Creation Science Review

The Asteroid Impact Killed the Dinosaurs...Or Did It?

First Published 12 June 2020

Young earth creationists frequently make seemingly fantastic claims on their websites, such as one made on 11 June 2020¹, which claims that scientists now believe the dinosaurs were not killed off by an asteroid, but rather that they were slowly dying off prior to it, and even lived after the impact, which according to the author, Ken Ham, fits with the young earth theory. Contrary to Ham reporting this as a new 'claim' by scientists...we have known this for many years! But when a new report comes in, YEC's pounce on it, like a starving dog on a piece of scrap food.¹

The article starts,

“Everyone” knows that an asteroid impact 66 million years ago killed the dinosaurs—at least, that’s the evolutionary narrative we hear over and over again! But, wait: that might not be what happened! (Spoiler: according to God’s Word, that’s absolutely not what happened.)

Here we go again: the evolutionary story has changed once again.

The article clearly points to the extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous. If you look up what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, most likely it will say the Chixalub asteroid impact was the culprit. But this is an oversimplification of the entire extinction event, and paleontologists have known for many years that the story is much more than just an asteroid. For example, one of the leading dinosaur experts of our day, Dr. Bob Bakker, said this in 1986...34 years ago:

But for quite a while now, orthodox paleobotony has maintained the extinctions were spread over tens of thousands of years or more. And no question, this time orthodoxy has got it right. Paleontologists working in Montana claim they observe a gradual extinction of the dinosaurs and Cretaceous mammals and a gradual build-up of new groups of mammalia, destined for world domination in the next era. In fact, with few exceptions, paleontologists are in rare agreement. The last extinctions were not a single weekend of colossal slaughter but a drawn-out process requiring thousands and even millions of years.²

Scientists have known for many years that the fossil record shows a gradual decline in the number of dinosaur species leading up to the K-T boundary 65.5 million years ago. And some studies suggest that some species may have lived for several hundred thousand years after the event.² Yet Ham reads this news report, and claims "So the evolutionary story has changed again..." Not really. Its been our story all along, at least for the last few decades. Ham needs to catch up with reality! Dr Bob Bakker

He goes on to claim "The extinction of the dinosaurs remains a huge mystery to those who refuse to start with God's Word as history." He is trying to illustrate to his young earth readers that modern scientists don't have a clue about dinosaur extinction (since they don't read the Bible), however, many scientists DO read the Bible, and accept it as true, while maintaining that the earth is old...one example being none other than Dr. Bob Bakker, whose quote I used above (he is actually a preacher too).

While Ham claims that he has the story of the dinosaurs right, because he starts with the Bible, the Bible itself does not mention dinosaurs at all. To study the dinosaurs, one must rely upon their fossils, and the rocks in which they are found, thus while we can garner some clues from Special Revelation (the Bible), we also must look to General Revelation (God's creation), to piece together a complete story of the dinosaurs. But because Ham starts by assuming his young earth interpretation (which is a man-made interpretation) is correct, he chooses to ignore the plain scientific data, which clearly states the earth is old, and dinosaurs died out millions of years ago.

The most shocking part of Ham's claim...Ham is talking about the dinosaur extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous, 65.5 million years ago. If you look at the news report Ham is basing this on, it is not about this event at all! The new scientific report focuses on the mass extinction that occured 201 million years ago, known as the Triassic-Jurassic Extinction event. Sometimes I look at YEC claims, and since they are ridiculous, I think "you can't make this stuff up." (The news reporter he quotes got it wrong too. The news story Ham quotes is based on this report. Ham clearly didn't research this matter...or he didn't care.)

Ham concludes that "When we start with God's Word, we have the true history that explains what we see in the world." Yet for myself, and others like Dr. Bakker, we can also start with God's Word, and come to much different conclusions, because Ham comes to the table with his "interpretation," which overrides everything that disagrees with his young earth beliefs. Ham clearly has Morton's Demon working within him.

¹ https://answersingenesis.org/dinosaurs/asteroid-impact-killed-dinosaurs-or-did-it. NOTE: AiG deleted this article within 30 minutes of this rebuttal being published. I printed the screen, and here it is (AiG owns the copyright to the material...this is merely an image). Ham normally also posts his Blog articles to Facebook, but this one has apparently been deleted also. Here is the Youtube video that AiG uploaded discussing the new claim, which actually contradicts Ham's article...fast forward to 2:30.)

² Bakker, Robert T., PhD, The Dinosaur Heresies, 1986. Page 435

³ http://palaeo-electronica.org/2009_1/149/conclus.htm

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Dinosaur Articles

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