Fossil Fuel: Group says dinosaurs are in the Bible
It's right there in the Bible, says a group in Salt Lake City today to plead its case.
Science has it all wrong, according to the Institute for Creation Research. Dinosaurs lived thousands of years ago, not millions, they or their ancestors walked the Earth with Adam and Eve, and they hitched a ride with Noah, says the Christ-focused creation ministry.
The group will give its presentation "Dinosaurs in the Bible" tonight at 6:30 at Calvary Chapel of Salt Lake, 460 W. Century Drive (4350 South). Admission is free, and the public is invited.
The event was designed to encourage people to get their Bibles out and find out for themselves about the Creation and dinosaurs, said Brett Davis, assistant pastor at Calvary Chapel of Salt Lake.
"All through school we are inundated with culture and society's idea about the Creation," Davis said. "They want to destroy the idea of God. . . . Science tries to take it outside the Bible."
Calvary Chapels have several connections to the Institute for Creation Research. The group broadcasts programs on the Calvary Satellite Network and has already made presentations to Calvary Chapels outside Utah.
Founded in 1970 and located in Santee, Calif., the group is "devoted to research, publication and teaching in those fields of science particularly relevant to the study of origins." Originally, the ICR was formed as the research division of Christian Heritage College, but it became a separate group in 1981.
ICR isn't the only group or persons interested in dinosaurs in the Bible. A Google search on the Internet found more than 107,000 different references to the subject.
The only place dinosaurs could have survived the Flood was on Noah's Ark, says ICR President John D. Morris on the group's Web site. Dinosaurs could have fit in the ark if they were younger and smaller, he says.
But they might not have survived in a post-Flood world with different environmental conditions. Morris believes the dinosaurs just didn't make it to our day, noting that the process of the extinction of some animals still continues.
No one has all the answers, but Morris says the Bible is much better than science. He adds there's a lot of unanswered questions about dinosaurs, and science can't explain dragon legends and cave drawings.
ICR also questions the accuracy of radioactive mineral aging determinations and says human and dinosaur footprints have been found in the same formations at times.
Quoting the Bible, it also says that death had not entered the world until after Adam's sin (Romans 5:12) and yet the fossil record shows sudden death on a worldwide scale. ICR maintains that the fossil record does not contain a long and graduated evolution of life but rather a rapid extinction of life as a result of God's judgment when "the world that then was, being overflowed with water perished" (2 Peter 3:6).
There is no official statement on dinosaurs by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the predominant Utah religion. But Joseph Smith, the church's first prophet, once said the world and Earth are not synonymous. He said: "This Earth was organized or formed out of other planets which were broken up and remodeled and made into one on which we live. The elements are eternal" (from Discourses of the Prophet Joseph Smith).
Also, the Book of Mormon mentions "cureloms and cumons," creatures unknown to modern times, that were well-known to the Jaredite race (Ether 9:19) and considered valuable to man, like the elephant.
For more information on the Institute for Creation Research, go online to www.icr.org or call 1-649-448-0900. A separate Web site, www.clarifyingchristianity.com also promotes dinosaurs as being in the Bible.
For more information on Calvary Chapel of Salt Lake, call 264-9999 or go online to www.calvaryslc.org. Davis said tonight's event will last 90 minutes to two hours and includes a video presentation. It is designed for all age groups, and seating for about 600 people will be available.
E-mail: lynn@desnews.com
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