DINOSAUR DISCUSSION 1
Where did the dinosaurs come from?
Were they part of the creation?
Were they bred by the antediluvians?
Audience: Young Earth Christians
So did God create the dinosaurs or did they come into existence some other way?
And this can lead to a hot debate with people taking sides and no one giving any ground.
There is a better way for Christians to decide this muddle.
There are no T-rexes alive we can find in a zoo.
So how do we know about dinosaurs?
Their fossils have been found in sedimentary rocks and that is how we know about them.
There is no shortage of dinosaur fossils, they are found all around the world.
Evolutionists tell us they formed over 66 million years ago.
If you believe in a young earth there is a problem there.
If you believe in a young earth say only 6,000 years old, we proceed.
Christians believing in an old earth will have to follow a different discussion. [see Discussion 3]
This discussion here is for Christians who believe in a young earth, 6,000 years old. [I do]
So we come to a bunch of problems...
Where did all these world-wide dinosaur fossils come from?
Problem 1
From education.nationalgeographic.org we read:
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains, or traces of remains, of ancient animals and plants.
Fossils are not the remains of the organism itself! They are rocks.
A fossil can preserve an entire organism or just part of one. Bones, shells, feathers, and leaves can all become fossils.
Fossils can be very large or very small. Microfossils are only visible with a microscope. Bacteria and pollen are microfossils. Macrofossils can be several meters long and weigh several tons. Macrofossils can be petrified trees or dinosaur bones.
And here it comes...
Preserved remains become fossils if they reach an age of about 10,000 years.
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/fossil/
Let that sink in. If we believe the world is only 6,000 years old then we have no dinosaur fossils. End of story. And that means no dinosaurs. They never existed as living breathing creatures at any time in the past. Period.
A bit clearer...
Suppose I hold in my hand a small part of a T-rex fossil. It's a rock. So to get back to the bone I have to go back 10,000 years. And then back to the living T-rex, probably some more years again.
But wait, I hit a brick wall at the Creation point 6,000 years ago. I can't go back any further than that. So I CANNOT get back to a living T-rex!
Same for all the other current dinosaur fossils. We can't get back to the living creatures.
Conclusion? ALL these dinosaurs they are currently digging up out of the ground never existed as living breathing creatures at any time in the past. Period.
Problem 2
Let's suppose that the dinosaurs did exist then how could we get all these fossils in the geologic column? [ignoring Problem 1]
Christians believing in an old earth will just say they formed over millions of years ago.
The discussion here is for Christians believing in a young earth. So we need to get these fossils deposited in the last 6,000 years.
When?
Before the Flood? Not too many choices here, whether you believe they were saved on the Ark or perished, doesn't matter, we still need all the layers with fossils in them.
Again, it has to be before the Flood. But what if it never rained before the Flood?
No rain, no sedimentation to form fossils etc. So no dinosaur fossils.
And if there was enough rain to cause some flooding? All around the world? - because the dinosaur fossils are found all around the world. Suggests a world-wide flood! Which is a big contradiction as that occurs at the Flood point, not before it. So no, again, a big fail.
So all the dinosaur fossils could not have been deposited BEFORE the Flood, after the Creation point.
As before this approach bombs out. And again we have no dinosaur fossils.
That leaves the Flood.
And this brings us to the problem of...
Distribution in the rock layers.
Suppose we could get all these layers from the Flood. Just where would we expect the dinosaur fossils to be in these layers deposited at the time of the Flood?
Pretty simple, the really light animals will be in the top layers, and the really heavy ones will be in the bottom layers. So really small dinosaurs should be in the very top rock layers and the heavy ones like T-rexes, triceratops, sauropods etc will be in the very bottom rock layers.
Problem: that's not where they are found. All the dinosaur fossils are found in the Mesozoic layers, more in the middle section and a fair way from the top or bottom.
So there's a problem there.
What about the Flood waters being in turmoil and perhaps that's why they ended up where they are?
Doesn't solve the problem. Suppose everything was in a state of turmoil with everything being deposited anywhere. Take this to it's final conclusion and give all fossils an equal chance of being deposited any layer.
Then we have the whole geologic column being an even homogeneous distribution.
All rock layers having the same creatures deposited in them.
For example T-rexes should be found in EVERY rock layer. Not just the Mesozoic.
So what's the answer?
We have dinosaur fossils. All around the world.
But they are not from living dinosaurs.
So what are they and just where did they come from?
From above we can conclude that they were not deposited at the time of the Flood. Nor were they deposited before the Flood, after the Creation.
Also we determined that since the Creation there was not enough time for them to form anyway since they would require a minimum of 10,000 years, according to nationalgeographic.org.
So what does that leave? If you believe in the Creation 6,000 years ago, that's all we have left.
Which means?
All the dinosaur fossils came into existence at the time of Creation when this world came from the hand of God.
This means they are not fossil remains, but something else. Fabrications or constructions? They are not fossil remains of living animals.
Conclusion?
None of these dinosaur fossils ever existed as living breathing creatures at any time in the past.
And we don't have to worry about the Washingtion CityPaper article “Do We Drink Dinosaur Urine?”
with one of their queries
“The water coming out of your kitchen tap is four billion years old and might well have been sipped by a Tyrannosaurus rex!”
No T-rex ever walked on this planet at any time in the past. Or peed on it anywhere.
Your tap water should be T-rex pee-free.
REFERENCES
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains, or traces of remains, of ancient animals and plants.
Fossils are not the remains of the organism itself! They are rocks.
A fossil can preserve an entire organism or just part of one. Bones, shells, feathers, and leaves can all become fossils.
Fossils can be very large or very small. Microfossils are only visible with a microscope. Bacteria and pollen are microfossils. Macrofossils can be several meters long and weigh several tons. Macrofossils can be petrified trees or dinosaur bones.
Preserved remains become fossils if they reach an age of about 10,000 years.
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/fossil/
Do We Drink Dinosaur Urine?
I heard all the drinkable water on Earth has passed through dinosaur kidneys.
by Cecil Adams
August 3rd, 2016
https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/195401/do-we-drink-dinosaur-urine/
Stephen Buckley
E-mail: chodesh [at] duck.com
Last revised: 24 Aug 2024.
Constructed: 10 Aug 2024.
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