Dinosaurs?

[ERCougar]

I do wonder sometimes if they are just ignorant, willfully or otherwise. One doesn't have to be simple minded to believe in creation, I don't think. But to disbelieve evolution I think you have to be turning a blind eye to the evidence or doing some real mental gymnastics. Maybe I am wrong, but this is sort of a litmus test for me. I don't know how it all fits together, but this seems to me to be the equivalent of insisting that the earth is the center of the universe. (A) It isn't and (B) the scriptures don't teach that it is. But maybe I've missed something important. I disincline toward thinking that people are irrational.

I think it takes some real mental gymnastics to keep the book of Genesis intact or in any sort of resemblance and still accept evolution. I'd say the same about the temple ceremony.

NOTE to SU: This is not an argument against evolution.

[falafel]

I think it takes some real mental gymnastics to keep the book of Genesis intact or in any sort of resemblance and still accept evolution. I'd say the same about the temple ceremony.

I haven't really thought through all of this, and I'm not sure if this is my opinion or not, but can you imagine how difficult it would have been for God to explain to Moses or any of the O.T. prophets exactly how he created the earth? Assuming that God created the universe through scientific principles and reactions (just go along with me here), how could He have explained that to Moses in terms Moses would have understood?

Perhaps the O.T. should be viewed as an attempt to educate a faithful person who had absolutely no knowledge whatsoever regarding the physical sciences. Thus, to Woot's point, the entire Genesis story was necessarily an allegory, as Moses could not have comprehended the literal truth. I doubt we could even comprehend it today.

[ERCougar]

I haven't really thought through all of this, and I'm not sure if this is my opinion or not, but can you imagine how difficult it would have been for God to explain to Moses or any of the O.T. prophets exactly how he created the earth? Assuming that God created the universe through scientific principles and reactions (just go along with me here), how could He have explained that to Moses in terms Moses would have understood?

Perhaps the O.T. should be viewed as an attempt to educate a faithful person who had absolutely no knowledge whatsoever regarding the physical sciences. Thus, to Woot's point, the entire Genesis story was necessarily an allegory, as Moses could not have comprehended the literal truth. I doubt we could even comprehend it today.

Yeah, that's a good point. Obviously, since I'm still an active member of the Church, I have to do something like this with Genesis and the temple ceremony. I'm not sure why God didn't mention this possibility to JFS or BRM; in fact, it might be nice if He'd come out and say this now, so we could shut up some of our fundamentalist loonie members, but I'm not really in a position to judge.

But back to my original point...the temple ceremony still makes the Garden of Eden, Adam & Eve, absence of death and choice and sin and whatnot pre-Fall, etc seem a little more than allegorical--i.e. Eden was a real place, Adam & Eve were actually two specific people, etc. Just witness this thread for some of the wicked mental gymnastics required to reconcile this with evolution (God following evolution for 4 billion years to get to where He was happy with what man looked like, then creating a new man separate from this species and putting him in a special place where nothing was dying...).

[Flystripper]

Serious answer - no there weren't other "men" outside the Garden. We know the Creation of Man was different from the creation of eerything else - God the Father personally took part in the Creation of Man. Creating "man" only happened by both the Father and the Son within the Garden - at least as far as anything we know about.

That said, I think we may be a bit surprised at where the definition of "man" is drawn. I think it's entirely plausible that we may find that some of our very close relatives (ex Neanderthals) may have been part of an evolutionary chain of events and not 'men' in the sense I'm discussing here.

so God IS a racist!!!! SU is pleased.

[Flystripper]

Oh man this one is so easy: Neanderthals were less valiant souls in the pre-existence, so God put them on Mars back when it had liquid water and a thicker atmosphere, after which a giant collision with a planetoid in the early solar system caused chunks of Mars to be blown into space and eventually collide with Earth and become integrated with all the other extra-terrestrial planetary debris that God used to make the Earth's crust.

AWESOME!!

[Flystripper]

Any thoughts as to why dinosaurs are always the subject during these types of conversations? They were a semi-dominant form of life during the relatively recent past (225-65 million years ago), but we have undeniable and perfectly consistent evidence for millions of extinct species of mammals, reptiles, fish, amphibians, birds, plants, etc., not to mention all of the rocks that are unequivocally dated in the millions and billions of years. Why do people get hung up on dinosaurs?

The stories in Genesis are either allegorical or false. There is absolutely no question to a sane person that the earth was not "created" in any manner even close to resembling that described in Genesis.

I knew you would cum..er come!!

[Mr Incredible]

Dang. Again I ask myself the same thing I ask at least once a month reading this and other messageboards - where do you people go to church?

I hear all these great stories of wacky/militant members and crazy doctrines taught in classes. I feel like I've missed out.

I have the same reaction when I talk to my wife after she goes to church. While there are plenty of crazies out there, the ears of the hearer are a relevant factor in some of this too.

[falafel]

A 99 million year old dinosaur tail was found in amber recently. Soft tissue, bones, and feathers.

06_dinosaur_tail.adapt.590.1.jpg
01_dinosaur_tail.adapt.590.1.jpg

The tail of a 99-million-year-old dinosaur, including bones, soft tissue, and even feathers, has been found preserved in amber, according to a report published today in the journal Current Biology.

While individual dinosaur-era feathers have been found in amber, and evidence for feathered dinosaurs is captured in fossil impressions, this is the first time that scientists are able to clearly associate well-preserved feathers with a dinosaur, and in turn gain a better understanding of the evolution and structure of dinosaur feathers.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/12/feathered-dinosaur-tail-amber-theropod-myanmar-burma-cretaceous/

[taekwondave]

This is easy. 6,000 years ago when God created the earth, he took it from pieces of other planets where dinosaurs had previously existed.

Do you really think this or is this a joke? I know it was a popular theory when my dad was growing up but I though most people had discarded it by now.

*edit. I just realized this post and most of this thread are from 2009. I'm sure your take on this matter has changed since then.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Do you really think this or is this a joke? I know it was a popular theory when my dad was growing up but I though most people had discarded it by now.

*edit. I just realized this post and most of this thread are from 2009. I'm sure your take on this matter has changed since then.

Bro, try some nuance.

[Art Vandelay]

Do you really think this or is this a joke? I know it was a popular theory when my dad was growing up but I though most people had discarded it by now.

*edit. I just realized this post and most of this thread are from 2009. I'm sure your take on this matter has changed since then.

Jay is jokey? Jokey, how? Like he is a clown? He is here to amuse you?

[old_gregg]

Jay is jokey? Jokey, how? Like he is a clown? He is here to amuse you?

jay santos is a board treasure and if tkd implies otherwise, lebowski has to bring the ban hammer.

[myboynoah]

Dinosaurs with feathers? That's a faith crisis.

[Joe Public]

A 99 million year old dinosaur tail was found in amber recently. Soft tissue, bones, and feathers.

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http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2...ma-cretaceous/

Pretty amazing to think about. Thanks for posting that.

[CardiacCoug]

*edit. I just realized this post and most of this thread are from 2009. I'm sure your take on this matter has changed since then.

Dude how old are you? What a weird thing to say. Why would any of us have changed what we think about dinosaurs and age of the earth, etc between 2009 to 2016?