Tag: leviathan

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The Value of a Dinosaur Fossil

The Value of a Dinosaur Fossil
Stegasaurus Fossil in Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh

What is the value of a dinosaur fossil? In 2024, the current record price for a fossilized dinosaur skeleton is $44,600,000 paid for a Stegosaurus fossil nicknamed Apex. The fossil, found in Colorado in 2022, is 27 feet long and 11 ½ feet tall. Kenneth C. Griffin, who bought the Stegosaurus fossil, is loaning it to the American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, which expects millions of visitors to come and see it. The previous record for a dinosaur fossil was $31,800,000 paid in 2020 for a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil named Stan, which is going to be displayed in Abu Dhabi. A T-rex fossil named Sue, on display in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, sold in 1997 for a mere $8.3 million.

What is the value of a dinosaur fossil that can command such enormous prices? Griffin says, “Apex offers a unique window into our planet’s distant past. The joy and awe every child feels coloring a Stegosaurus with their crayons will now be brought to life for the millions of people who have the opportunity to see this epic dinosaur in person.”

Are there religious or biblical connections to finding a dinosaur fossil? For some religious denominations, the answer may be negative. It is difficult to imagine how humans could exist with an animal of this size. As people look at this colossal dinosaur fossil they may be unable to accept the idea that humans and dinosaurs were contemporaries, and they would be right.

The Genesis account contains no Hebrew word that could be translated as “dinosaur” or “Stegosaurus. “Some people refer to “Behemoth” in Job chapter 40. The word “behemah” is used 51 times in the Bible, including Genesis 1:24-25 and refers to cattle. Stegosaurus was not a cow! “Remes” is also used in these verses referring to creeping creatures (also in Genesis 9:3) and is used 16 times in the biblical record. The “creation week” clearly refers to animals that the people of Moses’ time were familiar with, and that would not have included dinosaurs. The term “leviathan” (Job 41:1 and Psalms 104:26) refers to a great water creature, but Stegosaurus was not a water creature.

Dinosaurs were creatures God used to prepare the Earth for humans. Imagine the volume of plant material that Stegosaurus would have eaten every day. You can understand how they were instrumental in pruning the plants and spreading their seeds to provide the coal and mineral deposits humans would need. Like everything God does, the scale of what He did after Genesis 1:2 and before the Genesis creation week was massive. So, what is the value of a dinosaur fossil? We can join in the awe of seeing God’s plan as we look at dinosaur fossils like Apex, Stan, and Sue without feeling any doubt in our minds about the message of Genesis.

— John N. Clayton © 2024

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Dinosaur Pseudoscience Part 2

Dinosaur Pseudoscience Fire-breathing
Yesterday we stated that one of the greatest challenges that this ministry faces is the bad science and false claims by creationists, including dinosaur pseudoscience. In addition to the ones we mentioned yesterday, another example is the claim of many creationists that dinosaurs were fire-breathing dragons.

In the Middle Ages, there were numerous stories about flying dragons who breathed fire. In recent years we have seen movies showing everything from Puff the Magic Dragon to How to Train Your Dragon as well as video games showing dragons that look like dinosaurs. Creationists have proposed that dinosaurs had hypergolic chemicals (chemicals that ignite when combined) that they used to produce literal fire. The scientific problems with such proposals are huge. Hypergolic chemicals are highly toxic to biological organisms. Fire going out of an animal’s mouth or nose would cause damage to the tissue. Atheists and biblical skeptics have written numerous articles showing the impossibility of these proposals on a scientific basis.

What is the biblical passage that creationists use to suggest that dinosaurs were fire-breathing dragons? The answer to that question is Job 41. The key word in this chapter is “leviathan.” The word is used three other times in the Bible–Psalms 74:14, Psalms 104:26, and Isaiah 27:1 In all of these references the leviathan is a sea creature. In other non-biblical Hebrew writings the word is used to describe a sea creature, and in a few cases, a sea crocodile is the translation. Job 41:18 says that when leviathan sneezes a light shines and his eyes look like the dawn. Verse 19 says that fire comes from his mouth and verse 20 says that smoke comes from his nostrils. This is poetic language and obviously doesn’t describe the animal anatomically. Verse 29 says that the leviathan laughs and verse 31 says that he makes the sea boil like a pot of ointment. These are obviously poetic descriptions of a very fierce sea creature. It is not a dinosaur living on the land, flying, and belching fire.

There is no valid fossil support for humans and dinosaurs living at the same time, and there is no biblical passage that states it. Cherry-picking a poetic description in Job to back up a denominational belief system is not taking the Bible literally.

Those of us who believe in God are in a war with forces who wish to destroy Christianity and the Bible. Pseudoscience used to defend a denominational understanding of a biblical passage just becomes a tool of those who despise Jesus Christ. It is a tool they use to destroy the faith of bright and well-educated young adults. We must not give them that tool.
–John N. Clayton © 2017