Dinosaurs!?

Reflection

Dinosaurs have become an unlikely flashpoint in debates about faith and science, often used as a shorthand test of whether someone takes the Bible literally or figuratively regarding the age of the earth. In truth, thoughtful Christians hold a genuine range of views on this question, from young earth positions to old earth and evolutionary creation, and denominational or personal disagreement here need not undermine core Christian belief. What unites these different views is a shared conviction that God is the creator of everything, dinosaurs included, whatever the exact timescale and mechanism involved. Genesis was written to answer who created the world and why, more than to serve as a modern scientific timeline (Genesis 1:1). Getting curious, even playful, about dinosaurs need not threaten faith, it can instead be one more doorway into wonder at just how strange and rich the creation actually is.

Questions to sit with

• Do you know what you actually believe about the age of the earth, or have you never examined it?
• Have disagreements over scientific questions ever damaged your view of fellow believers?
• What aspect of the natural world fills you with the most childlike wonder?

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