Dinosaurs

[Scunk]

This may sound real dumb! lol.

From what I understand we were made in Gods image, and we are pretty much the center of all creation, everything else was made to go along with us. Well, how do we explain dinosaurs then?

 

[iac]

What's to explain? They were animals like every other creature God created. They simply found a lack of food supply and a drastic change in climate after they got off the ark and gradually died off.

 

[stray bullet]

humans developed long after the extinction of the dinosaurs, of course.

 

[Scunk]

Exactly. So what was their purpose? If we are the reason the world is here, then I dont understand Dinosaurs? God made the heavens and the earth in 7 days? How long after did he place adam and eve on it?

We didnt live during the time of the dinosaurs, but how could they be before us? And why?

 

[Sketcher]

iac's story was the young earth creationist point of view.

stray bullet's was the evolutionist's point of view.

young earth creationism is the more Biblical point of view, so I'm going with that right now.

 

[Scunk]

so scientific evidence proves dinosaurs lived millions of years before humans? Yet the bible says god created us when the earth was just days old. ???

 

[stray bullet]

Exactly. So what was their purpose?

Well, they filled the particular niche in their environment. By preying on animals, they maintained the genetic health of various species. Some ate grasses, some scavanged.

In fact, mammals evolved from dinosaurs. When the dinosaurs died out during the mass extinction 65 million years ago, it left a world open for mammals to diversify and evolve.

If we are the reason the world is here, then I dont understand Dinosaurs? God made the heavens and the earth in 7 days? How long after did he place adam and eve on it?

We didnt live during the time of the dinosaurs, but how could they be before us? And why?

If you want MY opinion... I believe God created the Universe in such a way that He didn't have to individually sculpt every little animal and plant. He was able to set off a reaction that created the stars and planets. When the Earth formed He had set up the universe in such a way that life could emerge from inorganic compounds. This early life could then spring forward new and more complex life. Simple plants evolved over time to complex plants, making trees, ferns, grasses, grains...
frogs walked on land, became reptiles, which became dinosaurs, which became mammals which became humans.

Sort of like how one tiny seed can grow a giant
How an egg can be fertilized and spring forward a baby chick from its liquid.

Before you could be an adult, you had to be a teenager, before that a child... an infant, a fetus, a single microscopic cell.

 

[Rafael]

There are several theories about the timing of the dinosaurs. There is even a gap theory between verse 1 and 2 of Genesis where the Bible doesn't really give us much information, and being that time is a physical element that God stands outside of and controls, any kind of scenerio of time and eternity could have taken place. As far as mankinds measurement capabilities - I don't place much stock in them because too many errors come up. Time is linear, so we tend to think in linear terms. God exists outside of time and is able to entervene our time line at anytime to place or take away anything.
Going back to the gap theory for a second, some believe that the earth went through some type of judgment before God placed man on it, and that for a time satan may have ruled with his 1/3 of God's angels on it, as the Hebrew translation of some verbs point to that happening.
To explore more on these things, Chuck Misslar's MP3s can be downloaded or listened to at: http://www.firefighters.org/
He has some very interesting things to talk about concerning the string theory of unification and how God inhabiting multiple universes, at least nine for the unification math to work, pretty much explains much about the properties of time being applied to God and how the physical universe really works. These, however, may be at his own website in written form, and I don't have the link on hand - Goggle his name.
We are so ignorant of our universe and the properties of it, but some day we will know. It's fun to learn and speculate on time and eternity, but in the end I think we'll find God's veracity through His Word proven.

 

[artybloke]

Er, stray - I support your point of view but there were mammals while dinosaurs were around - they were just very small. Birds evolved directly from dinosaurs. And not all dinosaurs were meat eaters either, or particularly large.

so scientific evidence proves dinosaurs lived millions of years before humans? Yet the bible says god created us when the earth was just days old. ???

Scunk: The Bible isn't a book of science, nor was it meant to be, and you don't have to take all of it literally in order to believe it is true. It contains poetry, myth, legend, parable and other types of literature (Genesis 1 is IMHO a kind of chant for use in temple/synagogue worship, not a scientific account.) God can and does speak through the imagination as well as through other means (which is great for us poets.)

"Young Earth Creationism" only superficially appears to be the Biblical view. In fact, it contradicts the nature of Biblical literature, and it contradicts the revelation of God as seen in the natural world. The Bible speaks of how we should relate to God through Christ. The world, and therefore science, speaks of how God created the world for us to dwell in. They don't contradict because they are not about the same thing. Science tells us nothing of how to relate to God, and the Bible tells us nothing of how God made the world.

 

[Scunk]

Thanks alot raphe! Your comments were interesting and helped me alot.

Same to you artybloke.

 

[stray bullet]

Er, stray - I support your point of view but there were mammals while dinosaurs were around - they were just very small. Birds evolved directly from dinosaurs. And not all dinosaurs were meat eaters either, or particularly large.

Er, didn't mean for it to sound that way

Dinosaurs obviously branched out into mammals, then after the massive extinction, mammals just took off from there.

Birds, while having come from dinosaurs, are still birds

and yes... i pointed out that dinosaurs weren't all a bunch of fast running big-toothed predators... their roles and adaptations varied dramatically.