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What did god have against dinosaurs?

idav

Being
Premium Member
For those who believe in both evolution and creation what is the story with the dinosaurs. I hear people say god would chose evolution as the means to get to humans. Why would god choose to "create" thousands of species of animals just to wipe out 99% of them?
 

Kilgore Trout

Misanthropic Humanist
For those who believe in both evolution and creation what is the story with the dinosaurs. I hear people say god would chose evolution as the means to get to humans. Why would god choose to "create" thousands of species of animals just to wipe out 99% of them?

I can't think of a rational answer to this question that makes any kind of sense. Oh wait, let me reword that: God works in mysterious ways.
 
Well as humans were gods ultimate plan he had to wipe out the dinosaurs because he noticed that they didn't look much like humans who he designed in his image. Whats bizzare is that given Gods assumed superpowers wouldn't it be better if he just made humans afresh rather than messing up and committing ecological genocide when things didn't work out?

Presumably the lesson we should take from this is that if we leave things to chance and they don't work out the solution is to commit genocide, or at very least murder.
 

Jose Fly

Fisker of men
The whole "evolution is how the gods made us" is simply a philosophical compromise between established science and theology. Some people cannot allow themselves to not believe in some sort of god, but they also cannot allow themselves to deny the obvious realities of science, so they make the compromise of "Yeah, evolution is the how and my god is the who".

Personally, I'm content to let them believe that and not push the issue too much. They're not the sort of people who lobby schools to teach creationism or attempt to undermine science education in general.
 

idav

Being
Premium Member
The whole "evolution is how the gods made us" is simply a philosophical compromise between established science and theology. Some people cannot allow themselves to not believe in some sort of god, but they also cannot allow themselves to deny the obvious realities of science, so they make the compromise of "Yeah, evolution is the how and my god is the who".

Personally, I'm content to let them believe that and not push the issue too much. They're not the sort of people who lobby schools to teach creationism or attempt to undermine science education in general.
I wouldn't push too much either but I notice a lot of people who say they don't have a problem with evolution complain that it doesn't solve the abiogenesis issue. The way I see it there are far more problems to contend with just evolution especially if you have to resort to going to the beginning of life. As if finding god gets pushed back further and further until the only reason god is needed is to explain the beginning of the universe. A hundred million years ago we were not special at all the dinos were the special ones but they went extinct as does 99% of the animals throughout time.
 

Jose Fly

Fisker of men
I wouldn't push too much either but I notice a lot of people who say they don't have a problem with evolution complain that it doesn't solve the abiogenesis issue.
Some people always need a gap to justify their god. If not the origin of life, then the origin of the universe.

The way I see it there are far more problems to contend with just evolution especially if you have to resort to going to the beginning of life. As if finding god gets pushed back further and further until the only reason god is needed is to explain the beginning of the universe. A hundred million years ago we were not special at all the dinos were the special ones but they went extinct as does 99% of the animals throughout time.
Exactly, and very well said. As Ken Miller described it, some people insist on looking for their god in the shadows of our ignorance rather than the light of understanding, and it's a challenge the enemies of theology are more than willing to accept. If ignorance of something is evidence for gods, then logically figuring something out becomes evidence against the gods.
 

idav

Being
Premium Member
It would seem that in order for mammals and humans to have thrived it was better for the dinos to go away. If it were planned that way it seems like a lot of trouble to go through for the results we see now. Just as it seems like a lot of trouble to create humans by kicking off the first micro organisms billions of years ago.
 

FlyingTeaPot

Irrational Rationalist. Educated Fool.
For those who believe in both evolution and creation what is the story with the dinosaurs. I hear people say god would chose evolution as the means to get to humans. Why would god choose to "create" thousands of species of animals just to wipe out 99% of them?
well duh! The bible doesn't tell you this because it would have been too long, but it actually lists all the animals in line after Eve who had a piece of the forbidden fruit, even the carnivores! :yes:
 

idav

Being
Premium Member
well duh! The bible doesn't tell you this because it would have been too long, but it actually lists all the animals in line after Eve who had a piece of the forbidden fruit, even the carnivores! :yes:
It doesn't have a very accurate description even as a metaphor. Though the bible can mean anything when we start making the words mean whatever we want.
 

Pegg

Jehovah our God is One
For those who believe in both evolution and creation what is the story with the dinosaurs. I hear people say god would chose evolution as the means to get to humans. Why would god choose to "create" thousands of species of animals just to wipe out 99% of them?

we believe that the dinosaurs were possibly used as a means of preparing the ground, spreading seeds and fertilizer and keeping the vast amounts of wild vegetation under control. Then when the dinosaurs had fulfilled their purpose, God ended their life.
 

idav

Being
Premium Member
we believe that the dinosaurs were possibly used as a means of preparing the ground, spreading seeds and fertilizer and keeping the vast amounts of wild vegetation under control. Then when the dinosaurs had fulfilled their purpose, God ended their life.
There is a theory I've heard recently saying that mammals indeed lived before the extinction of the dinosaurs before mammals began to really flourish.
 

Pegg

Jehovah our God is One
There is a theory I've heard recently saying that mammals indeed lived before the extinction of the dinosaurs before mammals began to really flourish.

Oh right, im not sure about that. Of course anything is possible and the lives of some dinosaurs may have overlapped with some mammals. Crocodiles are still here and they are ancestors of dinosaurs so, yes anything is possible.
 

idav

Being
Premium Member
Oh bother!
Didn't mean to offend. I don't take Genesis literally either. I know the ancients weren't idiots so I'm sure there is more they could have written. I'm not sure they really thought the earth was as old as we have found.
 

earlwooters

Active Member
Actually if you date the age of the earth using the Bible, you'll find that the dinosaurs lived and died long before creation. So when God created the heavens and the earth, the dino's were already ancient history. God hasn't been around long enough to have created dinosaurs.
 

Skwim

Veteran Member
Oh right, im not sure about that. Of course anything is possible and the lives of some dinosaurs may have overlapped with some mammals. Crocodiles are still here and they are ancestors of dinosaurs so, yes anything is possible.
It happens to be true.
"Through carefully dated fossils we know that 215 million years ago the dinosaurs were well on their evolutionary march toward becoming the most awesome animals on earth, a reign that would last 150 million years. However, these beasts were not alone. At the very same time the dinosaurs were populating the landscape, mammals were also evolving, but because dinosaurs dominated the world, mammals were relegated to playing only a minor part in Earth's developing zoo."

Source: This is not a Weasel: a Close Look at Nature's Most Confusing Terms. Philip Mortenson Pub. John Wiley &Sons. Inc.
 
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Skepsis2

Member
Oh right, im not sure about that. Of course anything is possible and the lives of some dinosaurs may have overlapped with some mammals. Crocodiles are still here and they are ancestors of dinosaurs so, yes anything is possible.

The first mammals appear in the fossil record during the late Triassic about 200 million years ago. Dinosaurs lived for about 160 million years starting about 230 million years ago so yes they actually shared the planet for about 130 million years until the dinosaurs disappear from the fossil record. The mammals that lived with the dinosaurs were generally small creatures and became larger only after the dinosaurs became extinct.
 
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