In The Beginning

My dog is a frisky 86-pound black lab mix, 2-1/2 years old, who absolutely adores everyone he meets. I named him Keppler after the mathematician/astronomer because "Keppie" is as black as outer space. Keppie doesn't have any idea where he came from. All he knows is that he gets two regular meals a day and he has two comfortable beds and two people who care about him.

I've been reading a book lately about a controversy over the age of our planet Earth. This may not be a world shaking problem for you. I know that I haven't been pondering this question inasmuch as I accept the scientific determination of the age of Earth as well as the age of the cosmos. What piqued my curiosity was a nice mom and her son who hovered over my specimen prepping in the paleo lab where I volunteer. I was giving them a run down on the dinosaur bone, mentioning its approximate age. The lady smiled sweetly and said that her family believed that the world was created about 6000 years ago so that the bones of this animal could not possibly be 65 million years old!

Well! I had encountered a "young earth" believer. I acknowledged her belief with a great deal of respect and they moved on.

Another time I was standing in the lab explaining what the professional staff was working on when a woman approached with a bemused smile on her face. When I started my pitch she interrupted me with "I thought dinosaurs were a myth!" I calmly assured her that our specimens were extracted from deposits in the western United States and that they really are dinosaur bones. Her smile remained fixed. She did not believe me.

We have a newly discovered skull of a new species of dinosaur that warranted an exhibit of its own. There is a sign in the exhibit that estimates the age of the skull at 66 million years. As I was explaining the exhibit to a small group one man interrupted me to ask if I knew about the human footprint that was found next to a dinosaur. I had not heard of this and I stated that it must have been a hoax or a made-up story. "No, no, it's true. It was found in Texas." "Gee, I'll have to look that up" I promised. And I did.

The "evidence" has been promoted by the Institute of Creation Research in books that the Institute sells. However, the "discovery" that the person related to me has been debunked. You can read about that on Glen Kuban's web site http://paleo.cc/paluxy/paluxy.htm.

The essence of all this is that there are many people, well-meaning people, who have become convinced that the biblical story of creation is altogether true. In fact, if any portion of that story is not actually true, then the bible and its contents must be false and that cannot be the case!

Unlike Keppie, we humans are torn about our origin. We fret about it and many of us cannot tolerate the idea that the authors of the bible lived in the iron age and could not possibly know how our planet was formed and how life began and was transformed over billions of earth years. And just how do the Young Earthians come to the 6000 years of our world's age?

Two 17th century men, John Lightfoot and James Ussher independently calculated the exact date if the world's creation by analyzing the biblical geneologies from Genesis through Chronicles. They didn't agree but after each recalculated, the final date of creation was settled, on the week of October 18-24, 4004 BC.!

Then there is the fellow who conducts raft trips through the Grand Canyon, pointing out how the great flood made the canyons features.

That is the "scientific research" that supports the Young Earth position. May they go on believing, gezunter height! Myself? I love the "Old Testament." It's my holy book. But it doesn't say anything about the dinosaurs.