Could Dinasaurs Still Live Among Us?
I believe in creation. I also believe in a literal 6 days of creation. But I also believe that it is possible that dinosaurs existed and they may even exist today. But how could dinosaurs have existed if God created the world only around 5000 years ago and dinosaurs supposedly existed many millions of years ago?
The first answer is found in the Apparent Age theory. This theory says that the world was created with the appearance of being millions of years old, just as the first man and woman were created with the appearance of being twenty plus years old.
The other explanation that I have is that the world may indeed be older than 5000 years, yet God still created it in only 6 days: the two are not mutually exclusive. Although the Bible says that Adam had lived 130 years when his first son was born, we do not know for certain when they started counting years. It is possible that Adam and Eve had been in the garden of Eden for many thousands of years before they sinned. Could it be that they only started counting time after they were placed outside of Eden? We don't know.
We do know from the Biblical records that after Adam and Eve were sent out of Eden, humans lived about ten times as long as they do now. For example, it is recorded that Adam lived 930 years. As diseases increased throughout the world, the life expectancy of humans decreased until recent years when medical research has helped to increase life expectancy somewhat. Some of the features of their long life may not have disappeared entirely by the time of King David where it is recorded that they fought against a race of giants who were as tall as nine feet. By the New Testament times historical documents show that the average size man was closer to five feet than six feet.
With this understanding, is it really so difficult to imagine what some of our current reptiles would look like if they also loved ten times as long. Imagine a komodo dragon that lived 500 years instead of the approximately fifty they now live. Instead of growing up to ten feet long, it is feasible that they would grow to as much as 100 feet in length. It is now not so difficult to see how stories about dragons would exist throughout literature.
Now imagine if the counting of years did not exist until after Adam and Eve left Eden. What if an iguana lived 1000 years? It could possibly grow to 500 feet long or more. What about mammals such as the elephant or rhino? Or what about animals and reptiles which have become extinct in the past two thousand years? How would they have looked living ten times their normal age?
We recently visited the Smithsonian Natural History museum and it was very easy to see how these skeletal remains could have belonged to some current living creature that had an increased life. Remember that virtually none of the large dinosaur remains have been found complete. Scientists have pieced together these skeletal remains into what they think they should look like, often based on pre-conceived ideas. The drawings and plaster images of the dinosaurs are pure guesses. What if the long necked dinosaurs were actually giraffes that had grown to 200 feet tall?
Gives us something to think about anyway.
The first answer is found in the Apparent Age theory. This theory says that the world was created with the appearance of being millions of years old, just as the first man and woman were created with the appearance of being twenty plus years old.
The other explanation that I have is that the world may indeed be older than 5000 years, yet God still created it in only 6 days: the two are not mutually exclusive. Although the Bible says that Adam had lived 130 years when his first son was born, we do not know for certain when they started counting years. It is possible that Adam and Eve had been in the garden of Eden for many thousands of years before they sinned. Could it be that they only started counting time after they were placed outside of Eden? We don't know.
We do know from the Biblical records that after Adam and Eve were sent out of Eden, humans lived about ten times as long as they do now. For example, it is recorded that Adam lived 930 years. As diseases increased throughout the world, the life expectancy of humans decreased until recent years when medical research has helped to increase life expectancy somewhat. Some of the features of their long life may not have disappeared entirely by the time of King David where it is recorded that they fought against a race of giants who were as tall as nine feet. By the New Testament times historical documents show that the average size man was closer to five feet than six feet.
With this understanding, is it really so difficult to imagine what some of our current reptiles would look like if they also loved ten times as long. Imagine a komodo dragon that lived 500 years instead of the approximately fifty they now live. Instead of growing up to ten feet long, it is feasible that they would grow to as much as 100 feet in length. It is now not so difficult to see how stories about dragons would exist throughout literature.
Now imagine if the counting of years did not exist until after Adam and Eve left Eden. What if an iguana lived 1000 years? It could possibly grow to 500 feet long or more. What about mammals such as the elephant or rhino? Or what about animals and reptiles which have become extinct in the past two thousand years? How would they have looked living ten times their normal age?
We recently visited the Smithsonian Natural History museum and it was very easy to see how these skeletal remains could have belonged to some current living creature that had an increased life. Remember that virtually none of the large dinosaur remains have been found complete. Scientists have pieced together these skeletal remains into what they think they should look like, often based on pre-conceived ideas. The drawings and plaster images of the dinosaurs are pure guesses. What if the long necked dinosaurs were actually giraffes that had grown to 200 feet tall?
Gives us something to think about anyway.
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