question?

[PunkyD20391]

 I do believe in God, but I wonder sometimes, when were the dinosaurs in the bible? Was it during when Adam and Eve? Sometimes I get confused.

Thanks

[archbishop]

The dinosaurs pre-date the bible by a couple of million years.

[el duerino]

Im confused - was this missed out then?

[ll_billym]

How can dinosaurs pre date the bible when the bible starts right at the beginning of creation and describes creating heaven and earth, light, etc.? 

 

Genesis does say that god made the animals etc. so if you believe in that sort of thing then I suppose this is when you would say that the dinosaurs were created.

 

There must have been a 160 million year gap between creating the animals and creating humans, maybe he took this long to make man because we are so perfect.

 

Personally I think the bible is not a particularly accurate historical record as it was written by people in the grip of a manic religous fervour, probably hallucinating as well.

[Merlin]

Oh dear, ll_billym , you have confused yourself somewhat.
Genesis says that God created the animals but it doesn�t exactly say when, where or how. So you can interpret that anyway you want. Most popular is that God invented and designed the start of life and evolution. Fortunately, Genesis is so open to interpretation that you can map it on to evolution if you are so inclined.

You contradict yourself so fundamentally that I wonder whether I can explain. If the bible �starts right at the beginning of creation�, then you must suppose that God himself wrote it . But no � you say �it was written by people in the grip of a manic religous fervour, probably hallucinating�. You can�t have it both ways.

And the first �version� of the Bible was not written, it was oral tradition (sometimes known as traditional myths and legends).

PunkyD20391

Why do you believe in God? If you are Christian, why is that? If you are Catholic, why is that?

[creativeTECH]

Behold, on the 8th Day god did say unto his children " Go thee into the wilderness and make thine beasties, with huge probosci and fur,also add to thine house the beasties with horns and wing-ed things, and while you're all at it, decide amongst thine selves how to wipe out these beasites with probosci that make my own probosci pale into insignificance"...and they did... and it was good. thanks be to god. May the peace of the Lord be with you

[tartanwiz]

Well you know punky, you can believe in God without necessarily believing in the Bible.

[Merlin]

Tartanwiz

If the Bible was never written, what, do you suppose, would have led anyone to think about God, let alone believe in God? If you are a Christian, you must believe the Gospel story (although not necessarily exactly as written) - if there was no Bible - what then?

[Octavius]

Then we would be worshipping the same gods as ancient civilisations (ones we create) gods of war, love, peace etc.  We might even, heaven (ahem) forbid, worship the sun, moon and stars.

[ll_billym]

I don't feel I have contradicted myself, I just said that I don't feel the bible is a reliable source of information because it was written, or spoken (even more unreliable in my book) if you like, by people in a relegious fervour. I don't think or state that god wrote it at all, it just purports to be a historical record from "the beginning" documented by man.  History is always documented after it has happened, by others.

 

The bible does not say when, where or how but does  give an order in which things happened, i.e. "Then A, ...then B, ...then C".  It states that animals were created, then humans, dinosaurs were animals so it seems reasonable to assume that dinosaurs were created before humans.  Therefore, in answer to the original question it was before Adam and Eve, but that is only my opinion.

 

I know that the first few books of the old testament are only stylized versions of what people think happened but personally do not trust anything the bible has to say in it was written / spoken by people who believed and attributed every event to god, giving a very one sided view of reality.

[Merlin]

II_Billym

I stand well rebuked and corrected for my misunderstanding. I just like to argue and saw an opportunity. Now I've seen some more: "History is always documented after it has happened, by others" - some history was documented before it happened, according to apologists for ancient scriptures!

And even I must concede that some of what's written in the Bible is probably true.

[ll_billym]

As for history being documented before it happened, I don't really know what's going on there, I'm lost, I need some more info.

 

I agree that some of the bible is probably true, but as I do not know how to tell the true bits from the twaddle then I can only disbelieve all of it.

 

So Merlin, all you have done so far is take apart others theories and ask more questions.  What is your view on where dinosaurs fit in the bible?

[Merlin]

Well, ll_billym, thank you for asking.

Ancient Jewish/Judaic (I must find out the correct term) writings foretold the coming of one who would be the saviour, the Messiah � what he would be like, what he would do etc. There are also prophecies in the Bible of events yet to come that some claim as true prophecies � history in advance (just a bit of gratuitous flippancy).

If you�re asking �What bit of the Bible refers to the advent of dinosaurs�, then that episode is, of course, referred to in Genesis 1.24 �And God said, "Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind." And it was so.�

But if you�re asking for my own view of that passage, the Bible and how dinosaurs actually came about, then it is this (briefly): This planet came about naturally without the aid of God. Life started naturally without the aid of God. Evolution occurred naturally without the aid of God. Dinosaurs appeared on the planet as a result of natural genesis and evolution without the aid of God.

As for �take apart others theories and ask more questions�. Well, this is the thing. My view is that there is no rational reason to accept that �God� exists, and to demonstrate that this is indeed a rational, sensible thing to do, I engage with anyone�s appeal to whatever evidence they want to suggest for the existence of God and try to show that every argument presented (so far) is flawed. You can call that �taking it apart�, I call it showing up the flaw. The usual arguments (ontological, probability, design/teleological etc etc) have all been shown to be flawed. I asked the question in AB about God�s anger because there was an appeal to biblical prophecies as evidence for God�s existence. God�s anger calls prophecies into question when you consider the other attributes that God is supposed to have.

[ll_billym]

Well I must agree with you, I have never believed in god and I have expressed my views on the bible.

 

Even if I did believe in god and all the rest of it then I would completely disregard the entire First Testament as it totally contradicts itself and a lot of it is metaphors that have been passed through generations that people just took as fact.  I cannot believe people preach this stuff as factual information!

 

For instance: Cain got kicked out of Eden, left Adam and Eve (The only 2 other people in the world remember)....and found himself a wife! 

 

Why modern day preachers dont just say "Yeah well, no-one really knows what hapenned way back then and it's all a bunch of metaphors" and concentrate on the true escence of the bible (loving fellow man, etc) I don't know.

 

So PunkyD20391, my advice is not to worry about the dinosaurs and get on with not coveting thy neigbours ferarri.

 

 

 

[bernardo]

Rather than going through all the convoluted discussions in this thread, I will go back to the original question.

 

Dinosaurs are not mentioned in the Bible because the Bible was written thousands of years before anybody knew about dinosaurs.

 

TADNSFAE

[Merlin]

Here I go again, taking it apart.

Bernardo � Although your answer is, obviously, correct, I don�t think it addresses the question in the same spirit or  sense that the question was asked. PunkyD20391 assumes that the Bible was inspired by God, God would have known about the dinosaurs and should have got Moses to explain it to us in detail in Genesis. He should have included all evolution from the appearance of amino acids right up to the advent of man and included every organism that ever was. Especially compsognathus and deinonychus (my favourites). At least then we would have known what colours the dinosaurs were.

[ll_billym]

That's not a very good arguement as many animals are not specifically mentioned in the bible.  The original question was "when were the dinosaurs in the bible".

[ll_billym]

bernardo that last one was for.

[PunkyD20391]

Question- to all of those who believe to earth and everythikng around and in it, how the heck could this all appear without some kind of influence?  I believe God was the maker of the earth and everything like that. And thanks

[ll_billym]

It's as good a theory as any PunkyD20391

[el duerino]

PunkyD - so you lacked an explanation for what you see around you and chose to believe an old book which talks about an omnipotent being? Does god explain anything else you can't? quantum physics? does god make light's nature dualistic? does he explain what's in a black hole? very primitive mindset you have there. Try moving on from the stone age.