Hello everyone. I am 12 years old and I have been a christian my whole life. I was wondering what yall thought about dinosours.. I have read in my bible and God made everything within seven days, without mentioning dinosours. Also when we think of dinosours we think they roamed the land without any other animals, just dinosours. Also also, Aligators are believed to be of been a dinosour but why didn't they get extinct too then???

This is very confusing.... I dont not believe they were real. But I don't believe...?:confused I know us as norrmal humans can't really know the answer. But I would much apprectate if everyoene gave their opinion on the topic.

Thanks lots,

templelane

Hi, I think were you are getting confused is that you have been taught creationism, believing the literal truth of the bible but have also heard some talk of evolution.

You will probably get a lot of creationist teaching in your church if you ask for it so I am going to give you the other side of the story.

The earth is billions of years old.
How do we know? We have means of dating the rocks we stand on, there are several methods that all confirm that the earth is very old.
Here is a nice site about geological time Geologic Time

Dinosaurs existed millions of years ago.
How do we know that? We have found their fossilised bones,. We have dated them using the rocks and elements inside of the fossils. They are really interesting to learn about Dinosaur - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alligators are not dinosaurs they are lizards. Their early ancestors (Crocodyloformes) were alive at the time of the dinosaurs and they have barely changed since then. Have a look at this picture
Image:Sprawling and erect hip joints - horiz.png - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alligators have a sprawling leg formation as they are a different species.

Now to Evolution Theory.
People will tell you it is 'just a theory' but the scientific meaning and the everyday meaning are different.
When a scientist says something is a theory it means that it has been supported by lots of facts, experiments and has even made predictions that have been proved right.
Another scientific theory is are the theory of gravity . Have a look at this site to understand the difference between a theory and a hypothesis Scientific Laws, Hypotheses, and Theories - The Scientific Method.

You do not have to be an atheist to accept evolution! There are loads of good Christians and other theists (somebody who believes in God) who also accept evolution.

What is evolution?

Introduction to Evolutionary Biology

This video explains why many arguments against evolution are not valid and in some cases just completely wrong. I would suggest watching other videos by this author as he is very eloquent and can explain things very well.

Have a look at these videos - easier than reading!YouTube - 7 -- The Theory of Evolution Made Easy

If you want to get the balanced view- and I suggest you do, have a look at the response videos supporting creationism that are linked to his arguments.

I'm not going to tell you what to believe but try to keep an open mind and have a look at the sites I have posted. Also ask you biology teacher to explain bits you don't understand.

I've got to get back to work so can't explain further right now but if you have any questions I'll have a go answering.

starbuck8

Hi there hun,

I didn't realise you were 12 when you posted on the other thread with the dancing dog. You are still very welcome to show up at the doggie dancing party though. Everyone brings their pets, and we just chat, and have fun.

I know there will be someone who gives you answers that are more precise, but yes there were dinosaurs. There is proof of that, and that is why there are archaeologists, and paeleantologists. They have found and studied the primitive dinosaur skeletons.

God put everything on this earth for a reason, ie: fossil fuel. I'm not feeling so smart on this subject at the moment, but I'm so glad you are asking questions like this to get the answers that you need to learn. Don't ever be afraid to ask something you are unsure of.

I'm sure you will get many more responses to your question dear girl.

God Bless!

s_cianci

Where the bible says "and there were giants in the earth in those days", some take that as a reference to the dinosaurs. Dinosaurs existed before the flood. As they did not make their way onto the ark, for whatever reason, they died and obviously could never reproduce, thus bringing about their extinction. It's not clear whether the dinosaurs co-existed with humans or were confined to those parts of the earth that were uninhabited by humans.

Fr_Chuck

What you often run into is non christian people who will want to teach you so many things that also may not be true. Part of the issue is if you are in public education you will have to learn many of the silly things they often teach as science just to past thier tests. But for most of the real truth, talk to your Pastor and Sunday school teacher.

The real issue is that there are several thoughs, one of course God did created the dinosaurs who could not exist after the flood Also with that, there are a small group who also beleive that manyt things are formed by satan to hurt the truth of God.

MeMeMoo

Thanks Heaps for all of ya answers. I now understand that dinosours existed but did not make then flood and aligators survived because they are able to swim. Yall have been extreemly helpful. I am glad there and so lovley and nice people on here and being as young as I am if I have any questions I can know my friends on here will happily answer them.

oneguyinohio

It is truely amazing that so many people are willing to accept as truth, something written by fallible men, as the only possible source of correct information then use the information gleaned from that one source as justification to exclude all other possibilities.

If the bible was so perfect, why was there a need for so many revisions? Could it be so that it fit the opinions those in charge wanted the masses of uneducated followers to accept with threats of eternal damnation for any who dared to question?

If church teachings were never questioned or altered, then the earth would still be the center of our solar system and languages such as Latin or Hebrew would be much more common.

As far as the question of evolution, I encourage the original poster to keep asking questions, and looking for the answers from a variety of sources and not only from those willing to exclude on the basis of doctrine formulated by controlling authorities with an agenda of self propagation.

Naturally, the amount of research you will be able to share, and seek, will be limited by your environment. If you are questioning the beliefs of those around you, life may not be easy and you may suffer as a result. Hearing such things as the devil is misleading you would not be uncommon from some people. Ostracism and ridicule are other potential hazards that you might experience, from others within your church or educational environment.

You don't have to accept blindly the teachings of others, but be careful who you listen to and share your ideas with. It is important to consider the foundations of other's beliefs and agenda's for what they have to say.

I wish you well, and I am sure that the evolution debate will not be resolved as long as there are two people with different opinions.

vingogly

In Genesis God says: "Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures ... Let the earth bring forth living creatures ..." He's calling His creation to bring these things forth. Sounds a lot like evolution, doesn't it?

You bring up the gaps in the fossil record ... whether an animal or plant fossilizes is a matter of chance, and knowing how rare fossil formation is we would expect gaps in the fossil record. We also have plugged many of the supposed gaps, even in recent years (for example, we have found transitional forms for the whale from its land animal ancestor, and for the fish-to-amphibian transition since you were born). So the claims that creationists make about these gaps are, I'm afraid, false.

If you choose not to believe in evolution, that's fine. But realize that many people (myself included) are Christian and have no problem with evolution. God could have created everything in a flash. Instead, He chose to make a world that could bring marvelous things out of itself. That's the real miracle of creation.

Gernald

I think perhaps it is possible to beleive both...if you don't look at either too specificlly.

So I think G-d created the world...but not in one week as the bible claims, but more like millions of years. Man wasn't created until later in the week and all the animals were created before man therefore if you're looking at a time scale of millions of years then that would give a chance for dinos to exist go extinct and for man to emerge.

I totally agree with vingogly with this one...you can beleive both, the real miracle is the existance of the world, and how it changes.

Good luck with your quest for the truth.

Lavina

These were taken my from old job at the museum. I worked with dinosaur fossils. So pretty much there's the proof.