Exhibit portraying dinosaurs living alongside early man, Creation Museum in Boone County, Kentucky,
See the video link below to learn where the ancient cultural myths about monsters and dragons likely came from.
DID early humans live with dinosaurs? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlFWxhmcxNQ
Note, Christians that are Young Earth Creationists, believe the Creation Days detailed in Genesis were ALL literal, 24-hour days - that God created the heavens, earth, and all living creatures and beings in one LITERAL week. Of course, many of you who have studied this issue know that the word "day," as used in the Bible, can have meanings beyond mere 24 hours, including ones meaning over a long period of time. In fact, asserting those days were actual 24-hour ones has massive problems - not to mention it conflicts with extensive geologic, astronomical, and other lines of scientific data, from multiple fields and detailed studies that reveal an earth and universe that is in the BILLIONS of years old. Young-earth creationists even believe that the dinosaurs existed alongside early mankind, insisting that Noah brought dinosaurs on the ark he built. They often point to the ancients' references to monsters and dragons as supposedly having been rooted in the "reality" of the living amidst dinosaurs. But is there not a better explanation for where such references originated? The linked video above helps explain it!
And so, Young Earth believers don't trust the scientific data, and especially the multiple lines of data that reveal and ancient earth and universe. Yet Christians should be the LAST ones to be negative about science or its activities! As all the scientific method does is accumulate and test data, per the scientific method (And, yes, it also develops hypotheses to test as well – some wrong, some validated, some remaining uncertain). In fact, the ONLY reason the scientific method is even useful and works is because God made a universe of phenomenal consistency, predictability, and of razor-thin margins, per its physics, chemistry, geology, etc. So, science is actually the study of God's CREATION - even where many scientists don't realize that it is HIS handiwork they are exploring and trying to decipher.
For those who don't trust science because they believe in conflicts with the Bible - well, such people tend to cherry pick whatever aspects of science they want to agree with. And while it is good to question INTERPRETATIONS of data, the data itself is very important to take seriously. Because the Bible tells us that there is “knowledge” to be gained by observing the God’s universe. Look at Psalms 19:
“1 the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. 2 Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals KNOWLEDGE.”
In fact, paying attention to information we receive from our observation of God’s handiwork in the Creation is not only a witness to His existence and power, but the Apostle Paul tells us, in Romans 1, that to deny God’s existence - even those who've never heard or had access to the Old Testament or the Gospel - in light of the witness of Himself that can be seen across His Creation - is enough to condemn them eternally:
“19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, IN THE THINGS THAT HAVE BEEN MADE. So, they are without excuse.”
So, God is telling us in Scripture that He has left a powerful witness to Himself IN ADDITION TO His witness in Scripture – and that is His witness to us in the Creation itself, from nature. And by allowing mankind the scientific method to discover far more, with the ability to discern truths from by studying and analyzing it, EVERY day and year, we are learning more and more about the stunning array of amazing things God has poured into His Creation.
Back to Young Earth Creationism (YEC) - young earth creationists, despite an immense avalanche of data showing a very old (billions of years), as already noted, they not only believe that early man and dinosaurs existed at the same time, but they have formulated an explanation for this – see the following from young-earth creationist organization Answers in Genesis writing on young earth beliefs about early man living amongst dinosaurs:
"The Bible states that two of every kind of land animal and seven of some went onto the Ark. It doesn’t say two of every species went onto the Ark but “kinds.” There are thousands of species of dinosaurs, but there are only about fifty families of dinosaurs. And since the biblical kind is thought to correspond to the family level in most cases, there would have been only about one hundred dinosaurs on the Ark—not thousands.
“Every beast after its kind . . . went into the ark to Noah, two by two.” (Genesis 7:14–16) For instance, there are many different long-neck sauropods, such as Brachiosaurus, Camarasaurus, Saltasaurus, and Diplodocus, but only two needed to go onto the Ark if they were just one kind. This fact dramatically reduces the estimated number of dinosaurs on the Ark. Also, even though some dinosaurs grew to be large creatures, the average size was only about the size of a large sheep or bison. Even the largest dinosaurs were quite small when hatched. The Lord may have selected younger (and therefore smaller) representatives of some of the larger kinds, so there was plenty of room for all of the dinosaur kinds aboard the Ark."
Go back to the top of the page to see the video explaining where ancients likely got their beliefs and references about monsters and dragons, etc.