The Dinosaur Dilemma

The sight made me sick to my stomach – literally nauseous. I was forced to watch as hundreds of school children were being indoctrinated with evolutionary garbage—and all I could think of was that many of them would one day be forfeiting their souls, as they cast aside any belief in the Bible, and instead pledged their allegiance to the Darwinian theory.

Here is the place for evolutionary propaganda!

My family and I had stopped at a place outside of Denver known as the Dinosaur Ridge Trail. When I walked up to the first “information station” I asked the guide stationed there to tell me about the site. Just like hitting “play” on a tape recorder, he began reciting how “millions of years ago, during the Jurassic period dinosaurs had walked in this very spot….” As I listened to his canned spiel, I looked up two stations ahead of me and that’s when I spotted the school children. Hundreds of young students who had only moments ago listened to this same guide describe “the five dinosaurs that had been uncovered at the Morrison Formation, millions of years before man ever evolved from apes.” How many of these children’s parents knew that this “field trip” to Dinosaur Ridge was nothing more than propaganda supporting the anti-God theory of evolution. How many of these parents realized the importance of the seeds that were being implanted in the hearts and minds of their children that very day?

Dinosaurs have become the sugar-stick candy that evolutionists offer our young children as they seek to convert them to their anti-God theory. We can find their impressions featured on kid’s meals, snack crackers, fruit snacks, cereal, sippy-cups, birthday supplies, and a plethora of other products. They are a marketer’s dream—as even young two-year olds become fascinated with these amazing creatures. Our experience at Dinosaur Ridge could be multiplied literally thousands of times as movies, museums, amusement parks, and natural parks continue to promote the false idea that dinosaurs roamed this Earth ages before men. In fact, one would be hard pressed to find a children’s book on dinosaurs that does not promote evolution. [I would point out that the book Dinosaurs Unleashed is an excellent resource for parents who want to teach their children the truth about these huge lizard-like reptiles. You can find that book on our Web site focuspress.org–BH]

If my research is any indication, this marketing and indoctrination are working extremely well. Consider for example, that when I surveyed teens recently at a Christian camp (with most of the campers being reared in Christians homes), over 50% of teens in attendance indicated that dinosaurs had roamed the Earth millions of years ago. Question: How in the world can one harmonize that response with God’s Word? The fact of the matter is you can’t. These were not kids off the street, but rather young people who were growing up in the church. The evidence is overwhelmingly clear—friends, we have a serious problem in the church – a problem that has already cost us many souls.

Exactly why did I find myself sick at the sight of the school children at Dinosaur Ridge? The reason is that it is impossible to holdfast to Genesis 1 (which clearly indicates all land-dwelling creatures, including man, were created on day 5) and also hold to the idea that dinosaurs roamed the Earth millions of years ago. I knew from experience most of those children would never hear the truth or the “rest of the story.” After all, not many people are willing to mesh God’s Word with the dinosaurs, and so often parents either simply say “They didn’t exist” or “that’s just something we weren’t meant to know.” And so evolutionists chalk up a win for their side, as they welcome our children with open arms as they discuss with them their theories on these marvelous creatures. What is it about these amazing creatures that Christians need to know?

1. Did dinosaurs exist?

There can be no doubt about it: dinosaurs really did exist. We have discovered their bones on all seven continents—from North America to the Antarctic. Visitors to any of the larger museums of natural history can see the life-size replicas of these magnificent creatures, which makes it somewhat difficult to suggest that they never existed.

One of the worst things we can do as parents and grandparents is suggest that dinosaurs never walked this Earth. While it may seem like a quick and simple way to avoid the topic, this type of response will prove incredibly daunting when our children visit a local museum and come face-to-face with a two-story T. rex skeleton. It is going to be a little difficult for our children to deny such evidence and believe a “well-meaning” but very wrong parent. Did dinosaurs exist?  Most certainly!

Dinosaur Ridge, the location in which the school children were being fed with evolutionary propaganda was one of the very first sites where dinosaur fossils were discovered in the United States. Since that time, literally thousands of dinosaurs’ fossils have been uncovered. As a matter of fact, great dinosaur graveyards have been discovered in places like Tanzania, Africa, and at the Dinosaur National Monument on the Colorado-Utah border. An honest investigation into the evidence available indicates that dinosaurs once roamed this Earth.

2. When were dinosaurs first discovered?

The first discovery of dinosaurs as far as “recent times,” occurred in the spring of 1822. Gideon Mantell, a country doctor from Great Britain with a life-long passion for collecting fossils, set off via horse and buggy to treat a patient in the English countryside. His wife Mary Ann went along to keep him company. While Dr. Mantell tended to his patient, Mrs. Mantell took a stroll and came across a pile of stones that had been placed alongside the road to be used for filling ruts caused by spring rains. Among those stones, she noticed what appeared to be some very large fossilized teeth. She scooped them up and took them back to show to her husband who was amazed, never having seen such huge teeth before. He went to the nearby rock quarry from which the stones had been cut and found more teeth similar to those found by his wife. Although he showed the teeth to several scientists, none agreed with him that they were from some kind of previously unknown creature. However, Dr. Mantell was sure that they were. In 1825, he finally named the long-dead owner of the teeth Iguanodon (meaning “iguana-tooth”) since the teeth were like those of an iguana, but much larger. Several years later more teeth like these were discovered in a different quarry. Now, no one doubted that Iguanodon lived.

Meanwhile, huge bones of another creature—named Megalosaurus—had been dug up farther away in Oxfordshire. By 1842, enough of these fossils had been discovered to convince the leading British anatomist, Richard Owen, that a whole tribe of huge, lizard-like reptiles had lived in the distant past. Based on his studies, Dr. Owen (who worked at the British Museum of Natural History in London) named them “dinosaurs” (from the Greek words deinos and sauros, translated by him as “fearfully great lizards”)—known to us today as “terribly great lizards.”

3. When did dinosaurs exist?

The question no longer is, “Did the dinosaurs exist?” but rather, “When did the dinosaurs exist?” And therein lies the controversy, even today. Evolutionists advocate that dinosaurs evolved from some ancient reptile 200 million years ago, and that they became extinct roughly 65-70 million years ago. Man (in one form or another) allegedly evolved roughly 3-4 million years ago, and thus was separated from the dinosaurs by approximately 65 million years of geologic time. Christians who accept Genesis 1-11 as an accurate, historical record of God’s creative activity oppose such claims, and instead maintain that the dinosaurs were created by God within the six literal days described in the biblical record. Thus, man and dinosaurs would have been created at essentially the same time, and would have lived together as contemporaries on the Earth. Given the genealogies of the Bible, it is safe to assume that Adam and the dinosaurs were created less than 10,000 years ago.

4. Did humans and dinosaurs coexist?

We have scientific evidence that indicates that the evolutionary timeline is extremely erroneous. Consider the following:

Soft Tissue Found in T. Rex.

In March 2005, an article appeared in the journal Science that described soft tissue discovered in a T. Rex bone. That’s right, soft tissue from a dinosaur! The discovery describes blood vessels, soft tissue that is still elastic, and what could be blood cells. I contacted the lead researcher, Mary Schweitzer, and she discussed the serendipitous way in which the material was discovered. The original Washington Post account mentioned that the bone was broken when it was moved, which permitted access to the soft tissues. When I asked Mary Schweitzer if that was, indeed, true, she responded: “Yes and no. It was broken in the field—too heavy for the helicopter in one piece. But that only allowed access to the bone chunks they didn’t need to ‘rehabilitate’ the dino. The soft tissues were not immediately apparent or expected.” Ask any molecular biologists worth their salt and they will tell you DNA and soft tissues do not stick around for “65 million years.” Would we expect to find soft tissue if dinosaurs walked this Earth only a few thousand years ago with man? Yes.

Dinosaur found Mammal’s Stomach

Most evolutionary timelines have the mammals evolving from reptiles. Indeed, the textbook I used in my freshman general biology class noted: “During the Mesozoic Era the reptiles, which had evolved earlier from the amphibians, became dominant and in turn gave rise to the mammals and the birds.” Evolutionists consider the last 65 million years of Earth history (the Cenozoic Era) to be the “age of the mammals.” A discovery reported in the January 13, 2005, issue of Nature challenged everything evolutionists have ever maintained regarding dinosaurs and mammals. The Associated Press reported: “Villagers digging in China’s rich fossil beds have uncovered the preserved remains of a tiny dinosaur in the belly of a mammal, a startling discovery for scientists who have long believed early mammals couldn’t possibly attack and eat a dinosaur.” Not only do we now have proof of mammals coexisting with dinosaurs, but we also have scientific evidence of a large mammal eating a dinosaur!

ICA Stones of Peru

Incan burial stones also provide physical evidence that humans and dinosaurs once coexisted. In 1966 Dr. Javier Cabrera Darquea, professor of medicine, at the University of Lima was given a rock for his birthday from a local farmer. On it was a picture of a fish, allegedly carved almost a thousand years ago. Ironically, Dr. Cabrera remembered his father possessing similar stones that his family had collected from their fields. Intrigued by the unique gift Dr. Carbera set out to determine the source of this mysterious rock. In doing so, he discovered many others like it. They were burial stones the ancient Incans had placed with their dead. In fact, Dr. Cabrera located over 11,000 in all— and found that almost one-third of the stones depicted specific types of dinosaurs, such as Triceratops, Stegosaurus and Pterosaurs. The type of art form represented by these stones, and their location, dated them to the time of the Inca Culture, c. A.D. 500-1500. How could these ancient Indians have known the anatomy of these creatures if they never had witnessed them firsthand?

Dinosaur Petroglyphs in Hava Supai

In the late 1800’s Dr. Samuel Hubbard, Honorary Curator of the California Museum of Natural History, was excavating old Indian dwellings in the Hava Supai Canyon in Arizona, near the Grand Canyon. Dr. Hubbard’s hopes were to find evidence that the Indians had been around longer than we first suspected. He was looking for things like pottery and clothing—anything that would demonstrate that the American Indians had been here longer than we first suspected. Lo, and behold, Dr. Hubbard found what he was looking for. He found clothing and pottery, but he also stumbled across their cave-art. There on the walls of the canyon where the Indians’ once lived long ago, were the elaborate wall drawings—pictures of cattle, sheep, men, dinosaurs, buffalo, and oxen. Wait a minute, run that list by me one more time: cattle, sheep, buffalo, oxen, men and dinosaurs? Yes, that’s exactly what Dr. Hubbard found. These scientists described one of the pictographs as a dinosaur. Dr. Hubbard wrote: “The fact that the animal is upright and balanced on its tail would seem to indicate that the prehistoric artist must have seen it alive.” But according to evolutionists, dinosaurs were extinct long before man arrived on this planet. Therefore, how could any human have known what to draw if he (or she) never had seen a dinosaur?

Dinosaur Petroglyph Near Blanding, Utah

If you were to go to National Bridges National Monument just outside of Blanding, Utah, you would quickly discover three naturally occurring sandstone bridges. One of those bridges is named Kachina—and it is on this bridge where an Indian petroglyph depicting a dinosaur was discovered. In fact, visitors to the site can see three or four drawings that appear to be dinosaur-like creatures. Francis Barnes, an evolutionist and widely recognized authority on rock art of the American Southwest noted: There is a petroglyph in Natural Bridges National Monument that bears a startling resemblance to a dinosaur.” Again, was the artist just using his or her imagination?

Dinosaur Figurines from Acambaro

In 1945, a German archeologist discovered clay dinosaur figurines buried at the foot of El Toro Mountain on the outskirts of Acambaro, Mexico. Eventually over 32,000 figurines and artifacts were found. In order to prove their authenticity, the owners had three radiocarbon tests performed by Isotopes Incorporated of New Jersey, resulting in dates of 1640 B.C., 4530 B.C., and 1110 B.C. Eighteen samples were further subjected to thermoluminescent testing by the University of Pennsylvania, all of which gave dates of approximately 2500 B.C. All of these dates correspond with the dates given to pieces of pottery that were scattered among the dinosaur figurines. Interestingly, however, the radiocarbon dating results were later withdrawn when it was revealed that some of the figurines depicted dinosaurs.

In 1990, samples of various dinosaur bones were submitted for Carbon-14 dating to the University of Arizona’s department of geosciences’ laboratory of isotope geochemistry. Bones from an Allosaurus and an Acrocanthosaurus were among those sent to the university’s testing facility to undergo a “blind” dating procedure (which means that the technicians performing the tests did not know the bones were from dinosaurs). Amazingly, the C-14 dates assigned to the fossils were 9,890 and 16,120 years—a far cry from the millions of years that evolutionists suggest should be assigned to dinosaur fossils.

The evidence simply will not go away. For instance, maybe someone can explain the tomb of Richard Bell in the Carlisle Cathedral. He died in 1496, [remember the word dinosaur did not come into existence until 1842], yet his tomb has a narrow piece of brass (9½ ft long) that runs around the edge which features the picture of a dinosaur (along with a depiction of a fish, an eel, a dog, a pig, and a bird). Or, maybe someone could logically explain the Roman mural from the second century A.D. showing two long necked dragons, or the tablets attributed to Narmer, the legendary first Pharaoh of a united Egypt, which also feature longed necked dinosaurs. The evidence for the coexistence of humans and dinosaurs is authentic and extensive. The question is, will we take the time to reveal these Truths to our loved ones?

In Dr. Philip Kitcher’s anti-creationist book titled Abusing Science: The Case Against Creationism he claimed that solid evidence for the co-existence of dinosaurs and humans would “shake the foundations of evolutionary theory, because, of course, the dinosaurs are supposed to have been long extinct by the time the hominids arrived on the scene.” The evidence you’ve just read is equivalent to a level 10 earthquake on the Richter scale for the evolutionary theory. Truth be told, the foundation of the evolutionary theory is non-existent. They can’t even get from non-life to living material.

Friends, I hope this article teaches faithful Christians that possessing a belief in God and the Bible is not enough. Our children (and grandchildren!), need to know how to defend that belief. The truth is, one day in the not-so-distant future, our children may find themselves on a field trip or in a museum listening to a guide spew forth lies that challenge their faith. Their ability to handle that situation will greatly affect whether they live a life loyal to God or whether they abandon Him and His teachings. Will your children KNOW the Truth? There are literally thousands of evolutionists currently living who once espoused a belief in Christianity. Today they are apostates, placing more faith in science than the Word of God. What will be the outcome of your loved ones?