Our five-year-old son loves dinosaurs. Our older sons all went through a dinosaur phase, but they were never quite as obsessive. Until recently, when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, our youngest would reply, ‘A triceratops!’. Since we’ve finally convinced him that won’t be possible, he’s started saying ‘archaeologist’ instead!
As I read our son the endless succession of library books about dinosaurs that he brings home, I’ve started to wonder how it all fits with the Bible. Should I be adding some qualifications or alternative viewpoints as we go? Are all these books giving our son a false, inaccurate or, worse still, an unbiblical view of history?
A little speculation
The non-fiction books we’ve been reading present with some certainty the ‘facts’ about dinosaurs. They explain how many millions of years ago each dinosaur lived, how they looked and behaved and why they became extinct. (The prevailing theory is that a giant asteroid hit the earth, near Mexico, around 66 million years ago causing what’s called the ‘K–Pg extinction event’). These books also explain how we learn about dinosaurs—by examining the fossils that are being discovered across the world.
I first started to have my doubts about all this when our son brought home a book that listed, for each dinosaur, the actual numbers of skeletons found—and their completeness. In reality, complete skeletons are extremely rare. When it comes to many of the ‘facts’ about dinosaurs, especially the lesser-known types, scientists are making educated guesses based on a small number of mostly partial skeletons. More than half of the known species of dinosaurs in the world have been described from a single specimen.
Earlier this year, my youngest son and I went to a live dinosaur show which told us all about the Australian dinosaur Leaellynasaura. Life-sized puppets acted out in detail how these small dinosaurs lived. But when I looked into it, I found that the only evidence of Leaellynasaura we have is an upper jaw with some teeth in it, a skull roof with large eye sockets and some isolated thigh bones. Much of what was presented as ‘fact’ was based on palaeontologists’ speculation.
When we talk about the ‘science’ of dinosaurs, it’s helpful to understand the difference between experimental science and theoretical science. Experimental science produces observable and repeatable results. By contrast, no-one alive saw these fossils being made. When fossils are discovered in the earth, they need to be interpreted; palaeontologists can only put forward theories, which then get refined as new evidence is unearthed. These interpretations are also based on certain presuppositions about the age and geological history of the earth.
The first thing I have started to change about the way I read dinosaur books to our son is to insert a little bit of uncertainty where I think it is warranted. I add in phrases like ‘scientists believe that …’ or ‘the fossils seem to show’ or ‘this dinosaur probably had …’.
Having said all that, the overwhelming evidence in the fossil record indicates that dinosaurs did exist. Some species, such as Tyrannosaurus Rex, are very well documented. But when did dinosaurs live? And how does that fit with the Bible’s account of creation in Genesis?
