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Dinosaurs (Young Earth creationism) states that God created the dinosaurs around 6,000 years ago (which is about 3995 BC) and that the dinosaurs were mostly wiped out in the great flood of Noah. The belief is an offshoot of Young Earth creationism.

Introduction

According to Young Earth creationism, the earth is between 6,000 and 10,000 years old. As a result of this historic time frame, humans and dinosaurs lived together, there was a worldwide flood where the dinosaurs were all killed in the Flood leaving behind traces of their fossilized remains with the exception of those that are inside the Ark. The Flood supposedly occurred around 4,500 years ago, which is around 2495 BC at the time the Egyptians were building the pyramids for their beloved Pharoahs. The dinosaurs however that were in the ark left it when the flood is over and were eventually killed off by man and other "post-flood" extremes.

The reason YECs believe in what is mentioned above is because they believe the Bible tells them so. But critics of young earthism highly regard this belief as total and complete nonsense; a fallible opinion of theirs based on their interpretations of the Bible with no evidence to boot.

Here in this article are 8 known statements made by the YECs about their point of views on dinosaurs and the critics responses to those claims. They are seen here.

YEC Statement #1 Dinosaurs, all other forms of animals extinct and living, and man one lived together.

This critics say that this has all 100% failed miserably to explain how come there are no traces of remains of dinosaurs and all other extinct animals of prehistory found mixed alongside of remains of human and modern animals.

Reference: Dinosaur Myths.

YEC Statement #2 All animals, especially dinosaurs were all vegetarians before the Fall of Man.

Creationists got this concept from where they interpret Genesis 1:29-30 where God told Adam that He has given him fruit to eat and the animals every green plant for food to mean that god commanded them to eat fruits and plants. Critics says that the passage is nothing more that just a provision God has made to Adam and the animals to help sustain themseves from hunger.

Creationists claim that all dinosaurs, even Tyrannosaurus Rex were all plant-eaters. Critics would point out the fact that animals like Tyrannosaurus Rex, tigers and leapords all have sharp teeth, sharp claws, eyes that see forward to help zero in on their prey, strong running legs, and a stomach for only red food. They also have poited out that plants have very tough, tough fibers that make it much difficult for any animals to digest them without giving them indigestion, making the carnivores very sick with indigestion. They also says that in order to have the animal eat plants, it must have a highly complex digestive system that has all of capabilities to digest plant matter, which includes special bacteria to break down and ferment the plants inside the stomach area. The animal must also have chewing teeth to chew up plants into a digestable pulp as well. When confronted with the fact that animals like Tyrannosaurs have sharp teeth capable for tearing up flesh, creationists would counter it by showing the teeth of a camel, a spider monkey, a gorilla, a panda, and a fruit bat, claiming they too have sharp teeth yet they eat plants. Critics respond by pointing out that these teeth of the animals mentioned above are all called canines. They are much different than the canines of the lions and other carnivores. For, they are all smooth, thin and blunt unlike the canine teeth of meat-eaters like lions and jaguars that are deep rooted, rigid, and sharp. They also have special chewing molars called carnassials, which are sharp, pointed molars that can have a solid grip on the flesh of their prey.

References: are Mammal Teeth Over the Hump: Taking the AIG Camel Challenge

When confronted with the true notion, given out by critics, that plants do die after they are eaten, YECs would counter this by claiming that plant does not die because they don't have what the Hebrew word is called 'Nephesh' which means 'spirit' or 'soul' inside of them just like animals and humans have when God created them.(This is what YECist Ken Ham believes. Reference here.) This kind of claim is based on the Hebrew translation of Genesis 1:21-27 where God commands creatures with spirit in both land, air, and sea to be created. Critics regard this as a complete nonsense. They pointed out to the YECs that plants are alive. Just like animals and people, they eat, they breathe i.e. they take out oxygen and breathe in carbon dioxide, they drink, they grow, they are either male or female depending on gender, they reproduce, and they do die. Especially when they are eaten and decay in the stomach of both animals and man in a form of digestion. In nearly all cases it has been pointed by critics throughout the Bible that the word 'nephesh' is used to describe only the souls of human beings, not animals. Only in Genesis 1 does the word nephesh refers to animals as well as man. (4)(5)

Another claim that made by the YECs is the denial of death before the Fall of Man based on their interpretations of Romans 5:12 and other bible verses like them. Critics argue that the verse, when put together in context, actually describes death that's not a physical death, but a spiritual death. Critics stated that if Jesus died to take away only physical death and yet there is still physical death still there, then he wasn't such a worthy savior after all. Reference: No Death Before Fall

YEC Statement #3 Dinosaurs outside the ark were all wiped out in the flood. Those that were in the ark died off due to the same things that caused many animals to become extinct today.

Yecs believes that dinosaurs outside the ark were all drowned in the flood and have left behind traces of bodied remains that have curved necks and tails indicating that the dinosaurs were trying to swim through the Flood or have their bodies be broken apart. The many vast graveyards of dinosaurs and foottracks that are greatly overlapping, to them, also indecates that the dinosaurs are trying to escape the flood but were all swept away to a certain spot forming the mass graveyards we see today.

Critics says that this is all flawed because...

1. When studied closely, the fossil were all contorted and twisted as the result of the shriveling of their cartileges and tissues around the necks, backbone, and tail causing the bodies to curl up and undergo the process of rigor mortis. A flood is never needed to make the animals undergo the progress of rigor mortis when one can actually witness the process in a desert where many animals have died and their bodies shriveled up in the sun.

2. Broken bodies and missing parts were all the result of either erosion or were torned up by predators hence evidences of teeth marks found along side of scattered parts.

3. Mass graveyards of dinosaur bones were actually the result of failed attempts to cross a large raging river that are at it's flood stage in a similar fashon to that of wilderbeests, being swept away in a local flash flood, and of animals being killed in an ashfall made by an erupting volcano. none of these thing have to do with Noah's Flood.

Reference: Contorted Fossils Vast Fossil Beds Requirements for Fossilization

Everyone who loves to study dinosaurs knowns that the extinction of the dinosaurs is one of earth's greatest mysteries. To help explain the extinction event, scientists have come up with a lot of theories based on fossil evidence to figure out why did the dinosaurs became extinct. The most dominering of the theories is the Meteorite theory that says a large meteorite crashed landed on earth causing a major drastic change to Earth's climate and environment, causing 60% of life on earth to vanished including all non-avian dinosaurs, 65 million years ago. This is highly likely the case due to an old ancient crator that is found in the Gulf of Mexico known as the Chicxulub crator dated back to the time of the dinosaurs's extinction. Reference: Chicxulub Impact Event

However Paleontologist Gerta Keller, although she believes that a meteorite killed the dinosaurs, she believes that the Chicxulub is not the one that have killed the dinosaurs. She says that she found evidence that the meteor have impacted the earth 300,000 years before the K-T dinosaurs extinction when she found traces of marine animal burrows right in the crator dated to the supposed day of the impact. However, critics of her says that this is most likely became distorted upon impact leading Keller to read the layers wrong. If the Chicxulub was not the meteor that killed the dinosaurs, then the Shiva crater, another crater that is dated back 65 million years ago located near Southern Asia could that be the real culprit behind the dinosaurs extinction. Still, most if not all people who studied the Chicxulub crater are certain that when it comes to the dinosaur extinction, the verdict is still out in the Gulf of Mexico. (7)

YEC Statement #4 - Noah took up baby dinosaurs into the ark.

Critics disagree when YECs claimed that Noah took up young, baby, immature, basic non-avian dinosaurs up into the ark. Critices argued that there is no way can he ever fit them all 600 different kinds of dinosaurs into the ark along with all of the other 90 million plus animals, both prehistoric and modern. However, in an attempt to try to fit all of the dinosaurs into the ark, YECs would claimed that there were about only 50 different kinds of dinosaurs known (according to YECist Ken Ham in various books of his including Dinosaurs of Eden(2000).) while in fact it is known that there are actually more than that; about 600 different kinds of them to be exact. YECs tried another attempt to fit the animals into a 450x75x45 ark by bringing up a hypocritical concept of Noah taking up only basic animals into the ark to reproduce and developed into the many varieties of animals we see today.

YECs also claimed that God created the animals to reproduce after their kind. YECs says that from the original animals of creation developed into a great number of species that has ever been known through either natural or artificial selection. Then Noah took up all of the basic animals including dinosaurs to reproduce into a great number of species we see today. On the other hand, critics pointed out that Believe it or not, what the YECs are advocating is Evolution! The very same thing they boldly declare for it to be a lie. This, critics say, is a perfect example of young earth hypocrisy. YECs counter this by saying that it is not evolution, but a kind of speciation that is limited and known present. But critics says it is, and YECs are not very willing to admit it. (2)

Critics pointed out that even if Noah did manage to fit all of the animals into the ark, there are major problems with dinosaurs growing up real, real fast, not staying about the size of sheep or ponies for long, feeding, cleaning up after them, ventilation, exercise, entertainment, keeping the animals stimulated (YECs claimed that all animals hibrinated throughout the voyage. Yet, critics object to this and provided a response to this claim, which it is shown right here.), and keeping them healthy. Much of the problems with the YECs' version of the story of Noah's Ark are all listed and critiqued right on this webpage here on the Talkorigins website.

YEC Statement #5 -- Dragons are actually dinosaurs that people saw in Ancient and Medieval Legends.

As before critics would say that this has all 100% failed miserably to explain how come there are no human remains found alongside mixed with dinosaur remains. Not even the alleged cave dinosaur drawings in Utah nor the alleged Ica Stones and other creation hoaxs could ever explain why are there no human remains found mixed with dinosaur remains either.

The word "dragon" comes from the Greek word "drakon" meaning "snake" or "serpent." In every ancient illustrations made of dragons, dragons all bear a striking resemblance to snakes, especially snakes that coil and twist with a fiery or poisonous breath, impenetrable scales with their soft underbelly and wing as their weak point, a poisonous bite, either bird like or bat like wings with many long fingers supporting a sheet of skin in contrast of Pterosaurs having a sheet of skin supporting only one long finger, an appetite for young wonmen, and a strong lust for gold. In some cases, dragons were worshipped as gods in many oriental countries like Japan and China. they are known to have a powerful ability to create storms as well as change themselves into different forms. Dinosaurs could do none of these things nor do they ever resembled snakes at all. Birds maybe, but never snakes.

There is a page on Dinosaurs and Bible DON'T MIX!!! website that contains a page in the essay that reviews and refutes the claims made up by Creationist Paul Taylor in his book The Great Dinosaur Mystery and the Bible where it features part 3 of the essay that examines and refutes the YECs own versions of the dragon stories that critics claimed that this entirely made up by the YECs who distorted and twisted the dragon tales up to made it to look as if they are accounts of people meeting dinosaurs, while in fact they are not. You can visit this webpage here. More Reference here. Dragons as Dinosaurs

YEC statement #6 - There are dinosaurs living recently in the remote areas of the world.

This does not explain how come there are no dinosaur remains found above the Mesozoic strata other than birds. Critics of Cryptozoology says that in order to confirm the existence of the alleged modern dinosaurs of the Congo Basin and elsewhere, one must have find a fully intact dinosaur and other prehistoric animals. Thus far, no such evidence has ever been found. Critics says that even if the living dinosaurs of the Congo Basin claim is confirm, this still does not make things an embarrassment for the evolutionists. Instead, it would just thrill them for this would be evolution in action. Land dinosaurs evolving into swamp dinosaurs as well as cold blooded plesiosaurs would evolved into warm blooded plesiosaurs to take on the cold lake of Loch Ness. This, according to critics, would be the case if there ever was such a thing as what it is claimed by wishful thinkers like the YECs, but no valid evidence has ever turned up. References AIG's Inconsistencies in Endorsing Myths

YEC Statement #7 - There are Dinosaurs found in the Bible.

Critics would argue that the only dinosaurs to have ever found in the bible is not Behemoth and Leviathan, but birds such as doves, eagles, ostriches to name a few and nothing more. YECs, however firmly believes that Behemoth and Leviathan in Job 40 and 41 are dinosaurs. But critics say that this is flawed because unlike dinosaurs, Behemoth was a mammal, not a reptile, nor a dinosaur. In Job 40:17, the "tail" in the verse is actually a euphemism for penis, a male sex organ. (Mitchell, 1992) For example, Here below is the accurate translation of job 40:15-17 according to Steven Mitchell,

Look now: the Beast that I made: he eats grass like a bull. Look: the power in his thighs, the pulsing sinews of his belly. His penis stiffens like a pine; his testicles bulge with vigor.

In the passage, Behemoth is known to eat grass like a bull, a male cow. when cows chew their food, they moved their mouths up and down in a circular fashon. Studies shows that Sauropods like Brachiosaurus could do no such thing. They have no chewing teeth and can only move their jaws up and down like a crocodile. To help digest their food they have to swollow stones that traveled nto their gizzard areas of the stomach to help grind their food as gastroliths. There was also no grass around when dinosaurs were alive. Grass evolved around 40 million years ago which is about 20 million years after the dinosaurs became extinct. Behemoth is also protrayed as an amphibious animal. Traditionally it is most likely that this passage closely describes the hippopotamus, a dangerous vegetarian that lived a amphibious life in swamps, lakes, and rivers.

Critics also says that Leviathan could not be a dinosaur either because dinosaurs are all terrestral animals meaning they all lived on land unlike Leviathan who lived only in the sea. The word "Leviathan" comes from the Hebrew word meaning "twisted" or "coiled." No dinosaur could ever twist or coiled itself. YECs, in some cases believes that Leviathan was a pliosaur or a mosasaur but critics object to this. They pointed out that none of the marine reptiles have any armor plating on their bodies and none of them ever coiled up like a snake, either. According to the passage, Leviathan is known to have weapon resisted armor plating all over it's body like a crocodile, which traditionally this is what the passage of Job 41 most likely refers to. Other passages, however, has Leviathan be a seven headed monster that God killed and threw his body into the desert for animals to eat.

YECs believes that dinosaurs breathing fire. This is taken literally from a passage in Job 41 that involves Leviathan breathing fire like a dragon. Critics regard this as nonsense. No animal, not even a dinosaur, nor a marine reptile of the Meoszoic Age has ever breathe fire. There's no evidence for it. Even if they did breathe fire, critics argued, they would need to have something in their mouths and their throats that would protect the them from being burned, but no such attributes have ever existed. Critics declared that what YECs claim about fire breathing dinosaurs is just pretend based on their own interpretations of the passage of Job 41 they take way too literally. Quite possibly the passage is nothing more than a metaphor of "croc breath." (8) Behemoth as a Dinosaur. Leviathan as a Dinosaur. Fire-breathing dinosaurs.

YEC statement #8 - Birds are not descendants of dinosaurs.

The concept of Birds being descendents of dinosaurs was first invented by Thomas Huxley, Darwin's "Bulldog" when compairing dinosaur bones with chicken or turkey bones. That concept was rejected until the 1960's when it was revived by John Ostrom while studying Deinonychus that was just unearthed from the ground in 1964. Scientists over the years have known of dinosaurs having features that resembled birds in a lot of ways. Including Ornithschian hips, bones full of pleurocoels; holes that made the weight of the dinosaur lighter, beaks, legs and feet that resembled birds, and now it is known that some dinosaurs do have feathers. In recent years, scientists have unearthed many traces of dinosaurs with feathered imprints on them in the Yixian Formation in China. When cofronted with this fact, YECs would try to counter this by doing a non-sequitor argument by showing the Archaeoraptor fossil to the critics, saying that the fossil is fake and claims that since the fossil is fake, then is all of the other featherd fossils of dinosaurs is fake too. Critics however says that nothing can be further than the truth.

Critics counter this YEC claim by showing to them real story of the fake fossil that's ironicly real when it comes to using 2 valid fossils of dinosaurs and forged them into one.

The Archaeoraptor is really 2 dinosaurs forged into one by a Chinese farmer, a peasant who dug the fossils up and sold it in a black market where illegal fossils are being sold to fossil collectors to add to their private fossil collection. Paleo-artist, Stephen Czerkus, became the unfortunate one of buying the fossil and took it back to the US and began to study it and found that this could be a transitional form of all transitional forms and publishes an article about it in the National Geographic Magazine. The fossil however never appeared in the scientific peer review journals. Yet, it became a sensation a least for awhile. Finding dinosaur fossils with feathers was and still is a very new sensation amongst the dinosaur discoveries. More and more are thrilled and excited to see feathered fossils of dinosaurs and the Archaeoraptor adds to the excitement. But then Stephen made a discovery in the fossil that blew him away. He found that the fossil is nothing more than a forgery...sort of. He found that the fossil is really nothing more than a chimera, two animals that are forged into one. He was fooled. He could not believe he was fooled by that Chinese peasant who sold that fossil to him. Sold to him from a country that have a major problem with illegal selling of fossils. He had to tell the media of what he found and the National Geographic Magazine had to write an apology in a article confessing of how they were fooled by the Chinese peasant's fossil forgery. They never found the peasant who done it. But they did returned the fossil to China where the scientist examine the 2 fossils and found that the fossils were of a Dromaeosaur named Microraptor and a prehistoric loon named Yanornis. Both fossils are real; Both fossils are dinosaurs; Both fossils have feathers. Ironically, even though the Archaeoraptor is fake, the fossils that made up the forgery are definitely real and valid.

This Archaeoraptor story is referenced right here.

There are other YEC claims and critiques of birds not being dinosaurs including the alleged skin frill on a Sinosauropteryx fossil claim and the cold-blooded lung claim to name a few of the claims made up by YECs to try to refute the notion of dinosaurs having feathers on their bodies only to be countered by the critics who object to all this. These can all be found on this page.

And there you have it. All of the known young earth dinosaur fallacies and the critic's responses to them. This is created to get people to be aware of the dinosaur claims that are all made by young earth creationists whom the critics claimed that this is all based on their own interpretations of the Bible and nothing else.

References:

1. Dinosaurs and Bible DON'T MIX!!!
2. Rapid Post-Flood Speciation: A Critique of the Young-Earth Model
3. No Death before Fall: A Young Earth Heresy
4. Death before The Fall of Man
5. here. Dinosaur Extinction
6. Catastrophism and Mass Extinctions
7. Ancient Tsunami Jumbled Fossil Record?
8. Are Dinosaurs mentioned in the Bible?

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