From: jsue@ncsa.uiuc.edu (Jeffrey L. Sue)
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic
Subject: Re: Dinosaurs and man co-existed at one time?
Date: 14 Oct 92 14:22:17 GMT
Distribution: usa,local
Organization: The Dow Chemical Company
Originator: jsue@mars.ncsa.uiuc.edu

In article <1992Oct13.212404.29017@cbnewsm.cb.att.com>, jeffj@cbnewsm.cb.att.com (jeffrey.n.jones) writes...
>A friend of mine and his wife came over to dinner the other night. We got
>into a intense discussion on politics and I said to her, that's like saying
>that the world was created in 7 days. To which she responded with dead 
>serious "Oh but it was!". I said how do you explain dinosaurs. She said 
>that there were numerous cases of where dinosaurs co-existed with man and 
>mentioned the famous footprint with dinosaur tracks. I told her that has since
>been disproven which she shrugged off. Now the obvious question, has there
>been any new evidence that could possibly show that we had dinosaurs as
>roommates at one time? Always been totally mystified by the creationalists.

Hmm... I have read some recent article in Discover magazine about whether
dinosaurs coexisted with people.  Currently this is under serious debate
from what I've read.

However, I feel that a bigger point is the "7-day" thing.  Not all 
creationists feel that this *must* be taken literally.  In fact, I've read
where even the catholic church has backed off of this claim (sorry, I can't
remember any references).  I think that there are still quite a few people
around who believe that their entire faith comes into question if the
idea of evolution is proven to be the absolute truth.  My faith isn't 
quite that fragile.  In fact, I believe that (and have seen cases where) 
science and religion actually agree with one another. (e.g., the big bang
can really be viewed in the context that a God created the universe in
one instant.)

To view absolutely everything written in the Old Testament of the bible
as absolute truth ignores certain facts: (NOTE:  these are my own views)

	1.	There are fossiles and bones older than the first recorded
		(written) piece of history.

	2.	The human race's grasp of numbers took many years before
		it could understand the idea of -large- numbers.

	3.	The bible as we know it is not the original.  It took
		people hundreds of years to translate the entire document
		into a more "modern" language.

#1 above means that any *actual* information about the creation would
have been passed by word-of-mouth for many generations before they could
have been written down.  This implies a lot of room for embellishment
in the story telling.  Also this means that the actual language would
have had to be translated many times over the eons, each time losing/adding
something in the process.  

(An example of what I mean here: In the New Testament Jesus says "The
meek shall inherit the Earth."  To us this is generally taken to mean
the "submissive, weak" people.  However I remember a professor in a
class on ancient Greek and Roman culture telling us that "meek" to
them meant moderate, not submissive.)

#2 means that earlier civilizations were not capable of understanding
numbers large enough to describe creation-time with any accuracy.  I'm
not even sure that comprehension existed during the time covered in the
New Testament.

#3 means that there were an awful lot of cooks in the kitchen when the
bible of today was written.  Many of these people had their own beliefs
and objectives which could cloud their translations.  It also means that
many differing opinions of the events & their meanings are in the final
product.

I am not offering these ideas as evidence against creationism.  In fact
I believe that they offer more room for people with faith to accept
science as more of a supporting role to that faith.

There are many people in science who embrace scientific facts and can
still find room for religious faith and a belief in creationism.

-- 
Jeffrey L. Sue   Internet:  jsue@ncsa.uiuc.edu
VMScluster Systems Manager,                     (All opinions are mine)
Research Technical Support              (and you can't have any, nya nya nya)
The Dow Chemical Company, Midland, MI