12 March 2008

T. rex ate giant melons

On a recent trip to a Salvation Army thrift store, I found a humorous yet disturbing book - Dinosaurs and the Bible by David Unfred. The foreword reads:

"Dinosaurs! Children love them, but all too often stories about dinosaurs are used to lure young people away from confidence in the Bible."
The book tries to deny evolution and geology and instead asserts that
"There is only one way that we can know anything for sure about the 'prehistoric' past - from an eyewitness account! Someone who was there has to tell us what happened. God, Himself, is our best eyewitness."
For those of you who learned about dinosaurs scientifically and are curious, the following is what kids are learning about dinosaurs from this book and I guess also from the Bible. Dinosaurs were made on the sixth day, along with all other land animals. Two of each kind of dinosaur were on Noah's ark during the flood (how they all fit is beyond me). All the fossils we see today were deposited during this flood. Dinosaurs, once disembarking the ark, might have then died due to cold weather, lack of food, and hunting by people. Continental drift doesn't occur, and the reason we see dino fossils in polar areas is just because the earth was a lot warmer before the flood. Dinosaurs and people lived at the same time and that's why we have stories about dragons. If you wanted to find a living dinosaur today, the African Congo seems to be the place to look as there have been sightings of dino-like creatures.

My favorite assertion, because it's just so ridiculous, is in Appendix A. In it the author claims that since in the Garden of Eden all the animals ate plants that means that dinosaurs, even Tyrannosaurus rex were vegetarians (at least in the beginning). This claim comes with a hilarious illustration of T. rex chomping down on a giant watermelon clutched in his tiny arms. While there might be some debate over if T. rex was a pure predator or scavenger, I don't think any scientist would ever say the T. rex was adapted to eating melons. And if all animals started eating plants does that mean meat eating animals that we see today have adapted and even evolved to eat meat? Blasphemous!

There is so much wrong with this book, and so much glossed over because there is no biblical explanation, it is just so funny. I could go on for a long time, but in summary to refute the points above scientifically: Dinosaurs roamed the Earth from the late Triassic (about 230 million years ago) to the end of the Cretaceous period (65 million years ago) and all, except for ancestors of modern birds and reptiles, died in the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event. One flood like event could not account for the layers of fossils of various ages that we find. Dinosaur evolution responded to changes in vegetation and the location of continents. In the late Triassic and early Jurassic, the continents were connected as the single landmass Pangea and by the early Cretaceous the ongoing breakup of Pangea led to dinosaurs differentiated by landmass. The first members of the genus Homo first arose about 2.5 million years ago, long after dinosaurs were extinct.

The best $0.49 I've spent for laughs and also to prevent others from buying and believing its claims. It's too bad I don't believe these bible stories, riding a melon eating T. rex would be a lot of fun.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

HOLY SHIT. I grew up on that book. I also grew up Christian so...ya know. BOUND TO HAPPEN.

I know it's an old post but here's a tidbit of insight:

Every sect, religion, movement, even race, has it's "crazies". The one's who gotta go fucking it up for the rest of the normals. This book was written by a crazy. There isn't an iota of scientific research and reasoning behind this. How do I know this? My husband studies Dinos for "fun" and builds rockets for a living. We like science in our house.

The Bible does NOT in ANY way condone the gibberish in that book. No, I cant present any other proof of creation or God's reasoning for Dinos but to each his own, ya know? I like to think there is a God and He created the earth and Dinos. And since I tend to keep to myself about it and have no intentions of making anyone else feel as I do, I suppose I don't have to have proof of what I believe.

BUT, back to my point:

THIS BOOK IS RIDICULOUS. Highly ridiculous. And I found your post because I was writing my own post about the vegan dinos and its ridiculousness. So, ya know...there's that.

Anonymous said...

hi

cialis said...

Hello, I do not agree with the previous commentator - not so simple

notimpossible said...

Hello.

I see no factual evidence for your claims. I only see that you say:

"I could go on for a long time, but in summary to refute the points above scientifically: Dinosaurs roamed the Earth from the late Triassic (about 230 million years ago) to the end of the Cretaceous period (65 million years ago) and all, except for ancestors of modern birds and reptiles, died in the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event. One flood like event could not account for the layers of fossils of various ages that we find. Dinosaur evolution responded to changes in vegetation and the location of continents. In the late Triassic and early Jurassic, the continents were connected as the single landmass Pangea and by the early Cretaceous the ongoing breakup of Pangea led to dinosaurs differentiated by landmass. The first members of the genus Homo first arose about 2.5 million years ago, long after dinosaurs were extinct."

Sorry, but that's a big bunch of theory and opinion. The years are a THEORY, they are not FACT. And "One flood like event could not account for the layers of fossils of various ages that we find." is a hilarious, yet dangerous opinion.

Sure, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Sure, this IS your blog and you're allowed to say anything you'd like. Sure, I'm just commenting about 5 years later. Sure, I'm only a teenager.

But think about it. Thanks :)

Crashbandicoot65 said...

I don't like atheists but this book is dumb rex is meat eater not vegan

Crashbandicoot65 said...

I don't like atheists but this book is dumb rex is meat eater not vegan