While I don’t know every Christian’s opinion about dinosaurs, I would say that some don’t believe in dinosaurs for two reasons: 1) the Bible mentions only two dinosaur-like creatures of which there is no trace today (and they may have been fictitious), and 2) the existence of dinosaurs doesn’t agree with their belief about creation.
The two creatures in question are the Behemoth and Leviathan. The first is mentioned in Job 40 when Job was “contending “ with the Lord and God was proving His sovereignty over all things. “Look at Behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox. What strength it has in its loins, what power in the muscles of its belly! Its tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of its thighs are close-knit. Its bones are tubes of bronze, its limbs like rods of iron” (Job 40:15-18). Even though we don’t call any creature today by this name, one can see how there might be another animal that it is close to in description (hippopotamus or rhinoceros perhaps?)
Then there is the Leviathan which is mentioned in Psalm 74:13-14 in speaking of God: “It was you who split open the sea by your power; you broke the heads of the monster in the waters. It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert.” And again in Psalm 104:25-26: “There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number–living things both large and small. There the ships go to and fro, and the leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.” Was this just a mythical creature written about to prove a point about God’s strength?
Christians who question the existence of Leviathan and Behemoth may extrapolate to believe that since these are the only two large, strange creatures mentioned in the Bible, there were no dinosaurs. The Bible would have mentioned others, right? Not necessarily. We don’t have a list anywhere, including in the list of all the animals in Noah’s ark, of all the creatures that God created.
Also, if a Christian believes in a literal six days of creation, they clash with archeologists who say that dinosaurs lived hundreds of millions of years ago– much earlier than humans who God created on the sixth day. Then we have to contend with 2 Peter 3:8 where Peter writes, “with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.” So, was it a literal six days? God only knows, but for those Christians who believe the Bible is inerrant, they take this number literally.
The organization Answers in Genesis claims that the earth is only 6,000 years old. They say the method used to date dinosaur fossils and other geologic finds is based on faulty radiometric data (in use since 1905). They believe that radiocarbon dating is more accurate and supports the young earth theory when fossils and rocks are tested.
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