What About Dinosaurs?

Question

God didn't create dinosaurs. Dinosaurs prove that creation, if we can call it that, was evolutionary. So, why don't you believe in science and evolution?

Answer

Thanks for your question.

God Believes in Science

God created science. It is part and parcel of what theologians call General Revelation. Please see, "Can a person be born an atheist?" below. Most who believe in the Bible also believe in science - that is when it is correct, but not when it maintains that the earth is flat, asserts that there this is a geocentric universe (the earth is the center of the universe), or teaches a static universe (the universe is neither expanding nor contracting), et. al. Please see, "What about the evidence of Carbon-14 dating" below.

God Believes in Dinosaurs

God believes in dinosaurs; after all he created them!

God created all the animals upon the earth, both living and extinct. Sea and winged-type dinosaurs were created on the fifth Day of Creation (Gen. 1:20-23) and land-type dinosaurs were created on sixth Day (Gen. 1:24-25). God's sovereignty appointed them a place in his Creation (Job 39:6). He told Job that he is more powerful than the supposed dinosaurs; the Behemoth and Leviathan (Job 40:15-24; esp. Job 40:19 and Job 41:1-34; esp. Job 41:10). See Psalm 74:13 and Isaiah 51:9.

So, the Bible actually proves the existence of dinosaurs!

Dinosaurs Disprove Evolution

What about evolution and dinosaurs? Do dinosaurs prove that evolution is true? Actually, it is just the opposite; dinosaurs literally disprove evolution.

Let's briefly examine dinosaurs. There are many different species of dinosaurs, as many as 700 that are published. [1] According to descriptions some had a type of body armor and yet others feathers. Some dinosaurs were bipedal (walked in two legs) and others quadrupedal (walked in four legs). Some moved slowly and others rapidly. Some were meat eaters and others plant-eaters. They had different types of teeth and are thought to have been different colors (camouflage, some bright, etc.). Large, small, tall, short, heavy and light weight. Some had hand type features and yet others mere claws. And yet with all these variations, atheists want us to believe that this all happened by accident? Some mere random explosion caused all these variations? And this doesn't even include mankind and the rest of the animals in the world!

God's intelligent design accounts for the different variations of dinosaurs. He created a somewhat "mature universe." He created grass and not just grass seed; fruit and not just fruit seeds (Gen. 1:11-12). He created "mature" sea and winged creatures as well as the beasts of the field (Gen. 1:20-22, 24-25). Adam wasn't created as an infant, but rather was able to understand and even communicated with both God and his wife, Eve (Gen. 1:28-30; 2:16-17, 23-24). Adam named many species of animals (Gen. 2:19-20). He was able to do this properly because he could see the "mature" cattle graze, birds fly, and the beasts walk, run and play. After all, Adam was looking for a "mature" mate (Gen. 2:20). So, God's "mature" and "intelligent" design accounts for the different variations of all animals.

According to scientists, dinosaur vision was somewhat better than the vision of most other reptiles. But since we don't have a dinosaur eye to examine, let's briefly look at the complexity of the human eye. While there would be some differences, there should also be some similarities.

Concerning the human eye, Dr. Doug Borchman recounts:

The eye has more than 2 million working parts.

The human eye is capable of seeing at a resolution of 576 megapixels.

Corneas are the only tissues that don't require blood.

The eye can process 36,000 bits of information an hour.

The eye blinks 10,000 times a day.

Under the right conditions, the human eye can see the light of a candle at a distance of 14 miles.

The eye can see 2.7 million different colors.

The eye has about 12 million photo receptors (light-sensitive cells).

The retina contains 130 million rods for night vision and 7 million color-sensitive cones for day vision.

The lens of the eye points to incredible complexity.

... If we look at just the lens and imagine a fish that didn't have a lens in their eye, for the lens to be formed somehow in that fish by time and chance, the lens would have had to be perfectly formed and clear when it initially appeared in the eye, otherwise the lens would block vision and the survival of the animal would be seriously compromised, ... To be clear, all the following must occur: the lens must not have a blood supply or intracellular organelles; the macromolecular structure of the cells and molecular structure of the biomolecules must be ordered as in a clear crystal; the intercellular space must be extremely small and the biomolecules in the lens must have the correct index of refraction. No series of mutations could cause any or all of these changes in a tissue simultaneously.

... As a chemist, to make a small molecule is difficult. A protein I've studied, the calcium pump, is made of 1,000 amino acids. We can synthesize 18 amino acid chains or so in the lab under controlled conditions, but we can't fathom synthesizing a 1,000-amino acid proteins let alone folding the chains into just the correct shape and placing them into a membrane.

Science ... tells us there must be something [Someone] else... [2]

While this alone doesn't prove that there is an Intelligent Designer, it does show how impossible it is for such a diverse and complex creation to have been made from some mere random evolutionary process. The chance that evolution would lead to a creation of such a complex world is literally impossible!

Evolutionists, Atheists, and God

Christianity is not a leap beyond reason, rather it is a reasoned faith. Van Til has a brief analogy that has assisted some Evolutionists and Atheists to become believers:

Once while Van Til was a youth traveling on a train in Holland, he noticed:a father with his young daughter sitting in his lap. Apparently, the father urged his daughter to do something when she suddenly slapped her father in the face. Van Til's application?

The girl's behavior illustrates rebels who live in God's world and who are supported by God's common grace (Psa. 24:1). They sit, as it were, on the lap of God, and it is precisely because they sit on God's lap that they are able to deliver the slap of ingratitude. Thus unbelievers who toot their own independence and autonomy are only able to do so as they are supported by God Himself (John 19:10-11). Their denial of God is His affirmation. Atheism does not invalidate theism, but proves it because atheism is only possible given the premise of theism. As the atheist Nikita Khrushchev once described the Soviet Union, "In Russia, thank God, there is no God" (my emphasis). [3]

So, God believes in science. And he believe in dinosaurs. His Word disproves the false belief of evolution. So, one question remains to be answered, "Do you believe in God?"

Footnotes

[1] "How many types of dinosaurs are known?," Rare Source, (http://www.rareresource.com/dinosaurs-types.htm). Last Accessed 29 November 2017.

[2] Ruth Schenk, "Complexity of the human eye points scientist to Master Creator," (http://www.southeastoutlook.org/news/features/article_9f63fbf8-bd7a-11e2-9f4b-0019bb30f31a.html). Last Accessed 29 November 2017.

[3] Jim West, "Van Til's Illustrations," (https://chalcedon.edu/magazine/van-tils-illustrations) Last Accessed 29 November 2017.

Various Creation Positions

What is the Big Bang Theory?
What is the Day Age Theory?
What is Ex-nihilo?
The Framework Theory
What is the Gap Theory?
What About Hebrews 11:3?
What is the Intelligent Design Theory?
What is the Mature Universe Theory?
What is Old Earth Creationism (OEC)?
What is Progressive Creationism?
What is Theistic Evolution?
What is Young Earth Creationism (YEC)?

Related Topics

What is the meaning of Day in Genesis 1?
Are there two different accounts of Creation?
What is BioLogos?
Did man eat meat before the Fall and the Flood?
A Universal or Regional Flood?
What about the evidence of Carbon-14 dating?
Scientific Evidence for YEC?
How could there be evening and morning the first three days of Creation?
Extraterrestrials and the Bible?
What was the Scopes Monkey Trial?
Can a person be born an atheist?

Answer by Dr. Joseph R. Nally, Jr.

Dr. Joseph R. Nally, Jr., D.D., M.Div. is the Theological Editor at Third Millennium Ministries (Thirdmill).