“A shadow of disbelief is still thick over me”¹

A boy, dinosaurs, and Christianity²

by Phil Robinson

pixabay.com

Recently Tom Holland, popular author and documentary presenter, wrote an article for the New Statesman entitled, Why I was wrong about Christianity.³ While this primarily dealt with his realisation that Western morality derived from Christianity rather than other ancient philosophies,⁴ it also provided some very telling information about how dinosaurs influenced his boyhood thinking and subsequent path in life. Speaking further about his article on Premier Christian Radio¹ (UK) Holland described his love of dinosaurs as a child and how they fuelled his imagination, seeing them as exciting, large, glamorous, fierce, and extinct. Certainly, dinosaurs were truly magnificent creatures, and those words resonate with many children (and adults) too.

Significantly, Holland recounts how one of his earliest problems with Christianity began with dinosaurs:

“When I was a boy, my upbringing as a Christian was forever being weathered by the gale force of my enthusiasms. First, there were dinosaurs. I vividly remember my shock when, at Sunday school one day, I opened a children’s Bible and found an illustration on its first page of Adam and Eve with a brachiosaur. Six years old I may have been, but of one thing—to my regret—I was rock-solid certain: no human being had ever seen a sauropod. That the teacher seemed not to care about this error only compounded my sense of outrage and bewilderment. A faint shadow of doubt, for the first time, had been brought to darken my Christian faith.”³

Contradictions spoil faith

tom-holland.org

This is not a solitary story, but a salutary reminder of the power that the secular (evolutionary) view of dinosaurs has on young people. I vividly remember standing at Lipan Point at the top of the Grand Canyon with geologist and anti-creationist Prof. Donald Prothero (see here), listening to him explain how dinosaurs convinced him of evolution and millions of years when he was only four.⁵

It was, however, very exciting and commendable to read that, in the early 1970s, the Sunday school that Holland attended had a Children’s Bible depicting Adam and Eve with a sauropod dinosaur. But even at the young age of six, Holland recognised the Law of Non-contradiction in action (see Sarfati’s discussion of this in Logic and creation). This states that two opposing views cannot both be true—so dinosaurs cannot have been created on Day 6 along with man, 6000 years ago and, at the same time, have died out millions of years before man evolved. Holland recognised, as should we all, that the two ‘histories’ cannot both be correct (for more on his views, see here). The real question is: What can be done to teach young people the true history of dinosaurs?

Simple stories or apologetics?

The answer is apologetics, and even where young children are concerned. We have to remember not only to teach the history contained within the Bible but also, in a world of disbelief and rejection, how to defend it. The question is really: Did we tell them a nice story, or did we teach it as history and attempt to answer the relevant questions at the same time? For example: Did man and dinosaurs live together? How did dinosaurs fit into Noah’s Ark? Are there any examples of people depicting dinosaurs, such as in ancient artwork? Why are there no dinosaurs alive now?

CMI’s recent documentary, Fallout!, effectively highlights this point. Students who had their questions answered when attending church at home are the ones who are still attending church now. In this modern era, with the internet and a wealth of great creation resources, questions about dinosaurs and the Bible are easily answered (see Dinosaur Questions and Answers). CMI have produced many articles highlighting depictions of dinosaurs drawn by people throughout the ages, such as the sauropods on Bishop Bell’s tomb⁶ in Carlisle Cathedral, England, or the Stegosaurus-lookalike on a stone carved pillar in Ankgor Wat, Cambodia.⁷ There is also a plethora of articles on soft tissue, proteins, and even DNA, found in dinosaur bones (see here and its ‘related articles’ links)—all of which blows completely out of the water the idea that they are millions of years old! Among that wealth of resources, CMI’s book, Exploring Dinosaurs With Mr Hibb, is a wonderful source of information for inquisitive young (and older!) minds looking to understand more about dinosaurs and the Bible. The reality is, that with such helpful resources readily available, there need be no ‘shadow of disbelief’ hanging over any child.

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