Purl & Java

I woke up this morning to messages on Gaim from a friend asking questions about the Bible and dinosaurs:

How come the bible doesn't mention dinosaurs? What is the Christian view on them?

I'm not a Bible or dinosaur expert, but I decided to attempt an answer.

This is what I said:

The answer to those questions has required more words from people smarter than me, so I'm going to do my best with what I know--which is small, being that I'm a lit geek without much interest in science.

Whether or not the Bible mentions dinosaurs is actually up for debate. The word "dinosaur" wasn't actually created until the the 1700 or 1800s, so trying to find dinosaurs in ancient texts isn't as easy as just searching for a word. There are several mentions of "dragons" in the Bible. People who take the Bible more literally than I do believe that two monsters discussed in Job 40 and 41, Behemoth and Leviathan, are a water dinosaur and a herbivore dinosaur, respectively. If you read those sections, and you see it, that's great. Case closed.

In my opinion, that's the "Look! See! The Bible covers everything!" answer. It's much too complicated. The more simple answer is that the Bible doesn't mention dinosaurs (as far as I know) because it doesn't need to. When the Bible mentions animals, it does so because it advances the story. As far as I know, guinea pigs and hamsters aren't mentioned in the Bible, either, but the Bible doesn't say that they don't exist. They just hop around and sleep a lot and aren't as interesting as talking donkeys--which is probably why there is a talking donkey in Shrek and the story of Balaam (Numbers 22) rather than a guinea pig. The Bible doesn't say that dinosaurs don't exist, so the answer you'll get from most Christians on the question of dinosaurs is, "Why not?"

I have a hunch, though, that your question has more to do with the debate between science and the Bible than it does about dinosaurs. I'm, again, not an expert, but I think that the debate is a false one. The idea that everything we know to exist from science has to be mentioned in a book less than 3000 words long, written before 100 AD is absurd. It would be a really magic book that could cram that much material into that small of a space. To Christians, the Bible is and should be a valuable window into the character of God. The God of the Bible is the same God, who created our minds, creativity, and curiosity. If he told us about everything in a book, that would take all the fun out of discovering things for ourselves. From what I know of God, he very much likes surprises: "The Son of God being born to a peasant girl and fostered by a carpenter? Who would have thought? Buddha was a prince!" How much better for us to dig up dinosaurs ourselves and create a story around them. At its most basic level, that's what science is. It's a particular medium useful for telling stories about ourselves and the world we live in from what we have on hand. The Bible is a finished work in a different medium created for a different purpose.

As far as the Bible is concerned, scientists need most of all to be true to the discipline. (Weigh the evidence carefully. Don't fudge data, etc.) By its nature there's nothing "Un-Christian" about doing science. Christian scientists have only the extra burden of respect for the world as a work of art created by a loving God, but that is no different than what is required of all Christians. One of the prophets said: "He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8).

Of course, I could be full of it. I'm going to post this to my blog and see if anyone better trained in theology and science can give a better answer.