Jesus Loved the Dino's
What Do JWs Think About Dinosaurs?
by Cold Steel 33 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
-
-
Cold Steel
Here is something from a non-JW website (the picture looks like it could have been out of a Watchtower magazine!):
The fossil record is filled with large reptiles called dinosaurs that are typically found in the section of the geological column known as the Mesozoic (seen at left). They are believed to have gone extinct from the earth about 65 million years before the first humans lived. However, according to the Biblical account of earth's early history, God created all the land animals and humans on exactly the same day. The Bible also says there was a great devastating flood that covered the highest mountains by 20 feet, and was only survivable through divine intervention. The scientific community does not recognize this devastating global flood, and therefore if the Bible is true, the fossils and rock layers that blanket the world have been misinterpreted.
The fossiliferous layers of rock are assumed to have accumulated at a rate the animals alive today could have survived naturally, and are therefore believed to have accumulated through repeated local floods and gradual buildup over millions of years. According to this interpretation, animals such as the dinosaurs are believed to have lived on the earth for 200 million years. It is thought they went extinct long before humans evolved because they are not typically found in the same layers of strata. However, if indeed the fossil record is instead a history of Noah's flood, the animals died at different times, but separated by weeks perhaps instead of millions of years.
Many animals are alive today which remain unchanged from their appearance in the fossil record, and countless out of order fossils have been found worldwide. If the Biblical chronology is correct, organisms such as the dinosaurs and humans must have cohabited the world for more than 1500 years prior to the flood. Likewise, the dinosaurs were also among the animals spared from the flood along with all others, and lived on earth following the flood with humans for an indefinite period of time.
If the Bible is true, then most of the animals we find fossilized were buried during the great flood of Noah. It is clear that countless species became extinct as a result of this catastrophe, however pairs of each kind of animal were brought to the ark by God so they would be spared from the flood and repopulate the earth. As the specifics regarding their preservation were provided by God, it is logical that they would also survive the post-flood environment. Therefore, according to this theory, the dinosaurs that were on board the ark probably did not go extinct from natural difficulties, but have instead either perished at man's hand, or some may still be alive today.
Job 40:15-19: Look at the behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox. What strength he has in his loins, what power in the muscles of his belly! His tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are close-knit. His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like rods of iron. He ranks first among the works of God, yet his Maker can approach him with his sword.
------------------------
-
cult classic
jwoods - I remember hearing that as a kid. (that dinosaurs were here to put oil on the earth)
This highly unintelligent elder argued one of my friends down in field circus one day. She mentioned something about dinosaurs and he gave her a pitiful, condescending look and told her, "sister there were never any dinosaurs on the earth. that's a teaching from the world." She was so upset! They got into this argument while going from door to door.
Later in the week he came back and told her he looked up dinosaurs in the publications and now he believes they existed.
-
JWoods
Later in the week he came back and told her he looked up dinosaurs in the publications and now he believes they existed.
Yeah - they were just not "real" to him from the fossil record and displayed specimens in the science museums until he read it in the publications.
Right.
But then, if have talked to evangelical fundamentalists who think that Satan put the fossils here to fool unbelievers into the idea of evolution -
-
Darth plaugeis
Satan put the fossils here to fool unbelievers into the idea of evolution -
That is the FUNNIEST THING I ever heard of........
-
upnorth
This has been covered already in this thread
JW's and Think ? in the same sentence
-
JWoods
That is the FUNNIEST THING I ever heard of........
I know - but Darth, the fundy that told me that (I work with him, and he is actually a pretty smart guy on computer issues) was as serious as a bad case of rectal cancer.
-
yknot
*** g90 2/8 p. 11 What Happened to the Dinosaurs? ***
The Genesis Account and Dinosaurs
While the radioactive dating method is innovative, it is still based on speculation and assumption. In contrast, the Bible account in the first chapter of Genesis simply states the general order of creation. It allows for possibly thousands of millions of years for the formation of the earth and many millenniums in six creative eras, or “days,” to prepare the earth for human habitation.
Some dinosaurs (and pterosaurs) may indeed have been created in the fifth era listed in Genesis, when the Bible says that God made “flying creatures” and “great sea monsters.” Perhaps other types of dinosaurs were created in the sixth epoch. The vast array of dinosaurs with their huge appetites would have been appropriate considering the abundant vegetation that evidently existed in their time.—Genesis 1:20-24.
When the dinosaurs had fulfilled their purpose, God ended their life. But the Bible is silent on how he did that or when. We can be sure that dinosaurs were created by Jehovah for a purpose, even if we do not fully understand that purpose at this time. They were no mistake, no product of evolution. That they suddenly appear in the fossil record unconnected to any fossil ancestors, and also disappear without leaving connecting fossil links, is evidence against the view that such animals gradually evolved over millions of years of time. Thus, the fossil record does not support the evolution theory. Instead, it harmonizes with the Bible’s view of creative acts of God.
-
JWoods
When the dinosaurs had fulfilled their purpose, God ended their life. But the Bible is silent on how he did that or when. We can be sure that dinosaurs were created by Jehovah for a purpose, even if we do not fully understand that purpose at this time.
A most authoratative way to spout forth by saying "we absolutely have no clue, but we don't want it to be evolution" -
-
Leolaia
The Society leaves the question completely open:
*** g90 2/8 p. 11 What Happened to the Dinosaurs? ***
When the dinosaurs had fulfilled their purpose, God ended their life. But the Bible is silent on how he did that or when. We can be sure that dinosaurs were created by Jehovah for a purpose, even if we do not fully understand that purpose at this time.So different JWs take up different opinions on this. My own opinion at the time was that if the Society is right that the geologic eras correspond to the creative days (confirming the correct order of creation as given in Genesis 1), then the dinosaurs became extinct prior to the creation of humankind itself, the last of the creative acts (which appears at the very end of the geologic record). Whoever illustrated the brochure depicting the tyrannosaurus drowning in the Flood obviously believed that dinosaurs coexisted with humans but became extinct because of the Flood (the extinction event responsible for their demise was the Flood), just as we see extinct mammoths in the same illustration. But many JWs believed that dinosaurs survived the Flood and point to the description of Behemoth and Leviathan in Job as evidence. I knew one pioneer sister who talked about this a lot, who believed that there were still dinosaurs living in the deepest darkest Africa. I could never go along with this because I knew how space-challenged the ark was already with trying to cram in all the many different "kinds" of animals alive today, and putting two of each dinosaur "kind" into the ark would multiply the space requirements by another magnitude.
