Dinosaurs?

[superdave]

I think God created science. And created the laws that the earth must abide by. I think its funny how science and religion are in constant war--when science should be proving everything that God is. He is marvellous, wonderful, and creation reveals his majesty and igenuity.

 

[Alenci]

We need to accept that amongst Christians there is a variety of views about creation, the age of the universe, and what the fossil evidence suggests. That just indicates that there is not enough factual evidence to provide a definitive answer.

John
NZ

It also indicates that the entire subject is divisive and nonsensical to get upset over.

If dating is inaccurate then it will be the scientists who will tell us why. Dogma must never obscure valid information - refer the Copernicus case. Also, Christians accept carbon dating of archaeoligical material that supports the biblical account. We can't have it both ways.

There is more than carbon dating involved too. Known physical laws, glaciation, sedimentation, continental drift, the scientific basis for accepting the 'Big Bang' theory of the origins of the universe are all part of how conclusions are reached. If any of those conclusions and the methods used are wrong it won't be people who know very little about the subject material who will tell us why. It will be those who are properly qualified to do so.

Proverbs tells us that wisdom invloves knowledge (ie facts) and understanding (intepreting the facts correctly), and that creation was formed with Wisdom's attendance. The raw data of science is part of our knowledge and understanding a discovering of God's wisdom that was responsible for the universe.

John
NZ

HEAR HEAR. Applause for all these excellent responses.

 

[Alenci]

I think God created science. And created the laws that the earth must abide by. I think its funny how science and religion are in constant war--when science should be proving everything that God is. He is marvellous, wonderful, and creation reveals his majesty and igenuity.

Agreed.

[bible]Romans 1:20[/bible]
Creation testifies to the majesty of the Creator!!

 

[greavito]

at the end of the day everything is itbmh (in the big mans hands) lol so why argue bout it?

 

[Heinrich]

Dinosours and people living at the same time?
http://www.bible.ca/tracks/tracks.htm

Are those layers really millions of years apart?
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/polystrate/trees.html
http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/184

Age of stuff really that scientific?
How do they date fossils?
Carbon dating - (and other things similiar)
http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2002/carbon_dating.asp

Or they use the layer they find the thing in to determine the age..
And then they date the rock layer according to the fossils found there:
http://www.genesispark.org/genpark/dating/dating.htm


Then there are a few things in the bible suggesting that the world was vastly different before the flood. But this is generally not accepted outside of bible-believing christian circles (and obviously not in the secular world)

The following web-site gives a good general idea of what the current "creationist" view is:
http://www.answersingenesis.org/

Some personal things:
If you think God couldn't have created the world in 6 24 hour days then you are serving a different God than me.
If you put science above the view of the bible in any regard then you clearly do not believe that the bible is God's word I think.
You can not selectively believe things in the bible.

I believe there is about as much evidence for the "creationist" view as for the "evolution" view.
You must choose!
There is no way to combine the two without throwing away a few parts of the bible and a few parts of the evolution theory.

ok that's enough from me
Why is this discussion in this forum... should this go to general apologetics or theology or something?
Also the beliefs regarding this differ somewhat across denominational boundaries... as does many things

 

[Biotechnologist]

It is a possibility that "seven days" is just a given time span.

Very possible, considering that the Book of Gensis was written as hebrew poetry, and was never written to be a literal translation.

As intricatic said, it isn't a exact history book, but instead a piece of poetry breathed by God that was written to shed some light on how we came to be here.

 

[Utah Knight]

IMO the fossils are accurate it is how we view Gods view of time that is not

 

[Rosebaronet]

Dinosours and people living at the same time?
http://www.bible.ca/tracks/tracks.htm

Are those layers really millions of years apart?
http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/polystrate/trees.html
http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/184

Age of stuff really that scientific?
How do they date fossils?
Carbon dating - (and other things similiar)
http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2002/carbon_dating.asp

Or they use the layer they find the thing in to determine the age..
And then they date the rock layer according to the fossils found there:
http://www.genesispark.org/genpark/dating/dating.htm


Then there are a few things in the bible suggesting that the world was vastly different before the flood. But this is generally not accepted outside of bible-believing christian circles (and obviously not in the secular world)

The following web-site gives a good general idea of what the current "creationist" view is:
http://www.answersingenesis.org/

Some personal things:
If you think God couldn't have created the world in 6 24 hour days then you are serving a different God than me.
If you put science above the view of the bible in any regard then you clearly do not believe that the bible is God's word I think.
You can not selectively believe things in the bible.

I believe there is about as much evidence for the "creationist" view as for the "evolution" view.
You must choose!
There is no way to combine the two without throwing away a few parts of the bible and a few parts of the evolution theory.

ok that's enough from me
Why is this discussion in this forum... should this go to general apologetics or theology or something?
Also the beliefs regarding this differ somewhat across denominational boundaries... as does many things

Only the God knows if the days were 6 24 hour days, but the argument that we cannot have 24 hour days without the sun and which the earth has to circle is convincing enough, it is true that creation and evolution are both religion, not science, we should not force the issue, forcing the issue would be counterproductive and keep people away from Christianity.

 

[Rin4Christ]

If you think God couldn't have created the world in 6 24 hour days then you are serving a different God than me.

Could God have created the earth in 6 literal 24 hour days? sure, God is capable of anything.

Did He? I don't know. It doesn't make or break my faith if he did or didn't. My faith is about the Salvation that is a gift to us through Christs Sacrifice.

Do I think that God created the early in 6 literal days? The evidence I have been presented indicates that the creation of the earth is a much slower process. As a Scientist, I am going to go with what the scientific evidence says.

If I am wrong? ok. not a spiritual crisis, I'll get to Heaven and God and I will have a good laugh about it. "what silly things I thought with my limited earthly knowledge." Its not going to keep me out of heaven.

I do not see this as a major spiritual issue. Why must we as Christians let it divide us? There is so many more important things that we have in common rather than telling someone their faith is less because of their view of science. We all agree that God is the creator. the specifics of exactly how he created is likley beyond out scope of understanding, so leave it be.

 

[greavito]

Could God have created the earth in 6 literal 24 hour days? sure, God is capable of anything.

Did He? I don't know. It doesn't make or break my faith if he did or didn't. My faith is about the Salvation that is a gift to us through Christs Sacrifice.

Do I think that God created the early in 6 literal days? The evidence I have been presented indicates that the creation of the earth is a much slower process. As a Scientist, I am going to go with what the scientific evidence says.

If I am wrong? ok. not a spiritual crisis, I'll get to Heaven and God and I will have a good laugh about it. "what silly things I thought with my limited earthly knowledge." Its not going to keep me out of heaven.

I do not see this as a major spiritual issue. Why must we as Christians let it divide us? There is so many more important things that we have in common rather than telling someone their faith is less because of their view of science. We all agree that God is the creator. the specifics of exactly how he created is likley beyond out scope of understanding, so leave it be.

AMEN TO THAT!

 

[Kirley]

Thats what i got told also by my mum when i asked when dinosaurs fit into everything. Especially when i was younger i was really facinated by dinosaurs but they were never mentioned in the bible or brought up in 'christian' groups. everything that scientists seem to say the church was against it. and my mum said that she thinks that the week that God created the earth, may not have been a literal week. That it might have been thousands of years... ie. when he made land animals, sea animals and air animals.. it might have been a milion years before he created adam and eve. its not that the dinosaurs werent here, becuz obviously there is enough evidence. but i think the climate change thing is a good theory. and thats how they became extinct.

 

[Alenci]

Could God have created the earth in 6 literal 24 hour days? sure, God is capable of anything.

Did He? I don't know. It doesn't make or break my faith if he did or didn't. My faith is about the Salvation that is a gift to us through Christs Sacrifice.

Do I think that God created the early in 6 literal days? The evidence I have been presented indicates that the creation of the earth is a much slower process. As a Scientist, I am going to go with what the scientific evidence says.

If I am wrong? ok. not a spiritual crisis, I'll get to Heaven and God and I will have a good laugh about it. "what silly things I thought with my limited earthly knowledge." Its not going to keep me out of heaven.

I do not see this as a major spiritual issue. Why must we as Christians let it divide us? There is so many more important things that we have in common rather than telling someone their faith is less because of their view of science. We all agree that God is the creator. the specifics of exactly how he created is likley beyond out scope of understanding, so leave it be.

AMEN TO THAT!

DOUBLE AMEN TO THAT!

 

[TJWutch]

drdino.com . this will help alot. also there was a dinosauer type creture mentioned in Job.

 

[Grunt]

It's really quite simple. The creation stories were written to give the Hebrew people an origin, and to connect them with God. That, and nothing else. That's right *gasp* - it's not a science book.

Amazing stuff, eh? That's really all there is to say about it, but it won't stop people from bickering nonstop.

 

[Heinrich]

Thats nice..

But my problem is that many people are lost because of the theories of evolution and bigbang and all that.
Yes this might sound stupid to you.
But the evolution curriculim has been a very successfull way in which to reduce many peoples faith to nothing.

Therefore regardless of what you might think the bible says or doesn't say.
I think for me as a believer in God the CREATOR of the universe I must defend that fact that God created the universe.

If you go down all these other theories (gap theory/evolution/ bigbang and all others)
They all seem to either try to put God out of the picture or make him unimportant.
And they seem to be in contrast to a few things which are very important:
1 - Everything was created through God/Jesus Christ (John 1)
Therefore breaking down at who God is.
2 - The fact that sin came into the world through man's doing and that the state of afairs is actually man's FAULT!
If you take away that part. You need to throw out most of Romans. And you also say pretty much that Jesus came and died for nothing.
3- Man was made in the image of GOD! He did not "evolve" from an ape or even worse a fish in the long run!?

Furthermore throwing out Gen 1... leaves us with a very difficult problem. Where do we begin to believe the bible?
I guess most people will say somewhere past Noah??
Which leaves us with the question: If all that was just fictional, why did they go to all the trouble of writing all those names of people who lived supposedly from abraham, connecting the geneology from Adam right through to Jesus??
This would infact make God a deceiver wouldn't it?

Once you start throwing out scripture you are on a very steep slipery slope. And that is exactly what the humanists want. For you to DOUBT the bible and STOP believing in GOD.

 

[Grunt]

But the evolution curriculim has been a very successfull way in which to reduce many peoples faith to nothing.

If that's all it took then those people didn't have much faith to start with.

Therefore regardless of what you might think the bible says or doesn't say.
I think for me as a believer in God the CREATOR of the universe I must defend that fact that God created the universe.

*shrug*
Whatever you need to believe.

I don't really care, 'long as you don't try to force others to believe the same thing.

 

[intricatic]

Thats nice..

But my problem is that many people are lost because of the theories of evolution and bigbang and all that.
Yes this might sound stupid to you.
But the evolution curriculim has been a very successfull way in which to reduce many peoples faith to nothing.

Therefore regardless of what you might think the bible says or doesn't say.
I think for me as a believer in God the CREATOR of the universe I must defend that fact that God created the universe.

If you go down all these other theories (gap theory/evolution/ bigbang and all others)
They all seem to either try to put God out of the picture or make him unimportant.
And they seem to be in contrast to a few things which are very important:
1 - Everything was created through God/Jesus Christ (John 1)
Therefore breaking down at who God is.
2 - The fact that sin came into the world through man's doing and that the state of afairs is actually man's FAULT!
If you take away that part. You need to throw out most of Romans. And you also say pretty much that Jesus came and died for nothing.
3- Man was made in the image of GOD! He did not "evolve" from an ape or even worse a fish in the long run!?

Furthermore throwing out Gen 1... leaves us with a very difficult problem. Where do we begin to believe the bible?
I guess most people will say somewhere past Noah??
Which leaves us with the question: If all that was just fictional, why did they go to all the trouble of writing all those names of people who lived supposedly from abraham, connecting the geneology from Adam right through to Jesus??
This would infact make God a deceiver wouldn't it?

Once you start throwing out scripture you are on a very steep slipery slope. And that is exactly what the humanists want. For you to DOUBT the bible and STOP believing in GOD.

I will say one thing to this post.

Up until the "Enlightenment", we interpreted the world through metaphore - through analogy.

This does not discredit the Bible.

After the "Enlightemnent" we interpret the world through solid reason.

This does not discredit the Bible.

The Bible was writen in the period of history [that stretches very far back] that we viewed the world through metaphore.

Therefore, I believe the Bible to be wholly accurate, but that it cannot replace science, as the two [science / religion] are both speaking from two different [equally real, although analytic reasoning can never prove the existence of God] modes of interpreting the world.

 

[Heinrich]

If that's all it took then those people didn't have much faith to start with.



*shrug*
Whatever you need to believe.

I don't really care, 'long as you don't try to force others to believe the same thing.

One it might be true that these people didn't have alot of faith.
But who is to blame for that?

I'm confused...
You say that the universe was NOT created by God??
So from where does everything come?
Did some gians jelly bean sneeze everything into existance?

 

[shamsweedo]

Job makes mention of animals are reminiscent of what we consider to be dinosaurs and many believe that a day to God is not necessarily a day in the time frame of man. It is highly possible that dino's were here and died before the next "days" new creations came about. Isn't it possible for God?

 

[Grunt]

I'm confused...
You say that the universe was NOT created by God??

I'd say you are.

I'm saying that if you feel the need to associate "universe created by God" with "creationism", I don't really care; believe what you wish.

Personally, I don't feel that need.