http://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=9&article=1321
Dinosaurs: They're Everywhere! They're Everywhere!
| by | Kyle Butt, M.Div. |
Those mysterious reptiles known as dinosaurs have captivated not just our nation, but the entire world. In 1956, Godzilla made the big screen come alive with his city-crushing tirades. Since that time, dinosaurs have made an appearance on untold millions of soda cans, cereal boxes, posters, and other such items. For the past ten years, absorbent little minds have flocked to PBS to watch their favorite purple dinosaur, Barney, bounce around the stage, teaching them to pick up their toys, and say please and thank you.
As I write this article, I have before me a veritable plethora of dinosaur-saturated material. First on the list is a Wendy’s™ children’s meal bag that has a 2001 copyright date. From this beautifully colored, slick-papered bag, hungry young readers can learn about dinosaurs like Stegosaurus, Oviraptor, and the infamous Tyrannosaurus rex. Next on the list of dinosaur products is a Large Aqua Dinosaur Big Belly™ Bank. This exciting collector’s bank features a free-standing dinosaur with a large, clear belly that holds coins. In order for the coins to get into the belly, children “feed” the coins through the mouth of the money-hungry dinosaur, and then watch the coins roll down the meandering throat canal into the belly below. And if that does not satisfy your child’s dinosaur cravings, you can order an inflatable, enclosed trampoline shaped like a dinosaur. Also available is the ever-popular board game, “The Dinosaur Game,” that boasts of having won eleven awards, and was featured on “Good Morning America.” Other dinosaur products on the market include countless books, one of which is named Dinosaurs Divorce, which purports to help divorcing parents teach their children about their situation by using a family of dinosaurs.
Last on the list is the ever-growing number of movies starring these captivating creatures. The landmark movie, Jurassic Park, drew children and adults to the box office by the millions, and its two successors, The Lost World, and Jurassic Park 3, raked in tens-of-millions of dollars. Not least on the list of critically acclaimed dinosaur movies was the Walt Disney classic titled, appropriately, Dinosaur. One reviewer of Dinosaur stated that “kids will love the film,” and noted that the film, which was “geared primarily towards a younger audience,” was “aimed squarely at the under-10 crowd.”
Kid’s meal bags, children’s PBS shows, toy banks, games, and a children’s animated movie all have one thing in common: they target children. Kids are fascinated with dinosaurs, and the various companies and agencies that want to turn a quick dollar are smart enough to seize upon that fascination. Unfortunately, however, dinosaurs are not used just to make money. These marvelous creatures also have been laden with a backbreaking load of evolutionary baggage. For decades, dinosaurs have been exploited by evolutionists, and have been used to force-feed children false evolutionary propaganda. As evidence of this fact, consider that on that same Wendy’s™ kids’ meal bag discussed earlier, an unsuspecting child can see, via the timeline on the side panel of the bag, that dinosaurs first appeared “245 million years ago.” The child also can read how dinosaurs became extinct “64 million years ago.” And, the same movie reviewer who mentioned that Dinosaur was aimed at the “under-10 crowd,” also noted that the movie was set “65 million years ago during the late Cretaceous period.”
What is wrong with this information? Notice that no humans are depicted in the Dinosaur animation. Such is the case because, according to evolutionary theory, humans did not evolve until about 3 million years ago, separating them from the dinosaurs by an alleged 62 million years or so. This concept, however, stands in direct contradiction to biblical teaching, which states that God made dinosaurs on day six of the Creation (since dinosaurs, by definition, are land-living animals)—the exact same day that He made humans. Furthermore, Jesus Himself stated that Adam and Eve, the first humans, had been on Earth “from the beginning of creation” (Mark 10:6), not millions of years removed from it.
Currently, the sad state of affairs finds the amazing creatures we know as dinosaurs being hijacked by those who use them to teach children evolution-based concepts. In contradistinction, when God was in the midst of His discussion with Job (Job 40-41), He mentioned two creatures—behemoth and leviathan—that resemble either dinosaurs or dinosaur-like animals. God, however, referred to these creatures to impress upon Job His unfathomable power—the exact opposite of what dinosaurs are being used to teach today.
The topic of dinosaurs is something that children are going to learn—from someone! Whether it is from us, or from the evolutionists, children will learn about these creatures. The time has come for us to “take back” the use of dinosaurs as an educational tool. Let us arm children with the correct information about dinosaurs, so that when the time comes that they find themselves bombarded with evolutionary propaganda, they will be able to defend themselves with the truth.