One of the ongoing debates in the scientific community for many
years has been the relationship of modern birds and the dinosaurs of
the past. In 1870, Thomas Henry Huxley wrote a treatise Further Evidence of the Affinity
between the Dinosaurian Reptiles and Birds. Huxley was
studying a dinosaur named Compsognathus
and Archaeopteryx which was a bird discovered in 1861. The
two were about the same size and there seemed to be very little
difference between the bone structures of the two. For the next 140
years scientific debates would go on about whether the two were
related. The word “dinosaur” is from Greek words for
“terrible/fearful lizard” and that suggested a cold-blooded, slow,
plodding creature. Birds are warm-blooded and anything but slow. The
dinosaurs known in Huxley’s time did not have wishbones, fused
clavicles, or air pockets in their bones which are typical of modern
birds.
In the 1960s new evidence began to deny some of the
views of dinosaurs. Fused clavicles were found in some dinosaurs,
and Deinonychus and Velociraptor bones were found
to contain air pockets. In 1996 in China a fossil was found of a
dinosaur that had a birdlike skull, a long tail, and impressions of
feathers. The specimen was named Sinosauropteryx
and was just the first of a large number of specimens that have been
found with feathers. A fossil named Confuciusornis has now predated Archaeopteryx and is the first
form to have a beak and tail vertebrae that would support feathers.
One final note needs to be made about this evidence. Feathers can
serve a variety of purposes. We know about the use of feathers in
flight where the feathers overlap and are hooked together to provide
a wind collector. Feathers can also be used to strain bugs out of
the air. They can be used to shelter from rain, for insulation
against heat or cold, and for display in attracting a mate. Pigments
have recently been found in some feathers so we know the colors of
some of these ancient animals, and some of them must have been
incredibly beautiful. For those interested in reading more on this
subject we would recommend an article titled “Dinosaur’s Living
Descendants” in Smithsonian,
December 2010, page 54.
For those who believe the Bible to be true, this flood of new
information is not only fascinating, but encouraging. One important
point to remember when studying the Hebrew texts of the Bible is
that there is an economy of language in the biblical account. There
are said to be some 35 million volumes of scientific material in the
Library of Congress on the creation of the earth. That 35 million
volumes of scientific material is covered in 31 verses of Genesis 1
and the first three verses of Genesis 2. Of the 26 million or so
different forms of life that have existed on this planet, only a
very few are discussed in scripture.
That being said, what we find is that what the Bible does say about
the history of life on this planet is incredibly accurate. Christian
fundamentalists have tried desperately to squeeze dinosaurs into the
words used in Genesis and Job. Words like “behemah” in Genesis 24
and Job 40:15 cannot be twisted to include dinosaurs because they
refer to ungulates and there were animals living at the time those
verses were written that fit the description very well. (There is a
detailed study of these words in our booklet God’s Revelation in His Rocks and
His Word, which can be read on our doesgodexist.org
website.) The Hebrew word translated “kind” in the Genesis account
is the word “min.” In 1 Corinthians 15:39 there is a direct
definition which is used throughout the whole Bible.
In Genesis 1 the same four groupings
are used. Verse 20a refers to the flesh of fish, and 20b to the
flesh of birds. Verses 24 and 25 refers to the “beasts of the earth”
and mentions cattle. Verse 26 – 27 refers to man and spells out
man’s uniqueness. In the flood account of Genesis 6 and 7 the same groupings are
used. We should point out that reptiles are not included, nor
arthropods, worms, or bacteria. There is an economy of language, but
the animals directly essential to man’s existence are all included.
Someone might suggest that “creeping thing” in Genesis 1:24 – 25
would include these animals, but in Genesis
9:3 the same Hebrew word (remes)
is used to describe an animal that the Hebrews could eat, and they
could not eat reptiles. The word would refer to the smaller mammals
that they were allowed to eat such as sheep or goats. It is the
intent of both Genesis 1 and Genesis 6 to reveal the animals that
man was dependent upon, not to discuss the 26 million forms of life
that have lived.
If dinosaurs are birds (or visa versa), then they fall into the
“flesh of birds” category that the Bible gives, and the Bible was
correct in not assigning a separate taxon to them. This wider view
of classification is becoming accepted in the scientific community
as a form of cladism. When you look at the errors that the Bible
writers could have made in how they assigned groupings to living
things, it is incredible that they gave an explanation that made
sense to the ignorant shepherds of Moses’ day and yet stand up well
in light of the new discoveries of science in the twenty-first
century.
Back to Contents Does God Exist?,
JulAug11.
