Creation Science Rebuttals

The Claim

      The author, David Catchpoole, notes that the scientists found the remains of three birds in the dinosaur's stomach. The dinosaur was a theropod of the species Sinocalliopteryx gigas, and two of the birds were of the species Confuciusornis sanctus.   Catchpoole uses this scientific article to make two claims:

Claim 1: "The Bible tells us of a global catastrophic event, the Flood of Noah's day, about 4,500 years ago. This is why we find billions of fossils in sedimentary rock worldwide."

Claim 2: (paraphrased)  Evolution says birds evolved from dinosaurs, but these birds obviously did not.  They coexisted with dinosaurs. The worldwide flood "washes away" the millions of years needed by evolution.  This discovery of bird-eating dinosaurs has evolutionists "in a flap." 

The Truth

      Claim 1: True, we find billions of fossils in sedimentary rocks worldwide.  However, there is absolutely no evidence that all of these fossils came from a single event.  Sedimentary rocks tell a history of the earth, and that history is much more complicated that YEC's simplistic system allows. Sedimentary layers are separated by other sedimentary layers (including those formed by dry, desert environments), disconformities, volcanic layers, etc. The geologist studies these layers, and builds a complex history of the rocks, that clearly shows that while sedimentary layers are laid down by water, many other layers in between are volcanic, or wind-deposited, or are eroded away.  YEC's claim  the Flood made all these deposits, but after making the claim, they turn a blind eye away from all the evidence that clearly indicates the passage of millions of years of time.  The only ones buying the YEC claims are YEC's.

      In the case of this particular fossil, the dinosaur is found in the Yixian Formation, which spans 11 million years, and is composed of basalts interspersed with siliciclastic sediments.  It was deposited approximately 125 million years ago.  There are deposits of coal, oil shale, and volcanic rocks that are stratigraphically on top of the Yixian.  The Yixian is the result of a freshwater lake environment, which because of volcanic activity, periodic wildfires, and noxious gasses released from the lake bottoms, caused the ecosystem to be continually destroyed and regrown.  The YEC flood model cannot account for multiple fires, volcanics, and subsequent deposition of new lakebed deposits, all within the one-year period of Noah's flood.

     Claim #2:  This claim is an attack upon the evolutionary theory of birds evolving from dinosaurs.  The claim is that a "correct understanding" of the flood removes any evidence of millions of years. However, geologists see no evidence for a single flood, and that is a topic that has been covered extensively on this website and others, so no need to discuss it here.  Does the finding of birds in a dinosaur stomach have evolutionists "in a flap?" This hit-and-run statement at the end comes from a news report on a previous discovery of a bird-eating dinosaur.  The title of that report is "First proof of bird-eating dinosaur has scientists in a flap." If you read the article, though, it is clear that there is a disconnect between the title and the contents.  There is no "flap" at all.  The article states, "Paleontologists have always surmised that dinosaurs enjoyed snacking on feathered animals."  There is no real "flap" in the sense that the YEC article is reporting.  The flap is a play on words related to the birds flapping feathers, and it is not used in a sense that the report is causing discord among evolutionists.  Of course, the YEC reader of the article will not learn this, as he/she will simply take the YEC claim at its face value and move on to the next piece of YEC propaganda.

     We have noticed this claim has made its way into Creation discussion groups on the internet, with such statements as "How could birds have evolved from dinos if dinos were eating birds.  Others have pointed out though, that predatory birds (hawks, eagles) eat other birds, snakes eat snakes, and human cannibals eat humans.  Cannibalism within species does not negate evolution.   

¹  Creation Magazine, Volume 35, Issue 2.  Published on the web at http://creation.com/3-birds-in-a-dinosaur