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!

God didn't write the bible. He doesn't have hands.

Indeed - events of the last few years show that many people are entirely unequipped to distinguish truth from fiction, or to know the limits of their own understanding, but are nevertheless able to drag the rest of us into their world of fantasy via the ballot box.

#notallchristians

Oh well, that’s us told.

So who wrote the bible?

It's the notion of the god of the gaps.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_of_the_gaps
The problem is that as scientific understanding expands there are fewer and fewer gaps where the god can exist.

@ChairCareOh there are many Christian denominations, so while most accepted the Theory of Evolution some still don't. Charles Darwin, originator of the theory was a Christian and as I said before the originator of the Big Bang Theory was a Catholic priest.

I am always gobsmacked on these threads at the ignorance some people have about history, science and religion.

So who wrote the bible?
Lots of different people over centuries, if not millennia.

@whoopwhoopting depends who you ask. Some people say Moses. As I said earlier, some people claim the bible is a bunch of fables written by who knows.

Clearly not God.

The Bible is not literal - Jesus told allegorical stories all the time to explain things to us simple humans. Evolution, ( inc Dinosaurs) and Christianity are not mutually exclusive.

There are 31.5 million Christians in the UK only about 6,000 people in the UK believe dinosaurs don’t exist because the they take the bible literally.

This.

The 'Christians' who don't believe dinosaurs are real are wildly out of step with historic Christianity to the extent that I don't think they should be regarded as Christians anymore than Mormons, Unitarians or 7th Day Adventists (not denying their right to call themselves what they want, merely recognising their very different beliefs).

When did Christian’s start believing in evolution?

Christian's what? The same time as everyone else.

Writers wrote the Bible. 'Bible' is from the Greek bibila meanings books.

So was Jesus an actual man?

Yes Jesus was a real man.
People are faking such ignorance here intentionally. I don't understand it.

I'm not Christian (and I don't follow any other religion) but there's no need to be a dick about the basic concepts of any religion that you'll have learnt in school.

I'm not particularly Christian, but have a degree in RE.

Two possible scenarios which might make sense:

(i) When you read the stories Jesus told in the New Testament, we all know they're stories (eg the Good Samaritan didn't happen - it's a parable to explain a deeper truth). It is perfectly possible that the Old Testament stories were the same and that people at the time knew perfectly well that they were stories but that at some point people started taking them literally.

(ii) A few thousand years ago, people were clearly more "childlike" and less sophisticated than they are now, particularly your average man in the street (or desert or whatever). So some Christians believe that God deliberately communicated and simplified things to allow them to be accessible for the target audience. We don't tell five year olds about molecules and atoms when we're explaining why the pavement they just fell on to is harder than their bed. We keep it at the level they need. If the purpose of the creation story is to tell how God made the world, then what value is added by mentioning dinosaurs?

As an aside, if you substitute the word "days" for "periods of time", the Creation story is remarkably accurate, with light followed by the elements, then plants, then animals, then humans. You could spend just as much time wondering how humans 4000 years ago actually knew that?!

So basically Christian’s believe everything in the bible unless it can be physically disproved by science.

No Christians don't believe the bible is literally true, really just the Gospels. They don't even accept that the Old Testement rules should be followed.

Of course some 'Christians' believe the whole Bible is literally true, except the bits they don't like. They will quote Leviticus at you when claiming that homosexuality is bad, but when you say that means they should go and set fire to two pigeons when they menstruate, they refuse.

So was Jesus an actual man?

Yes. Non Christian historians accept that Jesus existed (in as much as we can prove anyone from that time did).

You got me interested, so I’ve started googling. So far haven’t found a decent or plausible answer.

So was Jesus an actual man?

Who knows?! Maybe he was a woman & the patriarchy created the myth about him being a man. Maybe he was a band of roaming preachers, maybe the stories attributed to him were told by multiple people at different times.

I'm not here to defend Christianity - I'm just saying it's full of allegory. Im also saying I don't think the existence of dinosaurs is the most valid reason for not having faith in the Christian version of God.

when you say that means they should go and set fire to two pigeons when they menstruate, they refuse.

Political correctness gone mad

According to my childhood Catholic friend their bones and fossils were put there to confuse us.

Wow I didn’t know these opinions existed!

I’m not religious but I’m not against the idea.

I am a Science teacher and I teach evolution and if someone questions it then I tell them that the facts show this is what happened and we learn more and more every day - but that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t exist.
If you believe in God and he created everything then he would have also created dinosaurs etc.

I know many Science teachers who are religious (all different ones) and all of them believe in evolution and dinosaurs.

I'm not here to defend Christianity - I'm just saying it's full of allegory.

It's full of something.

So who are these authors/writers of these books then? Because if god did not write them how do we know they are gods words and not some made up story's?

Political correctness gone mad

The type of 'Christians' I suggest bird immolation to are not at all PC- they are the most fun type to wind up.