Creation Science Rebuttals
Answers in Genesis Daily Feature
AiG is Taking Dinosaurs Where?
9 May 2005
Review by Greg Neyman
First Published 10 May 2005
Young earth creation science ministry Answers in Genesis has bravely announced that May 2005 is the month in which they are "Taking Dinosaurs Back." They believe they are setting the record straight on dinosaurs, and their belief that dinosaurs and man lived together just 6,000 years ago.
To examine their claim, let's look at Ken Ham's article dated 9 May. It is titled "We've Invaded Their "Temple"!1
Claim #1: "Evolutionists absolutely hate it when AiG uses dinosaurs to proclaim the falsity of the idea of evolution and the truth of the history in Genesis." Evolutionists don't hate it...they laugh at the idea that supposed scientists can so badly misuse science to prove their own agenda, when not one shred of evidence supports dinosaurs having lived only 6,000 years ago. In reality, what they do hate is the "misuse of science" (which is synonymous with "young earth creationism").
Claim #2: "Unfortunately, most people equate dinosaurs with millions of years and the evolution belief system." And rightly so! If most people equate dinosaurs with millions of years, it goes to show that our educational system is doing an excellent job! One hundred percent of the evidence shows that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago. Evolution is still a debatable topic, and you can believe God created the world over millions of years, with or without evolution, so the choice is yours on this issue.
Claim #3: "This has occurred because the church—by and large—handed dinosaurs over to the “world” when they abandoned the literal history so clearly communicated in Genesis and allowed belief in millions of years and evolutionary ideas..." Ham blames the church for the church's problems...only there is no problem here! A literal reading of Genesis supports millions of years, with or without evolution. The problem is not that millions of years violates the teaching of Scripture...the problem is that millions of years violates Ham's interpretations of the Scriptures. Fortunately, we are being judged by God, not Ham.
Claim #4: "we have invaded your evolutionary temples, and we have gone into your “holy of holies.”" For some unknown reason, Ham thinks young earth creationists are a force to be reckoned with. He says they are taking dinosaurs back from evolution. Go ahead, make all the claims you want...the evolutionists are not listening, but your saber-rattling will sound impressive to your followers.
Claim #5: "it’s not ridiculous to believe dinosaurs and people lived at the same time (as the Bible makes very clear)..." Yes, it is...just check out the resources on this website, such as Dinosaurs and the Age of the Earth and Dinosaur Evidences for an Old Earth.
Claim #6: The Crocodile Argument: Just because crocodiles were around during dinosaur time, and crocs and man are together now, it does not in any way imply that dinosaurs and man were together. Just because an animal is unchanged over millions of years, it does not disprove evolution. Evolution allows for a species to remain unchanged. For more, check out the article Living Fossils.
Claim #7: "And of course there’s a lot of other interesting evidence, such as dragon legends, the description of Behemoth in Job 40, Indian petroglyphs that look like dinosaurs and so on." Unfortunately, there are answers to all of these false claims:
For Dragon Legends and Indian Petroglyphs, see Paleontology Pioneers
For Job 40, see Job 40, 41. Also see a thorough rebuttal of Ham's dinosaur book, The Great Dinosaur Mystery Solved.
Conclusion
Ken Ham states that "Nothing in observational science contradicts the obvious conclusion based on the Bible’s history." He is of course talking about a YEC interpretation of the Bible's history. However, if we interpret the Bible outside of YEC bias, the points below are correct:
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The Bible supports a millions of years old earth
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There is absolutely no geologic evidence for a global flood that killed all the dinosaurs
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There were certainly no dinosaurs on the ark (we would be extinct if there were! See Noah's Ark Does Not Prove a Young Earth
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There isn't a single piece of evidence to show that dinosaurs and man lived together
Evolutionists are not quaking in their boots, for fear that dinosaurs will be thought to be 6,000 years old. (They may be quaking, but it is from their laughter!) Ham's claim that they are Taking Dinosaurs Back is the most empty claim to come out of young earth creationists in many months (as I edit this page in February 2006, 9 months after this claim, dinosaurs are still believed to be millions of years old, proving Ham's words were empty rhetoric).
Although Ken Ham is sincere and really believes what he is saying, Christians should not blindly follow the teachings of one who so blatantly ignores science. In reality, young earth creationists are not "taking dinosaurs back"...young earth creationists are being "taken" on a science fiction trip...we can only pray that they will come down to earth and realize the truth, and abandon the false teachings of young earth creationism.
You need not fret, however...you can believe in an inerrant, literal Genesis, and believe that the earth is billions of years old. Your salvation is not affected by the age of the earth.
1 answersingenesis.org/us/newsletters/0505lead.asp
If you are not a Christian, and you have been holding out on making a decision for Christ because the Church always preached a message that was contrary to what you saw in the scientific world, then rest assured that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, and you can believe in Christ and receive salvation, while still believing in an old earth. Click here for more.
Are you a Christian who believes in young earth creationism? Now that we have shown the many difficulties of the young earth creation science model in this and many other articles, how does this impact your Christian life? If you are a young earth creationism believer, click here.
Answers In Genesis 2005 Daily Features
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