Noah vs the Dinosaurs?

Today the new Creation Museum opened in Petersburg, KY, and there was an article on Yahoo! News, so I thought I'd take a look and see what it was all about (aside from the obvious!). While I'm all for Creationism, being a Catholic and a life long Christian, as well as siding with science on some things, I was a little perturbed when I finished the article.

As we all know, there has been an age old battle as to how the earth was created and where we all came from. Devout Christians believe God created earth in one week, as can be seen in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. The American Indians have Mother Earth and their creation story. And so on and so on. Then you have the scientists who down the creation stories 100%, and though the evidence is convincing, one does have to wonder how they can conduct tests on planets we can't even reach yet. Hell, we're still working with a slowly dying Mars Rover that sends info to NASA, but how sure can you be that there really was water on Mars once unless you were really there? Just a thought.

So as I went through the article, it described some of the exhibits and how elaborate they were. Phenomenal details, plenty of information, etc. Wonderful! Then I stopped short when I came to the section about how Noah had dinosaurs on the Ark. Whoa! Put the breaks on! Dinosaurs on the Ark? A few alligators, crocodiles and turtles I can understand, but dinosaurs? Did they take into consideration that a brontosaurus would probably be close to the size of the Ark or at least half the size? Did they ever consider that even two or three pairs of the largest dinosaurs would probably cause the Ark to sink? I don't think many animals would be left, let alone Noah and his family, if they had a couple of T-Rex's on there. But here's where my brain really started cranking the gears.

If you think about the history of earth and mankind from the perspective of the Bible, not only were dinosaurs not mentioned in the Bible, but the time line just doesn't fit. According to the Bible Time line website, the world was created in 4004 BC. According to years of research and carbon dating, the oldest dinosaur fossil is 180 million years old and the specimen was found in Tazouda, Morocco. So that gives us a difference of 179,993,989 years. For argument's sake, we can say that God did create earth 180 million years ago, but there was a large gap, an extremely large gap, between the creation of animals and Adam. But then again, how would anyone know to write it down? There were no humans 180 million years ago. But again, to bring the scientific side back into it, the oldest human remain was found in Africa and dates back to 160,000 years ago.

Maybe God did create the earth according to the scientific time line and decided He hated dinosaurs, so He blew a hole in the side off earth with a comet and it killed them all off. This would give Him a clean slate to recreate everything so we could have the Bible and life as we know it (and the Gulf of Mexico). And speaking from a forensic point of view, He didn't clean up too well once they were gone. So we know they existed through plenty of evidence, but how do they fit into the Bible and our understanding of Creationism? Yeah, I'm pulling this all out of my you know what, but no matter how you look at it, none of it makes sense.

And this gave me a chuckle, too. Apparently, all animals were vegetarian until Adam committed sin in the Garden of Eden. Yet, again, how can this possibly make sense? Most animals are carnivores. Sure, we have the herbivores and the insectivores, but how can you say without any true basis that all animals were vegetarians? Even science can't touch this one. Some how I have a tough time seeing a lion eating carrots next to the pigs and cows. Oh, yeah, and this also was never mentioned in the Bible. Sure, Adam and Eve were living peacefully among the animals in the Garden of Eden until the original sin, but we're led to believe that it's because Adam was created in the likeness of God; therefore, the animals probably had some sort of deep seated respect for Adam. Understandable. It's like a farmer and his animals. There's a bond. But no where does it say that lions didn't eat rabbits and bears didn't eat fish or deer. I really don't think you can push Adam's sin off on the animals. As far as I know, animals aren't included in sin, and they don't have to confess their sins in order to make it to Heaven and not spend eternity burning in Hell for eating something that's perfectly in their nature.

So while this museum is a wonderful idea to get the word out that people do believe in Creationism and that there should be a better understanding of it, I'm sorry to say that this particular museum just doesn't cut it for me. In fact, I'd say that these people have put the fight for Creationism back 50 to a hundred years. If you're going to fight for something, then do your research. Dinosaurs are a great marketing tool for kids. Kids love them! I know, I was one of them. But if you're going to put dinosaurs in Noah's Ark when you know there is no scientific or Biblical basis for it, then you're just lying to them. What did that banner say that flew over the museum on opening day? "Thou shalt not lie." I think you should all take a minute to think about what you've just done. But don't worry, God is here to hear your sins.