to ask Christians about dinosaurs...

[EastYorksLass]

This is a serious question - so I have been thinking a lot lately about whether God exists, the meaning of life and why is the world in such a terrible state... been thinking about going to church but still feel I am on the fence. One question which has really got me thinking (after watching dear old David Attenborough... ) is where do dinosaurs fit into all this. Sorry if this sounds very weird but I would love to hear an explanation!

Societal harmony. But they should all be respected equally, along with absence of belief. Indeed I think that's written into the Equality Act 2010.

Is that not the case with certain books or passages being reinterpreted to fit the political climate of the day ? And if so, then it's not God's words it's what humans want it to be.

i’m a Christian and don’t believe in a 6/7 day creation. I believe dinosaurs existed. The way I see it - genesis was probably revealed to a group of people in the Middle East and passed down by oral tradition for hundreds of years before being written down (and then copied by scribes before the printing press widely disseminated it).

it is not a scientific manual. Nor is it exhaustive. For it to make sense to the people it was revealed to, it needs to take into account their view of the world- No good talking to them about the periodic table or relativity because their societies wouldn’t have the history and science for it to be meaningful. I imagine if I was speaking to one of those people a few thousand years ago and told them about planes, smart phones, Covid-19 vaccines - they would have thought I was making it up. Why would a reasonable person believe such things are possible?

would knowing about dinosaurs have been helpful to them? why were bacteria and black holes also not included? I think at that time, it was important that it was revealed there was a creator and how we should act towards Him and other people and the world.

Charles Darwin, who developed the theory of evolution and natural selection, was a practicing Christian. Like him, most Christians think that their faith is entirely compatible with science.

But doesn't the Bible say God formed us in the womb and that even the hairs on our heads are counted etc? Either he forms us or he doesn't, which is it? I'm not trying to be awkward, I would love to believe but I just don't get it.

Darwin started out as a Christian but in the end he was more leaning towards agnostic than theist.

I thought he confessed his faith on his deathbed but maybe it wasn't true?

I went to a C of E primary. We learned about dinosaurs and evolution and, you know. SCIENCE. As a Christian I recognise that parables have alway been used by teachers to try to explain the wonder of creation and the world around us. Faith and knowledge do not need to be mutually exclusive.

After all, MEN wrote the Bible, not God - and those men would have had no idea of the existence of dinosaurs and therefore would have had no need to 'explain them'.

Created in the sense that he created the material world, with all its flawed material processes. So God created humanity, using the imperfect natural process of evolution; or created the continents, but through tectonic drift, not by zapping them into existence.

So the question is more like, “why would God allow the flaws in this material world, why not just fix it so horrendous things don’t happen”, which is a totally reasonable question to which my answer is: I don’t know. I have heard various theories, none of them really work in my thinking, so I put it down to how I wouldn’t expect to understand everything God would do and why.

like I said, I appreciate it’s not a very satisfactory answer (and I have lost pregnancies myself so it I feel that myself). From the perspective of someone who already believes, though, me not having a better answer to this isn’t by itself enough to cancel out the rest of my beliefs, so I focus instead on “given I can’t fully understand or remove the inevitable suffering in life, what can I do to minimise it for other people?” which is something I at least can do.

Thank you for replying @GoldenOmber I am sorry to hear you have been through pregnancy losses too x

After all, MEN wrote the Bible, not God

So who were these men and how do you know they were not women? How do you know they were not liars, fantasists or good story tellers. That's a lot of faith to put in some writings with out knowing who made them. May be I'm wrong and you can tell me who exactly they were and how you can prove it.

Any religious beliefs.

I know pagans who believe in multiple gods. Gods who are horrible. Gods of fertility and spring.

I respect their right to those beliefs but I dont see why I need to respect patently ridiculous beliefs.

Do I need to respect the belief that the earth is flat or the belief that nessie is real too?

What do you consider to be extreme nonsense?

The equalities act is to prevent religious people being discriminated against.

It doesn't say we have to respect individual beliefs.

The equalities act doesn't bar people from saying its a load of nonsense

Yes, why wouldn’t you?

The vast majority of Christians in this country believe in science and specifically evolution.

Because its nonsense?

But it doesn’t affect your life at all.

Oh religious beliefs affect my life in lots of ways.

But since when did something have to affect my life before I could have an opinion on it?

The thread is asking for my opinion? I thought that was the point?

How do religious beliefs affect your life in lots of ways?

The thread is asking for my opinion? I thought that was the point?

The thread is, according to the OP’s thread title, “[AIBU] to ask Christians about dinosaurs.”

Nobody's going to arrest you or anything for contributing, but if you aren’t a Christian and don’t really know very much about what Christians might or might not believe about dinosaurs, I’m not sure your opinion is really the one the thread is asking for.

I live in nominally a Christian country.

My kids have no choice but to go to a school that is attached to a church. Its the law to have an act of daily worship of a broadly Christian nature in all English schools.

Most holidays are centred around Christian festivals. The school year is centred around Christian festivals

I live in an area where wearing the wrong colour of football strip might get you a kicking.

You can ask for your children to be removed for the daily worship.
You can be attacked for wearing any football strip.
Do you celebrate Christmas?

The op doesn't say only Christians can reply.

No other non Christian has been asked why they are replying.

It has also moved on a fair bit from just dinosaurs

@Topgub There just trying to wear you down and shut you up. Deflection so they don't have to give any real answers.