4.11.2006 | Dinosaurs and men

Roamed the earth at the same time...or so one would have to believe if the earth is less than 10,000 years old, and there remains incontrovertible fossil evidence of dinosaurs. The issue was raised, of all unlikely places, The Sopranos, where a born-again Christian visits the recuperating Tony Soprano.

Hypocritical Catholic meets Bible Thumper. It was amusing, yet somehow quite touching, since Tony appeared to truly appreciate being prayed for. In demonstration of how crazy the evangelical Christian was, he said something to the effect that "dinosaurs and men were on the earth at the same time; the Bible proves it."

Given the venue, a post-modern television drama, it's fair to conclude that the young-earth creationist model wasn't being held up as being correct. In fact, it was clear that this was meant to utterly discredit the evangelical Christian, for believing in such nonsense.

Well, I believe that YEC's are confused, and are in willful denial of what reason tells them. And, no, Satan may own our time and space, but Satan is still God's creation and subject to His will, as are we all. It stretches reason to the breaking point to ignore all the evidence for a 13-or so billion year old universe, and dinosaurs on earth predating any human by tens of millions of years.

Does this "violate" Scripture and its inferred 10,000 year (or less; see Joe Carter's recent posting on Bishop Ussher's 23 October 4004 BC creation date)? Yes. If one believes that Scripture is only to be read literally, with zero interpretation, and, simultaneously, if one assumes that God changed the rules for our lifespans from Adam's day (after the Fall, of course) and if one assumes that it is, somehow, part of God's plan for us to allow Satan to have planted all that physical evidence that contradicts the young earth theory.

In my universe, God is mightier than that. My belief does not fail because of science. If anything, it becomes stronger, as Who do we think is the Author of all that science? In different words, faith must not trump reason, when there are scientific proofs to support reason. Likewise, reason does not trump faith, since all creation has a Father, a Cause: God.