to volume and weight. His
diagram here shows that an the bones of an animal 3 times the length of
a present-day animal would have to increase in density far more than 3
times in order to support the bulk of the animal due to the
gravitational force. He wrote:
"...it would be impossible to
fashion skeletons for men, horses or other animals which could exist or
carry out their functions proportionately when such animals were
increased to immense height- unless the bones were made of much harder
and more resistant material than the usual, or were deformed by
disproportionate thickening, so that the shape and appearance of the
animal would become monstrously gross."
The giant bones of the
antediluvians, both men and animals, fulfill Galileo's observations.
Scientists don't recognize these massive bones as the same "kinds" of
animals we have today because their bones are extremely massive.
Why was Everything so much Bigger?
If we go back to the Biblical
account, there is some information that is critical to a proper
understanding.
GEN 2:5 ...for the LORD God had
not caused it to rain upon the earth,...6 But there went up a mist from
the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. There was no rain
before the flood; a mist watered the earth.
What this indicates is that the
temperature never fluctuated more than 10 or so degrees; if it did, the
water would condense into rain. But not only was the temperature
moderate and constant, the Bible gives another interesting fact:
GEN 1:6 And God said, Let there be
a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters
from the waters. 7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters
which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the
firmament: and it was so.
What does all this mean? The
answer is in the next verse: GEN 1:8 And God called the firmament
Heaven. This "firmament" is here called "heaven"- does this mean the
"Heaven" that contains God's throne? No. That "Heaven" was already God's
habitation and in existence when He created the earth. This "firmament"
was the atmosphere around the earth. See Psalms 78:26, 104:12, 147:8
where the same Hebrew word for "heaven" is used.
What Genesis 1:6-8 tells us is
that God divided the earth's water - some of it was on the earth, while
some was set above the atmosphere. And while we don't really know how
this entire scenario worked, we do have some basic idea. A water canopy
surrounding the earth would result in what is known as a "greenhouse
effect". The entire earth would be of the same, constant temperature.
Harmful radiation would be filtered out by this canopy. The sun's warmth
would be diffused equally over the earth's surface. In other words, the
climate would be perfect; growing conditions would be perfect. Lifespans
of all living things would be drastically increased due to the filtering
out of the harmful radiation. This gives a better understanding of this
verse:
PSA 67:6 Then shall the earth
yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us.
When the earth is restored to its
Edenic state, then will the nutrition again be perfect, complete with
the tree of life. And once again, man will grow to the stature God
intended him to be:
MAL 4:2 But unto you that fear my
name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and
ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall
What does the fossil record show?
Animals and plants of tremendous size, as well as sub-tropical
vegetation all over the world, including Alaska and Siberia. And then we
have the dinosaur bones. What effect would this sort of environment have
on reptiles?
"The ultimate proof that reptilian
growth usually works far below maximum capacity comes from what happens
when reptiles are kept in cages warmed to their favorite temperature and
are continuously provided with food. This turns out to be the only way
to accelerate an alligator's rate of growth to the maximum: Keep it
warmed all day long, seven days a week, and keep forcing protein rich
food into it. Most research scientists couldn't afford to perform such
an experiment, but the private sector has come to the rescue. Alligator
and crocodile skins sell to a lucrative market for shoes and handbags,
and since conservationist measures restricted hunting of wild specimens,
enterprising businessmen started to farm them."
Funny isn't it; the
"enterprising" alligator farmers unwittingly helped prove the effect of
the pre-flood environment on reptiles, accelerated growth.
The Geologic Column
But another theory of our "learned
men" has also created confusion- the theory of the geologic column. This
"column" is a diagram of the various strata of the earth, assigning ages
to the times when the various strata were supposedly deposited. I just
love this theory, which of course is not considered a "theory" but
actual fact. Why do I love it? Because it proves how gullible man really
is. Let me explain- geologists are taught that the age of a strata is
determined by the fossils found in it. OK, so how do you know the age of
the fossils? The answer is "by the strata they are found in!" It's all
just theory- "circular reasoning", based on the belief in evolution. And
its a theory completely riddled with holes.
The real facts of the matter are
that the theory of evolution demands evidence of fossils of transitional
specimens; "missing links", so to speak. Yet, there are absolutely no
transitional specimens to be found anywhere. Most amazing is the fact
that Darwin, himself, wrote about this "fly in the ointment": "Long
before the reader has arrived at this part of my work, a crowd of
difficulties will have occurred to him. Some of them are so serious that
to this day I can hardly reflect on them without being in some degree
staggered.... Why if species have descended from other species by fine
gradations do we not see everywhere innumerable transitional forms?...
Why then is not every geological formation and every stratum full of
such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does not reveal any such
finely-graduated organic chain and this perhaps, is the most obvious and
serious objection which can be urged against the theory...." Also to be
noted is the fact that nowhere does the actual strata of the earth match
the "geologic column". And the reason is simple, the theory is totally
invalid. The only explanation for the various strata and fossils found
in them is the explanation given in the Bible - the flood.
The Flood
The description of the flood in
Genesis is incredibly short, but it says enough to let us know what a
tremendous catastrophe occurred:
GEN 7:11 ...the same day were all
the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven
were opened.
All the water contained in the
earth was "broken up"- and the waters above the atmosphere came hurtling
down to the earth. Now, if all this doesn't sound particularly violent
to you, think again. Before the flood, a tremendous amount of water was
suspended above the atmosphere in the "canopy" and also great quantities
were in aquifers in the earth. All of this water, most of which is now
contained in the oceans, came exploding out and down at the same time,
as we read in Gen. 7:11. The force of this cataclysm had to be far
greater than any nuclear explosion man could dream of. Then, when it was
over with, the entire planet was completely covered in water. All life
was extinguished except for those on the ark.
The tremendous currents and tidal
waves would have had such force that the face of the planet was marred
and scarred beyond description. All matter except the bedrock had to
have been engulfed in the turmoil. To better understand, if you take a
bottle of water, place soil, pebbles, grass, leaves, etc., in it and
then shake it up, you can see on a tiny scale what had to have occurred.
But, during the flood, it was more than soil, pebbles and grass- it was
everything, including animals, men, women and children, homes,-
everything on the face of the planet. Nothing would be the same after it
was all over.
The Earth During the Flood
Everything on the earth's surface
was in liquid suspension, the only thing remaining stable being the
bedrock. And in this "earth soup" were the bodies of thousands, perhaps
even millions, of "dinosaurs"- some gigantic and some as small as our
lizards today. As the turmoil lessened, the debris in the water began to
settle. The heaviest and densest materials naturally settled to the
bottom first. But, the turmoil was not consistent over the entire
planet, so some areas experienced some settling before others did.
Also, as the waves and currents
travelled continually over the face of the earth, new debris would be
washed into some areas after initial settling had begun, producing
multiple settlement, or "strata".
The heaviest matter would have
included uranium, the heaviest element. As this was deposited at the
greatest depth, and more earth and matter settled upon it with great
force, the radioactive decay of the uranium, radium and etc., caused
tremendous heat at the bottom of the sediments. The rocks were melted at
these sites. The water coming in contact with this tremendous heat
produced incredible amounts of steam. This volcanic activity caused
upheaval of the earth- great mountain chains were thrusted up. Volcanoes
spouted lava in great quantities. One effect of this upheaval was that
the entire equilibrium of the earth was disturbed. The delicate balance
which kept the earth rotating on its axis was interrupted numerous times
and the planet shifted its entire bulk, which further thrusted and tore
the surface. Evidence that the earth shifted on its axis numerous times
in a very short time period is proven by rocks such as magnetite. During
their formation, these rocks developed lines within them which aligned
with magnetic north. Magnetite specimens have been found which display
as many as 10 or more different alignments, proving that during the time
that the rock was cooling, the earth changed its magnetic poles at least
10 times.
And during this tremendous
cataclysm, some of the huge bodies of the gigantic "dinosaurs" were
buried deep in the earth, along with everything else. Due to their
density, many were buried in a deeper layer than the lighter animals,
but not always. As the currents and waves continued, more debris was
deposited, again settling out according to its weight and density. This
resulted in a "layering" effect, or strata. Finally, we read that the
rain stopped.
GEN 8:1 ...and God made a wind to
pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged;...3 And the waters
returned from off the earth continually:...
As we mentioned, the story of the
flood is extremely short, considering the events which occurred. And
therefore, we must know that every word in the account is important. The
fact that a "wind" is mentioned as passing over the earth to help dry
the waters indicates that this was no little wind. In order for this
wind to have any effect on the incredible amount of water on the face of
the earth, it would have had to have been greater than any hurricane or
tornado we can imagine. It must have been of absolutely incredible
force, actually forceful enough to move masses of earth. And as this
earth was moved around, some water was able to return back into the
earth, and some was evaporated, but the majority of water remained in
the incredibly deep chasms that now contain the oceans.
And as the water receded into the
earth, the fossilization of the animals buried deep in the earth began.
How the Dinosaur Bones Became Fossilized
Have you ever wondered why we
don't find plants and dead animals in the process of petrifying today?
If, like the evolutionists want us to believe, all the fossils are from
thousands and millions of years ago, why don't we see things being
fossilized today? Think about this because it's very important.
If what scientists tell us is
true- that all the fossils in the earth's layers are from various
geologic times, why aren't things being fossilized today? The answer is
simple. In order for living things to become petrified, certain
circumstances must exist.
1. The object must be buried
rapidly in order to prevent deterioration through decay and rot. Today,
if an animal dies in the forest or jungle, it soon decays away if it
isn't first eaten by other animals. It can't possibly petrify unless it
is preserved.
2. There must be continual water
flow over and around the buried object. Petrification is the replacement
of each molecule of the animal bone (for example) by mineral matter- as
the water flows over the object, it washes away a molecule. Immediately
a tiny mineral molecule plugs the hole left by the washed-away molecule.
In this manner, even the cellular structure is sometimes perfectly
preserved.
The massive amount of fossils in
the earth today could only have been preserved by an incredible amount
of water flow over an incredible amount of rapidly-buried plants and
animals. Ask any paleontologist to find you bones being petrified today;
it just isn't happening. Oh, there may be one or two recent examples,
but I guarantee they are as rare as hen's teeth.
Forgeries, Lies and Fantasy
The whole idea of evolution is
based on the supposition that there is no God. You read Darwin's own
observation about the total absence of transitional forms. Our problem
is that we no longer choose to think for ourselves. We have gotten lazy;
we sit back and let the "scientist and learned men" tell us what to
believe. The "learned men" who believe that life evolved from chaos and
evolved over millions of years say that the similarities in different
kinds of animals are the result of their evolving from a common
ancestor, when in fact these very similarities are staggering proof of a
common Creator.
I felt literally sick the last
time we went to the Smithsonian dinosaur display as I overheard parents
telling their children how many millions of years ago each dinosaur
lived. And then I got angry as I realized what was happening; those
precious children were being taught that the Bible was a lie. That
realization hit me like a ton of bricks in my face. I never felt so
helpless as I did that day. How can we expect people to have faith in
our precious Jesus if they cannot believe the Word of God?
How Much do the Scientists Really Know?
Have you ever heard of the
"Piltdown Man"? Back in 1912, two men announced that they had found the
so-called missing link between ape and man. Their evidence was a few
pieces from a skull, a piece of a jaw, some teeth and a few other
fragments.
It wasn't until 1953 that the
whole affair was exposed for the elaborate hoax it really was. The
fragments turned out to be parts of a human brain case, a piece of the
mandible of some sort of ape, fragments of hippopotamus, deer and beaver
teeth, and other fragments of elephant, mastodon and rhinoceros. It's a
long story, but its now common knowledge and well documented that it was
a hoax.
And it may seem harmless to you
now that its been exposed. But, did you know that over 500 people
obtained their PhD by writing their thesis on "the Piltdown Man"? I dare
say, no one took back those PhDs after it was exposed, and those people
taught hundreds of thousands of people.
Then there's the dinosaur
evidence. I'll bet most of you think that entire skeletons have been
found of all the dinosaurs- after all, that's what you see in the
museums and in the science books. But that's not exactly the case: "Many
dinosaurs are so poorly known, they have been identified by only a few
shed teeth, a tradition fraught with scientific problems. From just a
few pointy teeth Troodon formosus...was one of the first dinosaurs
named, more than a century ago....But for a century not much more of
Troodon than its teeth were known.
You would be very surprised and
probably shocked if you knew just how little evidence some of these
dinosaurs are based on. You can gain a little insight into some of the
problems by reading about the early dinosaur hunters. Two of the most
prominent of these were Cope and Marsh who searched for the giant
fossils in the 1800's. As two of the original "founding fathers" of this
new science, they were vicious competitors. They found and named no
telling how many new species of dinosaurs, but there were just a few
problems with their research.
For one, they were so fiercely
competitive that they would secretly plant bones in each other's dig
sites. If this doesn't seem like such a big deal, you must understand
that these dinosaur skeletons don't come "assembled" except in very rare
cases, and then its only portions of the skeleton that are connected.
No, dinosaurs are reconstructed from bones found together in an area.
Therefore, there's a very good chance that many of the "specimens" these
men came up with are just not valid. Here's evidence:
"When in 1877 O.C. Marsh found the
type specimen of Brontosaurus, now in the Carnegie Museum, the original
lacked the skull. Marsh assumed that the skull was short and round, like
that of the similar but smaller Camarasaurus. For a century, incomplete
Brontosaurus skeletons and statues and pictures of the animals as they
presumably appeared in life...were given these bullet heads. Then, it
transpired that Brontosaurus actually had a long, narrow skull like that
of Diplodicus. It will take years to correct this error everywhere."
Here's even more evidence that
Cope and Marsh really hoodwinked the public with some of their
"discoveries":
"The rivalry was heated.
Prospectors fought off Indians, fired at each other, hid their finds,
and appropriated their rivals' discoveries....Nearly every find was
dubbed a new species. Many of the 136 dinosaur species Cope and Marsh
named over the next two decades have since been invalidated."
Or, how about this?
"Another time, Marsh's men,
knowing that Cope was spying on them, deliberately mixed the skull of
one creature with teeth from another and left them for Cope to find and
describe as a new species."
It should be quite obvious by now
that our "knowledge" of dinosaurs isn't based on the most solid
evidence. Most bones are found in jumbled piles, with many, many
different animals being represented. As we said earlier, nearly complete
specimens are extremely rare, which leaves us at the complete mercy of
the person "reconstructing" the skeleton.
For example, when Gideon Mantell
drew his reconstruction of the skeleton of the Iguanodon, he placed the
"spike-like" object on the nose, similar to the rhinoceros horn. Later,
this was proved to be wrong, but the misconception persisted for many
years. They have since placed this "spike" as the thumb, but who knows-
this could one day change, too.
But this problem of over-active
imaginations didn't end with the old dinosaur-hunters. Take the example
of Jim Jensen who only retired in 1985:
"But there were other problems
with Jensen's naming of his giants. Though based on prepossessing
fossils, those fossils are but fragments from a jumbled quarry. And they
could only be contrasted with other fragments of already named but still
only partially known dinosaurs."
Today, everyone loves dinosaurs.
But what we see in the museums and science books are not reality. Years
ago, Ron remembers seeing a Life Magazine cover which featured a man
holding a fossil tooth, the caption went something like this:
"From this single tooth, I can
reconstruct an entire dinosaur..."
And that's closer to the truth
than scientists would like to admit. When you go to the museum and view
a "Triceratops" skeleton, it's only natural to believe that the skeleton
is real, or at least a copy of a real skeleton, right? Think again, as
we read this quote about them:
"And they are principally known
from their skulls. Unlike the pattern for most dinosaurs, for
ceratopsids skulls are relatively abundant, their postcranial remains
are rare. Not one complete skeleton of the familiar Triceratops is
known."
The bottom line is simply this;
"dinosaurs" existed alongside all the other pre-flood animals, most of
which were also giants (when they were full grown) compared to the
animals of today. But, the fossil bones of the dinosaurs prove that they
were animals of the same genuses we have today. Many may be species that
no longer survive. But, the only real knowledge we have of them is
scant.
Most of what you read as "fact" is
actually the conjecture of those with vivid imaginations, always seeking
to come up with something new and exciting. Yet, these are the very ones
who scream the loudest that the Biblical account is the real theory. The
real facts; the only ones we can depend on; are that these dinosaur
bones are the fossil remains of animals of tremendous size; many of them
reptiles which lived in an environment that allowed them to live
hundreds of years, continuing to grow in size until their death. The
presence of their fossilized bones in the water-laid strata bears the
most incredible testimony to their utter destruction at the Hands of
their Creator during the great flood.
Footnotes
1.,2. Man, Time and Fossils, by
Ruth Moore, p. 114.
3. The New Larned History, Vol 1,
p. 119.
4. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1984,
Vol. 15, p. 279.
5. Creation Ex-Nihilo, Vol. 14,
No. 2.
6. The Bible-Key to Understanding
the Early Earth, by McLean, Oakland and McLean, p. 59 & 60.
7. Two New Sciences, by Galileo
Galilei; translated by Stillman Drake, p. 127-128.
8. The Dinosaur Heresies, by
Robert T. Bakker, p. 350.
9. Origin of Species, by Charles
Darwin, p. 80 & 157; quoted from A Scientific Analysis of Genesis, by
Edward F. Blick.
10. Dinosaurs Rediscovered, by Don
Lessem, p. 29.
11. The Day of the Dinosaur, by de
Camp and de Camp, p. 121.
12. Dinosaurs Rediscovered, p. 38.
13. The Day of the Dinosaur, p.
223.
14. Dinosaurs Rediscovered, p. 174. 15. Ibid., p. 277.