Why did God make the dinosaurs go extinct? Is it true they just didn’t evolve to their (new) environment?

I appreciate this question. It shows that some are thinking and trying to struggle with the facts that surround our world. We talked a little about the dinosaurs in the last question and answer session. These animals did exist. There is abundant evidence that man walked around on the earth with these creatures. The Bible even contains some information about them and we looked at this evidence in the book of Job last time. However, we did not deal with the question of what happened to the dinosaurs.

The truth is that we really don’t know what happened to the dinosaurs. We know they lived on the earth at one time, but that they stopped living on the earth at a certain period of time. We really do not have to answer this question as Christians because it does not affect our Christianity. However it happened, it happened within the context of the history of the Bible and there have been some people who have advanced some theories as to how they died out.

One of those theories is that the global flood produced a climate change on the earth in which the dinosaurs could no longer survive. However, the book of Job was written after the flood and some dinosaurs still existed at that time. So, it could not have been something that happened in a short period of time.

Another theory is that dinosaurs are just reptiles that lived several hundred years just as man lived hundreds of years. This theory states that unlike people, reptiles never stop growing. That is, they continue to grow as long as they are alive. Living several hundred years would produce very large reptiles. However, when man’s life span was shortened, the life span of animals was shortened as well and so reptiles just do not grow as big as they used to grow.

A third theory is that they existed after the flood and that men just hunted them to extinction. We know of species of animals that have been hunted to extinction in recent centuries. One such example is the Dodo bird. There have been other species that have been hunted to near extinction such as the Humpback whale. It is very possible that men hunted these animals for various by-products and in such a way they became extinct.

The bottom line is that the Bible does not specifically tell us how these creatures died out. We know that God created them and that they lived upon the earth, but that they eventually died out. How they died out, the Bible does not say and we will just have to be happy with that answer.

Bert Thompson in a paper he wrote regarding Dinosaurs had this to say, “We feel it the safer course to simply say that we do not know specifically why the dinosaurs died out, or when. It is best to leave the matter an ‘unknown’ since certainty is impossible.” We read in Deuteronomy 29:29, “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

http://preachersfiles.com/why-did-god-make-the-dinosaurs-go-extinct/


The head in the sand approach is just not good enough for me ... what did dino and his cousins do to upset god?

... wrote on Jul 21^st, 2013 at 10:33am:


Did homosexuality kill the dinosaur? No, it was the the hehadasoreass' ex.

Nothing worse than a wman scorned. Especially when she has such big teeth.

Dinosaurs are essentially big reptiles; megafauna. Skeletal remains suggest that at one time the Earth was populated by giant mammals - with only a few species remaining today like whales and elephants.

Do we wonder why God brought an end to the large mammals?

Perhaps it was to make the world a safe place for his better creation - man.


What I find interesting is that cultures as diverse as British to Chinese have traditionally held folktales about giant reptiles.







Did giant lizards co-exist with man at some point?



For example, carbon-dating suggests that Aborigines and 8 metre-long lizards called megalania lived in Australia at the same time.

Saltwater crocodiles of 7 metres are still common today although came close to extinction in Australia in the 20th century.

Anacondas of 8 metres have been found (and there even reports of some being up to 12 metres).

There are other species of large reptiles whose fossil record almost seems to coincide with the human era having lived in the current quaternary geological epoch. These include the 10 metre-long snakes Bluff Downs giant pythons, or the 10 metre-long crocodilia such as the euthecodon brumpti.

Birds are also from the dinosaur family, and some are still large today like emus, ostriches and cassowaries. Ostriches can reach nearly 3 metres tall. The Maoris hunted the giant moas into extinction - theystood at nearly 4 metres tall.


The reason why God made dinosaurs extinct may be that it is necessary for human safety. Another reason is that megafauna create large amounts of CO2 which is a greenhouse gas an which would make the Earth's climate up to 10 degrees celsius hotter than it is today.

Oh boy. Now I have to clean coffee off my screen

SOB

.

True Colours wrote on Jul 29^th, 2013 at 11:16am:


It might be short in geological terms, but it's still about 30 times longer than humans have existed.

And 10 degrees warmer wouldn't be that difficult for humans....after all, it's currently several degrees celcius colder than the human optimum, perhaps as much as 3 or 4 degrees.