Hi Perry,
"But seriously there are mountains of evidence to blast holes through the standard evolutionary naturalistic worldview paradign."
I had never heard of the s8int.com site before. So I pulled it up and picked one of the subjects that looked interesting. One headline was this:
Why Contemporaneous Man and Dinosaur Matters
Beside the old photo the site said this: This apparent Plesiosaur specimen washed ashore in Monterey Bay, California in 1925. It sported a twenty foot or so long neck and some witnesses described a number of legs on the creature. Are Plesiosaurs still living in the Pacific Ocean?
and then gave the reader these three options for a conclusion...
Within the man/dino controversy there exists at least three distinct groups;1)Creationists who (for religious reasons- Christianity) would like proof that man and dinosaurs co-existed because it would support the Biblical view of creation,2)Scientists, who (for religious reasons: Evolution) do not want to see any proof of man/dinosaur coexistence because it would do radical damage to the theory and 3)Objective scientists who for scientific reasons want to know what the facts actually are.
Hopefully you can easily spot the problem here, right? The theory of evolution is about how life forms change over time in response to selective pressures. Darwin's book is entitled On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection. The theory of evolution would not suffer "radical damage" if man and dinosaur coexisted. In general it hasn't worked out that way, but there is nothing within the framework of the theory that would preclude such a possibility. As per Wikipedia, homo habilis takes us back about 2.3 million years. Compared to dinosaurs which run from 231.4 to 66 million years ago (again from Wikipedia). So, with a gap of some 63 million years there is no overlap.
However, some animals closely related to dinosaurs have survived to our age. The crocodile is a good example as are several different type of birds. Given that modern crocodiles are little changed since the period of the dinosaurs some might say (speaking casually) that man and dinosaur do overlap even now.
What though about this odd monster? Many hold the view that an asteroid impact likely led to the extinction of dinosaurs 66 million years ago. This changed the selective pressures in the environment that in turn led to the rise of the mammals and eventually us. It would not be inconcievable that some ancient life that lives in the deep ocean may not have been suffered the same fate as their land dwelling bretheren. In fact, this may have been why crocodiles survived the extinction event of 66 million years ago.
However, what I found most disturbing about the s8int.com site is the fact that it uses: http://www.trueauthority.com/cryptozoology/moore.htm for the quotes, but then does not quote the authors conclusions on the matter. Here they are...
Berardius bairdi are the largest of the beaked whales, reaching a length of over 40 feet, though typically are smaller. They are in the family Ziphiidae, or beaked whales, and are in the Cetacean order. Listed as non-threatened, they inhabit deep waters (over 3,300 ft.) of the North Pacific Ocean.
Physically, Baird's beaked whale has a distinctively narrow beak, with the lower jaw extending beyond the upper. A pair of large teeth protrudes at the tip of the lower jaw, and behind these is a pair of smaller teeth. Female whales are generally larger than males and lighter in color, but have smaller teeth. Interestingly, adult males are commonly marked with scars, caused by their own species, suggesting that there is much rivalry and competition for leadership of groups of breeding females. The normal social unit is a group of 6 to 30, led by a dominant male. The whales mate in midsummer, and gestation lasts for 10 months, sometimes longer.
This species of whale holds to a strange migration pattern. The opposite of normal whale migration, they spend the summer in warm waters to the south of their range off California and Japan, then move northwards in winter to the cooler waters of the Bering Sea and similar areas. These movements could possibly be connected with the local abundance of food supplies. Deep divers, Baird's beaked whales feed on squid, fish, octopus, lobster, crabs and other invertebrates.
One explanation against the theory that the Moore's Beach Monster was a Baird's beaked whale is the idea that they don't come as far south as the central coast of California. This is false. Though rarely seen, they are a highlight of whale watchers. To rest the issue, the first head photograph above was, in fact, taken in Monterey Bay. Other evidence, however, does present roadblocks to the Baird's explanation, as we shall now analyze.
Cheers,
-Randy
