Monday, October 15, 2012

Dinosaurs? Alive? TODAY?

 



Are dinosaurs alive today? That’s a good question. A lot of us will jump to the conclusion that the idea is ridiculous, outlandish and totally impossible, not stopping to examine the facts and make an accurate assumption on whether or not dinosaurs might still be alive today. But the fact of the matter is, there is more evidence that dinosaurs are still alive than extinct. 




Before I pose the evidence that dinosaurs could still be alive, I would like to address the reason that most people believe they are not. The main reason is because the hypotheses of evolution says that they are dead. Evolution lives off of lies and, when put to the test, will decay under the stresses of scientific data and biblical truth.
Evolution states that the earth, and everything inside and outside of it, was made as a result of an intergalactic explosion about 4.54 billion years ago. Then, after several different stages on biological and geological changes, random chance created dinosaurs from some unexplainable and improvable oozy, spineless amphibian about 230 million years ago at the beginning of the Triassic period of the fabled stage of evolution. “Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, approximately 230 million years ago, and were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for 135 million years, from the beginning of the Jurassic (about 200 million years ago) until the end of the Cretaceous (65.5 million years ago), when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of most dinosaur groups at the close of the Mesozoic Era. The fossil record indicates that birds evolved from tetrapod dinosaurs during the Jurassic Period, and consequently they are considered a subgroup of dinosaurs in modern classification systems.” Quoted from Wikipedia’s page on dinosaurs.  According to evolution, the dinosaurs went extinct a long time before man came on the scene. They were wiped out by the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, which people say was an asteroid hitting the earth but they really don’t know, or it could have been some really big volcanoes or maybe they all turned into birds and flew away or, their newest guess, the dinosaurs flatulence burned a hole in the O-Zone layer and the UV rays from the sun killed all of the dinosaurs. All of their guesses on how the dinos went extinct are just uneducated guesses fueled by the false belief that there is no Creator. (The interesting thing about the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event is that the evolutionists admit that it happened over a short period of time. The death and fossilization of almost all living things in a short amount of time, a catastrophic event, it sounds more like a worldwide flood to me. ) So I am going to take the evolutionary “truths”, as they call them, and blow them out of the water.
Let’s start with the supposed evolution from dinosaur to bird. Supposedly, our little feathery friends came from dinosaurs. Let’s look at the impossibilities of this assumption. First, let’s examine the external parts of a bird compared to the parts on a dinosaur.
First, the legs. The legs on a dinosaur come off the side of the animal, the legs on a bird come out the bottom. It is impossible for the skeleton of an animal to change so much that the legs come out the bottom of the animal instead of out the side.  Second, dinosaurs were reptiles and, according to the evolutionary thinking, must have had scales. That poses a problem for the mutation. Scales are part of the skin, whereas feathers grow out of the skin and are not part of the skin. It would be impossible for feathers to grow out of scales and for the scales to change into skin that feathers could grow out of. Third, birds are designed to fly, but in order for them to fly, their bones need to be hollow. Dinosaur bones, with the exception of ptarasures (Flying Dinosaurs), have solid bones like humans, dogs, cats, and most other creatures.  In order for dinosaurs to become birds, their bones would have to be hollow, another impossible feat. Next, we have the respiratory system. A dinosaur breathes the same way we do; in one way and out the same. A bird breaths completely differently, it breaths in through its nose, but, instead of breathing out through its nose, the oxygen is sent out to the most active parts of the body to oxidize the blood (the tail, the wings, the heart, etc.). In order for the dinosaurs to become birds, their respiratory system would have to completely change. This is also impossible. You cannot have a half evolved respiratory system or else the animal would die! Lastly, this point has disproven all of the Macro-Evolutionary assumptions; an animal cannot and has never been proven to be able to change into another animal. A dog can never change into a cat and visa-versa. There are other points I could talk about relating to this subject.
What about the asteroid hitting the earth, the hole in the O-Zone layer and the really big volcanoes? Well, there is no substantial evidence for any of that except the volcanoes. Is this a problem for creation? Nope! Creationists believe that during the time of the flood, some major volcanoes may have accrued. In fact, many believe that they are mentioned in the bible. “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth and the windows of heaven were opened.” Gen. 7:11. It is possible that some of the “Fountains of the Great Deep” were volcanoes. So are volcanoes a problem for the creation model? Not at all, in fact, they better prove creation than evolution.
So what about the dinosaurs being extinct before man evolved from some lesser being? Well, there is a little problem with that. You see, there are dinosaur fossils in the fossil record and right next them are the fossils of people. That causes just a little problem with their evolutionary theory.

So now we ask the big question. What happened to the dinosaurs? The answer; nothing. Nothing that didn’t happen to other animals happened to the dinosaurs. How did they survive the flood? Well, how did other animals survive the flood? They went on the ark. But dinosaurs didn’t go on the ark, did they? “You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive” Gen. 6:19-20 answers that question very well, I think. We know the dinosaurs were alive during the time of the flood because they are in the fossil record from during the time of the flood. So if some of them died in the flood, then they were around when the animals went into the ark, which means they were around when God commanded Noah to put two of every kind of animal in the ark and the dinosaurs are certainly a creature that moves on the earth. So there for, dinosaurs must have been on the ark. But how could he fit the dinosaurs on the ark? Here is a little known fact. About 85% of dinosaurs are the same size or smaller than your average Labrador Retriever.  Only 15% are bigger than that and 5% of those are bigger than a horse. 2% of those lived in the water. This would cut down on the size of the space needed to have dinosaurs on the ark. Also, they might have taken babies of the larger dinosaurs. This would cut down on space and would lower the amount of food and waste. Also, we seem to forget that the ark was designed by God. If God wanted dinosaurs on the ark, he would have made it big enough to fit them.
So, once they got off the ark, what happened to them? The same thing that happened to the other animals. They spread out and covered the earth. Some species died out because they were hunted and killed. Others died because there was not enough vegetation. And some died because the climate could not support them. But the majority lived through the flood and the time after the flood. A lot of animals were also killed in the Ice Age. So, going through that process of elimination, how can I say that dinosaurs are still alive? Easy, dogs are still alive and they were at the ark. Cats are still alive and they were at the ark. So, why can’t dinosaurs still be alive? They can still be alive and, I personally believe, are still alive to this very day.
Yes, I know I sound quite a bit radical, but please hear me out. Since the days following the flood, different accounts of dinosaurs have shown up in history. One of the first accounts is found in the book of Job in the Old Testament. “Behold, Behemoth, which I made as I made you; he eats grass like an ox. Behold, his strength in his loins, and his power in the muscles of his belly. He makes his tail stiff like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are knit together. His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like bars of iron. He is the first of the works of God; let him who made him bring near his sword!” Job 40:15-19 ESV. And then again in Job 41. “Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook or press down his tongue with a cord?  Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? Will he make many pleas to you? Will he speak to you soft words? Will he make a covenant with you to take him for your servant forever? Will you play with him as with a bird, or will you put him on a leash for your girls? Will traders bargain over him? Will they divide him up among the merchants? Can you fill his skin with harpoons or his head with fishing spears? Lay your hands on him; remember the battle—you will not do it again! Behold, the hope of a man is false; he is laid low even at the sight of him. No one is so fierce that he dares to stir him up. Who then is he who can stand before me? Who has first given to me, that I should repay him? Whatever is under the whole heaven is mine. “I will not keep silence concerning his limbs, or his mighty strength, or his goodly frame. Who can strip off his outer garment? Who would come near him with a bridle? Who can open the doors of his face? Around his teeth is terror. His back is made of rows of shields, shut up closely as with a seal. One is so near to another that no air can come between them. They are joined one to another; they clasp each other and cannot be separated. His sneezings flash forth light,
and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn. Out of his mouth go flaming torches; sparks of fire leap forth. Out of his nostrils comes forth smoke, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes. His breath kindles coals, and a flame comes forth from his mouth. In his neck abides strength, and terror dances before him. The folds of his flesh stick together, firmly cast on him and immovable.  His heart is hard as a stone, hard as the lower millstone. When he raises himself up the mighty are afraid; at the crashing they are beside themselves. Though the sword reaches him, it does not avail, nor the spear, the dart, or the javelin. He counts iron as straw, and bronze as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee; for him sling stones are turned to stubble. Clubs are counted as stubble; he laughs at the rattle of javelins. His underparts are like sharp potsherds; he spreads himself like a threshing sledge on the mire. He makes the deep boil like a pot; he makes the sea like a pot of ointment. Behind him he leaves a shining wake; one would think the deep to be white-haired. On earth there is not his like, a creature without fear. He sees everything that is high; he is king over all the sons of pride.”
Some Christians believe that the references in Job are referring to an elephant or hippo and a crocodile. They say that God was talking about something else but it sounded like He was talking about a dino like creature or that Job just took poetic liberty writing down this part of his encounter and conversation with God. This, I believe, is more radical and dangerous than saying that dinosaurs are alive today. Why would God tell us something that is different from the actual facts? Why would Job, when writing about have a conversation with God and seeing His incredible creation, leave out or change anything that was said or happened? To me, it makes no since to say that. So, what about the ideas that the Behemoth is an elephant or hippo and that the Leviathan is a crocodile? I see them to be false. In verse 17 of chapter 40, it says that the tail of the Behemoth is “stiff like a Cedar.” Now look at the tail of an elephant or a hippo. The tail on an elephant is a string that hangs down in between their legs, and a hippo’s is a short little stub. Now tell me how you can make either of those animal’s tails “stiff like a Cedar?” Impossible! In one translation of Bible I read, though I do not remember which translation it was, they had changed Behemoth to Hippopotamus, and the foot note for verse 17 said something along the lines of “Probably the trunk.” The last time I checked, hippos didn’t have trunks. Another thing that they forget is verse 19 which says “He is the first of the works of God; let him who made him bring near his sword!” The first part of the verse can also be “He is chief of the ways of God” which, when translated from Hebrew, basically means “Greatest” or “Largest of the works of God!” So we know that the Behemoth was the biggest of all the land creatures, and we know that the elephant is larger than the hippo, and we know that there have been fossils of dinosaurs found that were a lot larger than elephants, so I would say that it is safe to assume that the Behemoth was not either of the two and Behemoth might have even been a dinosaur. Same with Leviathan: Crocodiles can be killed with a bow and a spear, they don’t make wakes in the ocean, they can’t shoot fire out of their mouth. All of these things are what made the leviathan so great. So, if it wasn’t a croc, what was it? I, along with many others, believe it was a dinosaur.
Why would someone want to say that these two incredible creatures that God made to show His power are not what God said they were? I see it as they are a shamed of what the Bible says. They think it makes the Bible sound like a “Fairy-Tale” when it talks about fire breathing dragons and creatures that are virtually invincible to mankind, and can make the deep “like a boiling pot.” But to me, it shows me that our Creator is powerful and is stronger than the strongest and most dangerous of the beasts of the earth. It also says that our God makes amazing creatures. Who doesn’t think a sea monster that can shoot fire out of its mouth and is so big that it makes a huge wake in the ocean isn’t cool?
Our next encounter takes place in the extended book of Daniel. Part of Daniel was left out of the canonized Bible, but is included in the Apocrypha. In Daniel chapter 14, it talks about Daniel’s encounter with a dragon.  “In the brief but autonomous companion narrative of the dragon (14:23-30), "there was a great Dragon, which they of Babylon worshiped." In this case the supposed god is no idol, but an animal. However, Daniel slays the dragon by baking pitch, fat, and hair (trichas) to make cakes (mazas, barley-cakes, but translated "lumps") that cause the dragon to burst open upon consumption. In other variants, other ingredients serve the purpose: in a form known to the Midrash, straw was fed in which nails were hidden, or skins of camels were filled with hot coals, or in the Alexander cycle of Romances it was Alexander the Great who overcame the dragon by feeding it poison and tar.1” It is not a huge reference to dinosaurs, but it still talks about them. But wait a minute; it talks about dragons in this reference, not dinosaurs! Did you know that the word “Dinosaur” was not invented until the 1800’s with the discovery of Iguanodon? During the time of the Bible and after, in records from different cultures and countries, there appear these strange references and drawings of “Dragons.” The descriptions and pictures of these dragons are very similar to the dinosaurs that have been excavated in the present day. It is very possible and likely that these dragons and the dinosaurs are one and the same.
Other references in the Bible are found in Psalms. David talks about both the leviathan and the dragon in the book of Psalms. And in the Revelation, John wrote about the dragon that gets thrown into the lake of fire in the last days.
What about the more recent sightings? What about the flying creature of Tombstone, the torpedoed sea monster in World War I and the “Flying Lizards” of Papua New Guinea? There is also the Loch Ness Monster and Champ and the supposed “Plesiosaur” that was pulled in by a Japanese fishing boat. And then there are the cultures that were built around the dragon or greatly influenced it. The Chinese culture was based on the dragon. In all of their artwork, you see the dragon. In Scandinavia, we have the story of Beowulf who saved his people from the dragon that was torturing his people. We also have the account of St. George and the Dragon, and the list of dragon or “Mysterious Dragon-like Creature” encounters continues to go on. Most of these reports have been researched and been found to be possible and some true, others have been found to be fraud or over-exaggerations like the “Plesiosaur” that was pulled in by a Japanese fishing boat was found to be a decapitated shark. But the winged creature of Tombstone, Arizona was found to be true. Others like the Loch Ness Monster are still not proven to be true or false. I hope you now understand why earlier I said that there is more evidence that they are still alive than against it. The only true argument that people have for saying that dinosaurs are not alive, is that they have not seen them, and, as we have just seen, that argument is not completely valid either.

Do we know if dinosaurs are still alive? In short, no, no one really knows if dinosaurs are still alive except for God. What if someone found a living dinosaur? Well, if someone found a dinosaur that was still alive today, the discovery would be monumental. For Creationists, it would help to further prove that Creation better fits science than Evolution, and Evolutionists would have a lot of explaining to do. If dinosaurs were found living, it would demolish one of the few remaining evolutionary pillars that the atheists cling to so dearly. But would they care about the new evidence, or would they cling to and continue to spread their poisonous lies to children through our corrupt education system? We do know that in the end, truth and good will overcome all.

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