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!

Thanks for the nice messages trying to explain - especially to @Madhairday for the link and also @fighoney - I looked into alpha but saw a documentary by Jon Ronson about it which put me off.
@Thesefeetaremadeforwalking I am sorry that you misunderstood my intentions, I am exploring faith not trying to be goady in any way

They normally fit in the Mesozoic era. You know most denominations either allow you to independently come to your own decision or accept evolution right? Some of us Christians hold actual scientific qualifications and have careers in science. I mean Gregor Mendel was a Catholic monk!

Just to add my entire education from 4-16 was in Catholic schools and we learnt about evolution as fact in science lessons. We learnt about creation in RE.

Creationism is not the same as the story of Creation. There are different ways of interpreting it and creationism is one. Have you actually read it? It's not exactly The Origin of Species but as I say, for something written thousands of years ago the broad brush strokes align quite well with our current understanding.

How very odd.

I am a Catholic. Went to a Catholic convent school and taught in a Catholic school. I have friends who went to Catholic schools and my own children go to Catholic schools, as did my parents.

I have never EVER heard anyone, lay teacher, nun or priest say this and I would think it is very likely that you are mistaken, have misunderstood or are making it up.

Apart from a very small amount of Creationists, Christians-including the much hated Catholics-believe that the Creation Myth is just that-a myth. A myth used to demonstrate that God made the world, no reasonable person believes it was made in seven days-that story is an allegory to demonstrate the truth we believe which is that God made the world.

That allegory is completely compatible with all scientific creation science such as The Big Bang etc. We know that the earth is countless years in age and that other species were here long before us, evolving and becoming extinct and leaving remains behind.

You have overegged the pudding with your tale. Very silly and completely transparent.

This might help a little with that question from the POV of evolutionary creationism.
biologos.org/common-questions/how-could-humans-have-evolved-and-still-be-in-the-image-of-god

And Noah did not build an ark and the whole earth was not flooded.

My mum is a Christian and views much (all? Not sure) of the Old Testament as metaphorical. So believes dinosaurs and evolution happened as science says.

Fwiw, i think of myself as a Christian, was brought up Methodist (went to Sunday School every week, etc), and my favourite dinosaur is a triceratops.

Is this thread a joke?

Apart from a very small amount of Creationists, Christians-including the much hated Catholics-believe that the Creation Myth is just that-a myth. A myth used to demonstrate that God made the world, no reasonable person believes it was made in seven days-that story is an allegory to demonstrate the truth we believe which is that God made the world.

I'm an atheist who grew up amongst literalist/creationist type christians. It really doesn't matter if we think it's a load of nonsense. That's up to them if they think the universe was made in a week. What's more important is how they interpret other bible verses like regarding child discipline. This particular issue is a non-issue.

From my perspective I’ve also viewed it as Science tells us how, the Bible tells us why.
The Bible was written to be accessed by anyone, not just scientific scholars. People across time have been using stories and allegory to explain difficult concepts, and parts of the Bible are like that.

Christian teaching does not require the Bible to be taken literally - it was written by men who interpreted things their way and according to their understanding at the time. The New Testament is more enlightened than the Old Testament and most Christians follow that, but even that is subject to interpretation and prejudices at the time. Flat Earthers and Fundamentalist Christians tend to follow the Old Testament and have a problem with Evolution.
Basically, in mail stream Christian teaching If God is the Creator of all things, then he created the dinosaurs too.
Christianity, unlike some other faiths, expects you to develop your understanding and use your Free Will in thinking about your beliefs - it's not a dictatorship that compels one line of thought (unless you are a fundamentalist, in which case you will be happy following the thinking of the Ancients and/or Middle Ages.

Hardly any more nutty than thinking virgins can give birth or that three -day dead corpses can be resurrected. Once you step beyond the constraints of reality you might as well go all in.

I am not sure - perhaps people can say - whether there are similar beliefs in the Jewish and Moslem faiths who both use the Old Testament.

I once, briefly, met a very Orthodox Jew who told me his people knew the earth is 6000 years old because they've been counting since Day One.

Bogstandard Catholic upbringing here . In my early 50s now. We were always taught about evolution and dinosaurs. The Adam n Eve stuff is an analogy . A priest taught our class that in the 70s. You realise some scientists are Catholic/Christians etc?

See I can totally get behind this. A Christian once said to me that they see the bible as a book of fables with morals to the story.

It's funny because I was on a panel to answer questions that high school students had asked (Private Christian school not in the UK) and one of them was your question.
There are a lot of schools of thought on it and a big thing to remember is that there are a lot of people who believe in God, love Jesus, but believe different things about what, I would term, secondary issues. I.e. those things that fall outside the fundamentals of our faith.
Dinosaurs fall into this category for me. I personally think that the creation story in the Bible doesn't have to be literal to be true and I don't think it eliminates the possibility of dinosaurs, for example, a day wasn't necessarily a day. So when God created the beasts of the earth, this could have included dinosaurs but then they died off before humanity.
If you have questions, do go and find a church near you, particularly if they run the Alpha Course as it's a completely non threatening way to ask your questions.

Dinosaurs weren't birds, no.

Birds evolved from dinosaurs.

I had a born again boss and he too said they were put there on purpose as a test of faith.
You can't argue with fundamentalist religion ime.

I don't think God does care about us more than the rest of creation, however he established in us a spiritual dimension that gives us the opportunity to relate to God in a different way to other creatures and have a deeper understanding of his love and care for us. It goes alongside a God given responsibility to care for the rest of his creation.
He has honoured us with working alongside him in caring for the world.

For all those Christian’s saying of course they believe in them, how does it fit in terms of us all coming from Adam and Eve?

Oh! Stop this please! Stop with the Friday goading or find another religion to have a pop at. Go on find a quirk of Islam or Hinduism for your silly posts
Christians believe in Jesus Christ and the teaching of the New Testament. That is important.
I do not nor do any sensible people believe the earth is only 6,000 years old.
We fully go along with the Geological theories that we are talking millions of years even before the dinosaurs.
It can be shown that Africa and South America were joined, India is still moving North.
The nicely rounded Monros in Scotland were tall and jagged like the Alps.

I don't think anyones ever claimed that included dinosaurs, elephants, horses or anything in else.

In fact, if we believe the creation story, there was already a snake...

@EastYorksLass like everyone else has said, you don't need to forget all logic and education to go to church. If you haven't been yet, it's worth considering that you might need to try a few different churches before you feel comfortable. Some Christians do say weird things. I feel it is okay and right to question everything. The priest at my church did a very moving homily years ago which really stayed with me, where he said it is nothing to do with the priest, the church, any of it, it's only about your relationship with God and nobody can tell you how that should be or what you should think.