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Why aren't Dinosaurs Mentioned in the Biblical Creation Account?
by Rich Deem


Introduction
Why would God have left out a description of the dinosaurs from the creation account found in the Bible? Skeptics claim that this omission proves that the Bible wasn't written by God's inspiration, but is just a compilation of the words of fallible men. First, we should understand the origin of the Genesis creation account and its purpose in the Bible. The first five books of the Bible, including Genesis, were written by Moses. Since nobody except God was present at the creation, the Genesis creation account was given to Moses by God. If one is attempting to second guess the Author of Genesis, one must take these facts into account.

Purpose of the creation account
God was not interested in giving Moses a scientific treatise on the creation of the world. The Bible indicates that God's communication to Moses was centered on the relationship between God and man and the rules by which God wanted man to live. Therefore, the creation account mirrors the content of the rest of the Bible, which centers on mankind and his relationship to God. The question, "Why would God leave out a description of the dinosaurs?" is a bad one to begin with. A more appropriate question should be "What would God want to relate to man about His description of the creation?"

Dinosaurs in the Bible?
Many who have studied the Bible believe that it does mention dinosaurs in the text. Specifically, Genesis 1:21 says that God created "great sea monsters" on the fifth day.[SUP]1[/SUP] The Hebrew word tannîyn, can have several meanings, including "dragon," "serpent," "sea monster," or "venomous snake."[SUP]2[/SUP] An analysis of other Old Testament verses indicates that this word usually refers to contemporary aquatic animals or snakes:

Genesis 1:21Ancient (?) Aquatic Animal
Exodus 7:9Contemporary Snake
Exodus 7:10Contemporary Snake
Exodus 7:12Contemporary Snake
Deuteronomy 32:33Contemporary Snake
Job 7:12Contemporary Aquatic Animal
Psalm 74:13Contemporary Aquatic Animal
Psalm 91:13Contemporary Snake
Psalm 148:7Contemporary Aquatic Animal
Isaiah 27:1Contemporary Aquatic Animal
Isaiah 51:9Ancient Land Animal
Jeremiah 51:34Contemporary Land Animal
Ezekiel 29:3Contemporary Aquatic Animal
Ezekiel 32:2Contemporary Aquatic Animal

So, although tannîyn could refer to a dinosaur in Genesis 1, in most other usage throughout the Old Testament, the word refers to species that existed at the time the Old Testament books were written.
The second instance where the Bible might refer to dinosaurs occurs first in the book of Job. The Leviathan[SUP]4[/SUP] is described as being an armored aquatic creature in the book of Job, the Psalms, and Isaiah.[SUP]5[/SUP] The descriptions claim that the creature was contemporary with the writers of the Bible, and are not inconsistent with large alligators or crocodiles. Although dinosaurs are not specifically mentioned in the Bible, the fossil deposits they produced are described as being used by early humans in the opening chapters of Genesis.[SUP]6[/SUP]

Problems with including dinosaurs
There are some technical problems that God would have faced in including dinosaurs in the creation account. There is no word for "dinosaur" in the Hebrew language. Now, God could have invented a Hebrew word for dinosaur and explained what those animals were like and how they had died out. However, this is a one page description of the creation of the world and life in it. Trying to explain about an extinct group of creatures would have taken a lot of space and distracted from the rest of the creation account.
Obviously, there were a lot more creatures than just dinosaurs that were left out of the creation account. If God were to have included every creature in the creation account (well over one billion), such inclusion would have completely lost the spiritual significance of the passage (and would be much longer than the Bible itself). The purpose of the Genesis creation account is to give an account of how God created mankind and provided for him. The account, like the entire Bible, centers on God and His miraculous workings for mankind. Therefore, in the creation account, we find the supernatural creation of the universe by God, indicating that the universe wasn't always here, but created by God for man. Next, it talks about the creation of plants, which are important to humans, since we eat them, and also important to the animals that we rely upon, which also eat them. Then, it talks about the sea creatures and birds, which we also eat. It next talks about the beasts of the field, which we eat and use for labor. Then it talks about the creation of mankind and how he is to have dominion and manage the earth and its creatures.
The second chapter of Genesis gives a spiritual account of the creation of mankind and man's relationship to God. The entire account is centered on God and man. Therefore, one would expect the creation account to describe events that are important to mankind.

Dinosaurs - a modern mindset
Those who claim that the lack of dinosaurs in the creation account is a mistake are looking at the topic on the basis of our modern perspective, which values sensationalism over practicality. Dinosaurs are fascinating! The idea that these creatures walked the same earth that we live on intrigues us. However, the fact that they lived has virtually no effect upon our practical lives.
Some might say that dinosaurs were important in providing fossil fuels (which products were important even in biblical events[SUP]1[/SUP]). Even the fossil fuel argument is not a strong one, since the overwhelming majority of oil came from the bodies of plants and trees - not dinosaurs. Most of those who complain about the lack of dinosaurs in the Bible are looking at the natural world from an evolutionary perspective, in which mankind is just an evolutionary fluke - a recent upstart who doesn't figure prominently in the overall evolutionary history of the earth. Even from an naturalistic perspective, dinosaurs are a failed evolutionary experiment that couldn't compete with their mammalian descendents.

Conclusion

The fact is that dinosaurs are as unimportant to us as they were to the Hebrews to whom the creation account was given. The purpose of the creation account is to provide an explanation of how God provided for mankind and created him as the one spiritual animal on earth. The account is purposely brief and centered upon mankind - the only creature God created on earth to enter into a personal relationship with Him. The Genesis creation account contains all the information necessary to fulfill the purpose given for the recording of the pages of the Bible. As an exercise to illustrate the point, you might want to write your own one page creation account. In doing this, you should center the account on mankind and the creation miracles God used to prepare the earth for him. What you will find is that there is not room to discuss dinosaurs or any other extinct species of life.

Dinosaurs FAQ


Did dinosaurs and humans coexist?
No. All the dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago by a huge asteroid that impacted near the Yucatan Peninsula. The impact was so devastating that if wiped out 30%-80% of other land-dwelling species, as well as over 50% of plant species.[SUP]7[/SUP] This is Scientific American's (August, 1995, page 86) description of the result of a collision of the large asteroid with the earth:
"Sixty-five million years ago an object somewhat larger than Haley's comet slammed into what is now the coast of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. The impact gouged a crater 170 kilometers across and launched debris world-wide. As the multitude of tiny ballistic missiles fell beck to earth, meteors filled the sky, and the atmosphere became red-hot. Fires erupted over the earth's surface, but the global inferno was soon followed by persistent darkness."

What about dinosaur along side human footprints?
Carl Baugh made famous the idea that there exist human footprints along side dinosaur ones at the Paluxy Riverbed near Glen Rose, Texas. However, the "human" prints are huge at about 2 feet long. In addition, they are highly filled in so that the prints are not clear at all. However, some of the prints show three separate areas, suggestive that they come from a three-toed dinosaur. We don't see any biblical evidence of three-toed people, so we are guessing that the "human" prints are really just the prints of smaller dinosaurs. In fact, ICR president John Morris admitted in 1986 that the Paluxy footprints are probably not human but are eroded dinosaur footprints (ICR Impact #151).

What about cave drawings showing dinosaurs?
We haven't seen any caveman drawings that suggest they saw dinosaurs. Some of the better drawings allow us to identify now extinct large mammals. However, when one is trying to interpret caveman scribbles, they could be just about anything, including aliens, rockets or Twinkies.

Did Noah take dinosaurs on the ark?
No. There weren't any dinosaurs to take along at that point in time, since they had died 65 million years ago. In fact, since the flood was likely local in extent, Noah probably did not take Polar Bears, penguins, or giraffes.

References
  1. God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:21)
  2. Brown-Driver-Briggs' Hebrew Definitions:
    tannîyn/tannîym
    tanniyn.gif
    /
    tanniym.gif
    (Strong's H8577)
    1. dragon, serpent, sea monster
      1. dragon or dinosaur
      2. sea or river monster
      3. serpent, venomous snake
    Part of Speech: noun masculine
    A Related Word by BDB/Strong
 
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Oh goody. You got Young Earth Creationists Christians versus Day Age Creationists Christians. From page 1 the Bible is dividing Christians into at least two groups. Too much work. It takes so much less effort to simply say the Bible is a myth than it does to argue that the Bible talks about dinosaurs.
 
In a culture that has no sense of oral tradition yes. But not back then, when a young Jews would memorize the first five books of the old testament before they moved on to a level higher learning. Those who went higher would become a understudy to a Rabbi, where they would memorize the rest of the OT. Just because our modern culture suffers from long term memory problems doesn't mean theirs did.

I only need to look at other cultural myths to see just how easily their memories were problematic.

And the distinction stands. You are talking about the written OT versus the unwritten stories of the NT. It is simple human nature. We alter stories when we tell them without even realizing it.
 
And this movie keeps staying relevant post after post....

[video=youtube_share;l5Kdc0LLSW8]http://youtu.be/l5Kdc0LLSW8[/video]
 
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Oh goody. You got Young Earth Creationists Christians versus Day Age Creationists Christians. From page 1 the Bible is dividing Christians into at least two groups. Too much work. It takes so much less effort to simply say the Bible is a myth than it does to argue that the Bible talks about dinosaurs.

So you would rather be ignorant? :m083:
I'm having trouble computing this...
 
So my assumptions are being needlessly multiplied?

Let us see...

Theory 1: The Bible was written by men and is composed of cultural myths inspired by historical events.

Theory 2: The Bible was divinely inspired by a supernatural being who has carefully hidden himself for over a millennium after selectively choosing men to write and compile an infallible book which doesn't explicitly mention any prehistoric facts or knowledge beyond the time of the men who wrote it, but which tells the story of how that said being created the entire universe to when the son of said being came back from the dead.

Hm...which theory requires considerably more needlessly multiplied assumptions?

Oh, and I didn't even get to the part where Theory 2 conflicts with modern scientific knowledge, and thus has to be reinterpreted so that it accounts for the existence of dinosaurs.
 
Let us see...

Theory 1: The Bible was written by men and is composed of cultural myths inspired by historical events.

Theory 2: The Bible was divinely inspired by a supernatural being who has carefully hidden himself for over a millennium after selectively choosing men to write and compile an infallible book which doesn't explicitly mention any prehistoric facts or knowledge beyond the time of the men who wrote it, but which tells the story of how that said being created the entire universe to when the son of said being came back from the dead.

Hm...which theory requires considerably more needlessly multiplied assumptions?

Oh, and I didn't even get to the part where Theory 2 conflicts with modern scientific knowledge, and thus has to be reinterpreted so that it accounts for the existence of dinosaurs.

May I ask, what do you get out of making threads like this? What are you trying to prove or say to the Christian audience here on the forums?
This is the second thread I've seen so far from you on Christianity and the bible and I have to say that I'm not awfully impressed by the disguises you've placed over the top (if that was the intention), I would even go as far as saying that you were being a tad deceitful. If you're looking for a debate you do realize that all you have to do is sign up on the Christian forums and post away (http://www.christianforums.com/). I highly doubt that you will get the answers you are looking for from here, yet alone accept them. Besides you seem to have your own answers, this thread comes across as an 'seeking approval' thread based on what is being posted. Do you expect to find trained theologists and apologists on this forum or something?

Come on, give me a break. :m125:

Besides what does the above post have to do with dinosaurs?
 
May I ask, what do you get out of making threads like this? What are you trying to prove or say to the Christian audience here on the forums?
This is the second thread I've seen so far from you on Christianity and the bible and I have to say that I'm not awfully impressed by the disguises you've placed over the top (if that was the intention), I would even go as far as saying that you were being a tad deceitful. If you're looking for a debate you do realize that all you have to do is sign up on the Christian forums and post away (http://www.christianforums.com/). I highly doubt that you will get the answers you are looking for from here, yet alone accept them. Besides you seem to have your own answers, this thread comes across as an 'seeking approval' thread based on what is being posted. Do you expect to find trained theologists and apologists on this forum or something?

Come on, give me a break. :m125:

Besides what does the above post have to do with dinosaurs?

It seems we did get a bit off topic, but since you did address some specific questions towards me in regards to my motives and behavior on this forum I do feel obliged to answer. Although doing so feels like deja vu since I am going to literally tell you exactly what I told another member.

I like to understand people. That does not mean I am not human. It does not mean I do not get frustrated as a result of understanding people. The reality is that people are a culmination of their experiences and relationships. Those two factors make a person who they are. If you had been born in Saudi Arabia to a Muslim family then you would be a very different person and have very different beliefs than the ones you hold now. But because of your experiences and the people whom you have had relationships with, you have your own particular way of viewing this world. So how can I hold you accountable for what you believe or what you do? The only time you ever truly exhibit free will is when you question the beliefs and opinions that you accumulated through your experiences and relationships. And believe me, true free will is an act of suffering. I want you to suffer the experience of free will. And that is why I do everything in my power to get people to question the beliefs and opinions they have accumulated over the course of their experiences and relationships. That is the common theme you probably see in these sorts of threads. I want you to question your assumptions.

But here is the interesting thing about ideologies like religion. They are predicated on adhering to them without question. So I want people to suffer free will but religion is inherently bent on denying people their free will by having them conform to principles to which they are suppose to never question.

As such, I am the greatest threat to a religion. I am the "deceiver" since to get people to suffer free will I have to get them to question what they believe without them realizing I am doing it. I have to plant the seeds of doubt.

Why? Because that is my personal morality. Just as a Christian has a moral code that dictates they must condemn homosexual behavior and other such "sins", I have a personal moral code which dictates I must push people outside their comfort zone and get them to experience the free will that is questioning the assumptions, opinions, and beliefs that come from their experiences and relationships.
 
Gee whiz you are awfully clever.

Do yourself a favor and look up, "Quiverfull movement."
Furthermore, observe those associated populations that abhorr birth control.

Then perhaps take into account what ideaologies they hold in common.
Things such as, refusing to acknowledge scientific data that contradicts scripture or their beliefs.
Etc., etc., etc.!

Dios Mio! Someone like Michelle Bachmann has a legitimate shot at becoming the next president.
America at least, has an entire movement of stupid on the rise.

If that makes me snooty in your eyes, so be it... what it comes down to is frustration more than a feeling of superiority, though. Frustration because people of this mindset have a degree of say in the policies that are made. Yes. This ignorance--refusing to accept reality has an effect on the way others live their lives, the way children are educated and even the environment.

And it doesn't seem fair to me that there is a huge percentage of the population who shares these views--making uninformed decisions at the ballot--giving rise to more and more shit for brains pandering politicians who will continue to feed into the collective cesspool of unconscious.

But what can I do? On good days, I hope people will wake up and come to their senses.
On bad days, I make bad jokes about how futile caring about it even is.

Right, because the generalization and assertion that people who believe dinosaurs never existed are the main force for populating the world isn't just a little off color.

Not to mention the group that denounces the use of birth control, which account for maybe half the christian population also believe in abstinence until marriage which lowers birth rates and prevents the spreading of sexual diseases(the latter the majority being something that all major sects of Christianity subscribe to).

But you know, whatever.
 
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@Barnabas
Abstinence before marriage... dinosaurs and people walked the earth together....
Shenanigans!
images.jpg
 
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Right, because the generalization and assertion that people who believe dinosaurs never existed are the main force for populating the world isn't just a little off color.

Not to mention the group that denounces the use of birth control, which account for maybe half the christian population also believe in abstinence until marriage which lowers birth rates and prevents the spreading of sexual diseases(the latter the majority being something that all major sects of Christianity subscribe to).

But you know, whatever.

I totally would have waited to have sex until I was married if the Christian majority had gotten off its high horse and allowed me to have the legal contract of marriage with the person I care about.
 
My point is, if you want to debate over Christianity, the bible and its authenticity then why don't you say so right from the opening post? Otherwise you're going to do everyone's heads in. :m097:
Sorry to be blunt, but its true.

This is a subject that many of us hold close to heart and though it may not be your intention or anyone else's, but threads like this come across as an abattoir; unsuspecting Christians in, God knows what comes out.
I'm not usually one to speak up, but this time I had to.

There's no need to hide behind an opening statement behind someone's else's post. Be honest, we want to know what you want to debate about.

I'm not asking, nor is anyone else for a second to accept what we have to say, but what some of us here on the forums are trying to do is illustrate the 'truth of the matter'.
Christianity, though it may be hard to believe, has been dragged through the mud for so many years, even by those that profess to be Christian themselves.

The ones that are buried underneath the madness that has cropped up over the years in the church are the ones that literally have to shout to clear up the fog of human errors and misinterpretation of scripture.

Yes, of course I'm willing to answer questions, but don't expect me to have all the answers (though I'll give it a shot). I admit, when I posted those articles I was being lazy. In the future I will take the time to analyze, learn and write out my own posts rather than quote.
My apologies.
 
My point is, if you want to debate over Christianity, the bible and its authenticity then why don't you say so right from the opening post? Otherwise you're going to do everyone's heads in.
m097.gif

Sorry to be blunt, but its true.

This is a subject that many of us hold close to heart and though it may not be your intention or anyone else's, but threads like this come across as an abattoir; unsuspecting Christians in, God knows what comes out.
I'm not usually one to speak up, but this time I had to.

There's no need to hide behind an opening statement behind someone's else's post. Be honest, we want to know what you want to debate about.

I'm not asking, nor is anyone else for a second to accept what we have to say, but what some of us here on the forums are trying to do is illustrate the 'truth of the matter'.
Christianity, though it may be hard to believe, has been dragged through the mud for so many years, even by those that profess to be Christian themselves.

The ones that are buried underneath the madness that has cropped up over the years in the church are the ones that literally have to shout to clear up the fog of human errors and misinterpretation of scripture.

Yes, of course I'm willing to answer questions, but don't expect me to have all the answers (though I'll give it a shot). I admit, when I posted those articles I was being lazy. In the future I will take the time to analyze, learn and write out my own posts rather than quote.
My apologies.

You misunderstand. I'm not here to debate about Christianity. I could care less whether you choose to believe in Christianity. What I care about is whether or not you are capable of questioning your beliefs.

Take the woman who allegedly believes that Satan put the fossils in the ground to fool us. I don't care if that is what she chooses to believe. I will be content as long as she is capable of asking herself why she holds that belief and can actually entertain the possibility that she is wrong. She can continue to believe it. I don't care. It is her certainty in her beliefs that I take issue with, not the beliefs themselves.

When I post stuff like that, the intent is that I hope people like yourself will actually question your beliefs. If not, then you are just a walking case of confirmation bias. Whenever you are challenged with indisputable evidence, you will post-hoc analyze your beliefs which means you will simply change them just enough to fit the new information rather than question whether or not they are true to begin with. That certainty that you put in your beliefs does you no favors. It denies you the opportunity of experiencing free will.
 
Here is my last post in this thread.

Whatever answer any of us (Christians) will give you except speaking against what we believe in won't satisfy you in the slightest.
 
Here is my last post in this thread.

Whatever answer any of us (Christians) will give you except speaking against what we believe in won't satisfy you in the slightest.

Not at all. It isn't what you say in this thread that will satisfy me but what you do outside of it.
 
Satya's obsession with proving Christianity wrong is oddly reminiscent of myself on another forum. Of course, all I achieved was have the topic banned from the website because I made too many threads on a "sensitive issue". Psh.
 
One issue is the order. The Bible says that God created sea creatures and birds on the same day, the fifth day, when evolutionarily sea creatures preceded birds by billions of years. Then on the sixth day God created life on land including reptiles, which evolutionarily would have preceded birds.

The Bible does not work with evolution. God and evolution you could make an argument, but the Bible simply does not work. The Bible is just factually wrong.

The Bible is a spiritual book - which uses analogies, allegories, etc. There's a lot of history in it, but there is also a lot of figurative imagery as well. This has always been understood by Christians - at least until the emergence of the protestant churches.

Such foolish readings of the Bible as in the OP example are a symptom of a rejection of the notion of authoritative readings/interpretations of Bible texts. The major theologians, Augustine and Aquinas come to mind, never held that the world was created in six twenty four hour periods.
 
The Bible is a spiritual book - which uses analogies, allegories, etc. There's a lot of history in it, but there is also a lot of figurative imagery as well. This has always been understood by Christians - at least until the emergence of the protestant churches.

Such foolish readings of the Bible as in the OP example are a symptom of a rejection of the notion of authoritative readings/interpretations of Bible texts. The major theologians, Augustine and Aquinas come to mind, never held that the world was created in six twenty four hour periods.

I wasn't arguing that the Bible says the world was created in six, twenty-four hour periods. I was arguing the order the Bible says things were created in is different than the order in how they actually evolved.