Creation Science Exposed —
Creation Science
Evangelism and Dinosaurs
Greg Neyman
(Investigator 119, 2008 March)
I read the various dinosaur articles on Kent Hovind's website, Creation Science Evangelism (CSE).
(www.drdino.com)
Most of the arguments that he presents have already been shown to be
false by articles on Answers In Creation, and surprisingly, by other
young earth creation science experts. However, they need confronting
again.
Pictures of 20th Century Dinosaurs
This is a collection of photographs that tries to paint the picture
that dinosaurs exist today. It contains the photographs of supposed
plesiosaurs that have washed up on shore or been caught in fishing
nets, and also a picture of a fictional man-made dinosaur. To show you
how ridiculous these photos are, other young earth creationists have
come out against these plesiosaur carcasses, having identified the
mysterious animals as basking sharks.
1. The "plesiosaur" of Moore's Creek photo shows what appears to
be a shark or whale, and has no resemblance to a plesiosaur!
2. Lake Champlain Monster – An old wives tale, has never been
proven…
3. The Loch Ness Monster. Being Scottish, I’ve always been
interested in Nessie, but recent evidences of how the fake photos of
the past have been made, plus two end-to-end sonar scans of the lake,
prove there is nothing there. With this and the Lake Champlain monster,
it is clear that Kent Hovind’s website is desperate to use anything as
evidence for a young earth, whether or not the evidence is true or not.
4. The 1977 capture of a carcass by a fishing boat. This is well
rebuked in the Answers In Genesis
article.
5. Situate Harbor, Massachusetts. Another one shown by the
Answers In Genesis article to be a basking shark. Note the
scientific proof of this specimen, "Many of those who saw it felt it
was a sea monster." Looks alone do not make a "sea monster."
6. The 31-inch unidentified specimen. This young-earth ministry
has gone so far as to claim that a 31-inch plastic toy was a real
dinosaur! Whether it is plastic, or the taxidermist made it out of some
other materiel, remains unknown. My toddler would love to play with
this one…maybe I should make one.
It is incredible that a young earth creation science ministry could
actually use these photos as evidences of modern dinosaurs! It’s
obvious that they have no real scientific proof of a young earth, so
they have to go to extremes, in the hopes that people will believe
them, and not investigate these things for themselves.
What Happened to the Dinosaurs?
The author first makes an emotional appeal to the reader by referring
to the supposed dinosaur reference in the book of Job. However, these
creatures don't fit the description of dinosaurs, using young-earth
standards. Remember that young earth creation science believers are
literalists, and believe every verse of the Bible is to be taken
literally.
In that case, Leviathan must have actually breathed fire (Job 41).
However, there are no known dinosaurs with this capability. For
Behemoth, no dinosaur had bones of bronze or iron. More importantly,
the author refers to this as an Apatosaurus. Job said the animal shaded
itself under the branches of the lotus tree. An Apatosaurus would have
a difficult time getting under the low-hanging limbs of a lotus tree!
For a moment, let's assume the author is correct, and it is a dinosaur
that Job refers to. Keep in mind that this is a one-way conversation
between God and Job. If God wanted to, He could refer to one of his
extinct creations…after all, Job was in no position to dispute God. For
all we know, God showed him one right on the spot to enforce his
scolding of Job!
Next, the authors move toward the claim that all but a few dinosaurs
died in the worldwide flood of Noah. The author even goes so far to say
that there was a "lack of burial mixing between these very different
kinds of animals due to local or ecological grouping." Let's look at
this closer. According to young-earth creation theory, the
fossil-bearing rock layers of the world were laid down in the flood of
Noah. According to the best young-earth model, the rocks that
geologists call "Mesozoic" in age were deposited by the receding waters
of the flood1. As it rained for 40 days, then the waters
stayed on the
planet for 150 more, and then started receding, these rocks were
deposited at least 190 days into the flood.
The problem is…these rocks contain all the dinosaur fossils. Even
worse, all fossil mammals are above these layers! They must have
escaped the flood, only to be killed by the receding waters. And, they
were even mating, eating, pooping, and walking around, right in the
middle of the flood (see my article, Dinosaur Evidences for an Old
Earth). So we know for certain that dinosaurs were not killed by Noah's
flood.
After this, the author continues to make simple errors. For the
dinosaurs that were on the ark, he claims that "Instead of a warm, mild
climate worldwide, they would have found a harsh climate which soon
settled into an ice age. If climatic hardships did not cause the
dinosaur's extinction, man's tendency to destroy probably did."
Let's talk about a post-ark environment. Assuming that there were two
juvenile T-rex's on the ark, and at least one raptor species, what
would they eat?
The flood has killed all plant life, since it was buried by the
multiple layers of rocks. Seeds would take years to repopulate
the earth’s plant life. So these dinosaurs would come out, and probably
kill off everything else as food within the first three months. We
would have no cattle, no mammals, probably no man! All because of four
dinosaurs! The supposed "ice age" would not come quickly enough to save
mankind.
Given this realistic scenario, Noah’s animals only had two options for
survival. First, he could kill the dinosaur species before getting off
the ark. We know he could not do this, as God would not be pleased. The
other viable option is an old earth, where dinosaurs had died off 65
million years ago. There is no other way to solve this dilemma that
young earth creationism has created for itself.
Next the author goes on to talk about cave drawings of dinosaurs. I've
already shown what these are in another article.
The author closes with a dialogue against evolution, which is
insignificant as it relates to old-earth belief. Old earth believers
fall into two categories…those who believe God used evolution, and
those who don't. Take your pick…either one does not impact one's
salvation, or the Gospel of Christ. You can be a fundamentalist,
Bible-believing evolutionist!
The Ica Stones
In this article, Dr. Dino (Hovind's website address is www.drdino.com )
tells about stones that Spanish explorers found in 1571, with drawings
of supposed dinosaurs.
The article "Paleontology Pioneers" on the Answers In Creation website
provides ample explanation of these stones. However, here’s more for
the skeptics out there. A drawing of a dinosaur, with men, on a stone
hundreds of years old does not prove dinosaurs and man lived together.
All it proves is that an artist drew a picture of a dinosaur and a man.
My children have done the same in their artwork.
Using the same logic, I can draw a picture of a mermaid, and a man, and
thousands of years from now, someone may find this picture, and then
they would assume that mermaids lived a thousand years ago! There is no
difference between this scenario and the Ica Stones. The Ica Stones
only prove that the Indians were good artists. In all probability, they
were drawing the beasts based on a nearby fossil discovery. Nothing
more can be implied from these drawings…certainly not that man and
dinosaurs lived together.
Conclusion
Kent Hovind, and his Creation Science Evangelism website, provide no
credible evidence…of recent dinosaurs (because there is
none!)
1 Snelling and others, in the book Grand Canyon: Monument to
Catastrophe, Figure 4.1.
© 2006, Old Earth Ministries
www.answersincreation.org/greg_neyman.htm