Does the existence of dinosaurs conflict with the Bible teaching about Creation and the Flood? Actually, there is no reason why dinosaurs would need to be specifically mentioned in the Bible (though some people believe they are referred to in certain passages in Job and elsewhere). There are many other animals that exist even today but are not mentioned directly in the Bible.
The Bible clearly states that God made all the animals (land animals, birds, and sea animals) on the fifth and sixth days of creation (Gen. 1:20-25). That would have included the dinosaurs. Like many other animals, however, many of them have become extinct since creation.
Three points are of special interest. First, if the dinosaurs survived till the time of the flood, they would have been on the ark with Noah. Studies have shown that there would have been plenty of room for them. Remember, Noah was told to take a male and female, but age was not specified. He could have taken babies of the larger animals to save room. However, the studies indicate that there would have been room even had he taken adults. That was a big boat. (See books such as The Genesis Flood, by Morris and Whitcomb).
Second, dinosaurs are reptiles. Unlike mammals and birds, reptiles continue to grow all their lives. Prior to the flood, men lived to extremely great ages (see Gen. 5). It is likely that this was because conditions on the earth before the flood were more conducive to long lives than afterward. Conditions on the earth would have undergone major changes as a result of the flood. If animals also lived to comparatively longer ages before the flood, that would have made some mighty large reptiles, even of the kind of reptiles we have now. So it is entirely possible that the dinosaurs were very large reptiles that grew so large because they lived long ages before the flood. However, after the flood conditions changed on earth so that reptiles ceased to live so long and therefore ceased to grow so large. And many of the larger animals, including dinosaurs, may have simply become extinct after the flood.
Third, the flood would explain the huge beds of fossils of animals of all kinds, including the dinosaurs.
In short, dinosaurs pose no serious problem whatever for the Bible doctrine of creation.
(c) Copyright David E. Pratte, 9/2005
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