Christian College Teaches Dinos Perished in Noah's Flood

"Their textbook is the Bible's Old Testament, and each lesson starts with a prayer." - Agence France-Press

Young Earth Creationists can't seem to get their stories straight.  Many insist that there were dinosaurs on Noah's Ark (since the Bible says that every species was loaded into the hull of that very big boat, along with enough food stores to keep them from starving) while others, like biology teachers David Dewitt and Marcos Ross of Liberty University, claim that the "Great Biblical Flood" caused the total extinction of the dinos.  Below is a video of Ross and Dewitt taking their students on a field trip to a natural history museum, for the purpose of mocking evolutionary theory.  Then, back in the classroom, the nutty professors finish up their lectures with drawings and prayers.  AFP reports that 12,000 students are currently learning this quackery at the Christian college, which will be disastrous if any of them plan to pursue a career in science.  Real science textbooks don't start with, "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep."

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Vast numbers of Christian evangelicals take issue with the "science" of Ross and Dewitt.  They prefer to believe that, with everything else going on, Noah's family found the time to toss scraps of flesh to velociraptors and shovel vegetable matter into the mouths of triceratops. ("Don't turn your back on that one!" "Watch out for those horns!") The website Top Ten Proofs has a compilation of "evidence" that irrefutably "proves" dinos and people co-existed: "Dinosaurs on Noah's Ark is actually a much simpler prospect than people assume. First, the fossil record confirms that very few dinosaurs were large in size. Of course, while there were a handful of dinosaurs types that grew to the large size of Tyrannosaurus Rex or Brachiosaurus, the fossil record itself confirms the overwhelming majority of dinosaurs were about the size of a sheep, approximately 3 to 5 feet in length. The fossils of the giant dinosaurs are certainly more fun to look at in the museums, but the fact is that most dinosaurs were small and only a few grew to large sizes. So, for most dinosaurs, getting on the Ark wouldn't be a problem at all, and as for the occasional larger type of dinosaur, God would have merely sent babies to Noah."  And now my brain hurts.  (Illustration courtesy of ProPup pal Zina Saunders.)

Comments

[Bee Girl]

Why didn't they just go to the Creation Museum? That way they wouldn't have to be exposed to ANY science.

[Alex Sterling]

HAHAHAH that guys is wearing a labcoat.

Take that thing off. You don't need that when all you do is read one book.

[Sinko D'Mayo]

Someone believing in something so ridiculous as creation will do anything to avoid confronting facts that counter their beliefs.
I'm quite amazed that we are still amazed at that. Various churches have tried to squash science for thousands of years. They won't stop. They're power-hungry shape-shifters. Engaging them in debate is an exercize in futility. My question is: How do they gather so many rubes into their tents? Is the general public that stupid? I'm afraid of the answer.

[Amanda]

lol Xstians 'doan no nuthin bout science books' ... as the old song goes.

[C. Taylor]

And if these dinosaurs were in say N. America, how did Noah cross the Atlantic? I suppose the Biblicans will say God gathered the rest. Why didn't God gather all of them. There are too many questions such as freshwater fish in a saltwater environment. Where did the water go?
Can one explain how Noah gathered 950,000 of insects which are land based?

[Aggie, Fair Haven, Vermont]

You can't argue with medieval ignorance and stupidity, or, I should say, you can, but there's no point.

[mix]

"God would have merely sent babies to Noah."

What.

[Mark]

Young-earth creationists "gather so many rubes into their tents" as they strongly fear their spiritual salvation is at stake (and the salvation of others). YEC's see the world through strict Mosaic glasses. Ironic that before the 1960s, relatively few anti-evolutionists insisted on a young earth and a single world flood laying down most strata. The YEC revival started in earnest in early 1960s, perhaps partly a backlash to increased science (including evolution) in schools, perhaps fed by evolution being mentioned so very little in public schools since the 1925 Scopes Trial. By the 1970s large numbers accepted a more literal Bible and even a complete rejection of mainstream geology to better assure spiritual salvation. Young-earth creationism has declined only slowly since the 1990s, still a very powerful force today and won't go away anytime soon. I was raised a YEC, but took a secular university geology class as sophomore which was start of me abandoning my young-earth/"flood geology" beliefs. However, I went through almost two years of painful spiritual upheaval and was somewhat ostracized by fellow church members, even some family members, for discarding my YEC views. I've come across studies and testimonies of ex-YECs, while some made easy transition, many others went through long, very difficult time. In contrast, those that converted to YEC often had happy, quick, spiritual conversion. Check out Glenn Morton's website, he is one of better know ex-YECs, he even published in Creation Research Society until his work as oil industry geologist (personally seeing how strata in the field vastly contradicted his YEC beliefs) made him slowly (and painfully) discard his YEC/flood geology views.

[Greg]

My girlfriend just put it best. 40% of Americans still believe this, and that's how George Bush got elected for a second term.

[Rick W]

Never underestimate the the level of stupidity possessed by the religious. There will probably always be people like this who willingly up the ante. I think it's time for a smiting party.

[Rick W]

Sorry for the extra 'the' in my above post.

[Mark]

It has less to do with stupidity, intelligence (or lack of it). Again, it's the strict Mosaic glasses. Former YEC Glenn Morton wrote an intriguing article, "Morton's Demon". When he was a YEC, this demon sat "...at the gate of his sensory input apparatus and if and when he saw supportive evidence coming in, he opened the gate. But if he saw contradictory data coming in, he closed the gate. In this way, the demon allowed me to believe that I was right and to avoid any nasty contradictory data. Fortunately, I eventually realized that the demon was there and began to open the gate when he wasn't looking."

To be sure, there are a few creationists in Ronald Number's book "The Creationists" (an excellent, fairly impartial history of the rise of modern flood geology/scientific creationism) that I thought were indeed stupid. However, even some top mainstream geologists who corresponded with George McCready Price (founder of so-called Flood Geology) thought he was intelligent with a lawyer like mind, even if he was ignorant and delusional in geology.

[Jeff]

So rather than refuting their arguments, which should be easy from the smug tone you take, you instead resort to ad hominem attacks, thus proving that YEC's are "nutty professors," teaching "quackery" by simple virtue of the fact that you assert it.

That's a tight little package to wrap your world-view up in, except that most YEC whip the snot out of evolutionists, according to audience polling, when engaged in formal debate. We can't let the facts get in the way though since you've already decreed they're all idiots.

[Mark]

Not quite sure who Jeff was replying to, but I was countering a previous remark "stupidity possessed by the religious" that I took issue with. Even mentioned George McCready Price as intelligent.

Indeed, a YEC helped invent the MRI.

Being ignorant (even delusional) is very different from being a stupid idiot.

Still, it may be one thing to reject parts of evolution. However, I as a former YEC conclude the hypothesis of a six thousand year old earth is desperately lacking in scientific merit, makes Christianity look bad, and puts Christians at risk of spiritual turmoil. Ditto regarding the hypothesis of one worldwide flood laying down most strata. Even by the 1830s (well before Darwin came out with evolution), geologists and other scientists (including Christian scientists) had largely discarded a worldwide flood and a young earth. Ice caps at the poles, on worldwide mountain tops, etc, show no worldwide flood. Remarkable about so-called "coral clocks" in coral fossils (many corals leave both daily layers and yearly layers); astronomers calculated earth's rotation has slowed; coral fossils dated to about 350 million years ago by radiometric dating happened to have the predicted 400 or so daily layers within yearly layer with earth's faster rotation, 180 million year old corals showed around 380 days in a year, and so on. The Affiliation of Christian Geologists is open to all Christian geologists, yet almost all members are theistic evolutionists and old earth creationists (who at most generally accept only a local flood).

Yes, as a former YEC I grew up admiring how Duane Gish seemingly triumphed against evolutionists in debates (but never heard, for example, about Gish's embarrassing fib at Auburn Univ in 1988, reportedly even YECs in audience were turned off, look it up for yourself). After the 1849 revival of flat earth movement, flat earthers became highly effective debaters. However, science isn't about performing forensics for laypeople. It's about trained scientists debating issues with each other, doing rigorous testing, publishing results in peer reviewed journals. Even if scientists agree on something, that finding can be subject to later modification or even rejection if better evidence is later found. Thus, science is more like a journey towards the truth, not an arrival at it.

I'll try to answer any other questions, but remember that I (as a former YEC) grew up learning the standard YEC arguments. Also, my main science study was geology and some biology, so I'm less familiar with other fields (such as chemistry, so without further study I'm still predisposed to discount life from nonlife for example).

[gene]

Biblical literalists continue to believe in a literal Ark, advancing arguments not so different from those in the earliest editions of the Encyclopædia Britannica. They feel that finding the Ark would validate their views on a whole range of matters, from geology to evolution. "If the flood of Noah indeed wiped out the entire human race and its civilization, as the Bible teaches, then the Ark constitutes the one remaining major link to the pre-flood World.

[Alan]

I am yet another ex-fundamentalist. When I politely confronted my church about the gaffs in things like a global flood and a young earth, I was made a heretic.

If I had been offered a way to accept both modern science and faith, I might still be a Christian. But my wife and I were treated like the Bubonic plague, I still have a little resentment after twenty years. I am agnostic today largely as a result. My example is far from rare as I've come across many others with similar experiences.