The Smithsonian Institution in Washington D. C. just finished a five-year renovation of its dinosaur hall at a cost of around $110 million.1 The renovated exhibit opened to the public on June 8, 2019. Naturally, the television news segment made the usual references to “millions of years” and the supposed evolutionary history of life on Earth.
The most interesting aspect of the news story was a large museum placard. During the television segment, the viewer catches, at the 55-second mark, a fleeting glimpse of this placard, which quotes the very last sentence of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species. Here is that sentence in its entirety:
There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.2
On the placard, the last six words are in large, bold print! It seems that someone at the Smithsonian wanted to make sure that visitors got the message regarding the “fact” of evolution. This heavy-handed attempt at indoctrination isn’t exactly subtle. One can’t help but wonder: Is this placard a literal “sign” that evolutionists are becoming increasingly frantic and desperate about the growing skepticism of the evolutionary story?
They have good reason to be concerned. Creation ministries like the Institute for Creation Research are having a real impact and are showing there is a much better way to make sense of the rocks and fossils. Simply put, Earth’s fossils, including dinosaurs, are found in water-deposited sediments that later hardened into rock. These creatures must have been buried rapidly, otherwise their remains would have decayed or been eaten by scavengers. There is overwhelming evidence that these creatures perished in a worldwide watery catastrophe.3,4
The Bible’s history readily makes sense of these data. In the days of Noah, God judged a sinful, wicked world with the global Flood described in Genesis 6-9. This catastrophe killed all land-dwelling, air-breathing animals that were not on Noah’s Ark, including the dinosaurs. Rather than being evidence for evolution over millions of years, these dinosaur fossils are reminders of God’s watery judgment about 4,500 years ago.5
Furthermore, there is overwhelming historical evidence these amazing creatures lived alongside man. Ancient peoples would have referred to these animals by different names, however, since the word ‘dinosaur’ wasn’t coined until the 1840s. Even secular scientists have noted the remarkable similarities between dragons and dinosaurs, and creation scientists would argue that the dragons were dinosaurs and other great swimming and flying reptiles. The Old Testament mentions dragons in more than twenty different places.6 It also gives detailed descriptions of two huge dragon-like creatures called the behemoth and the leviathan.7 Other ancient historians from many different cultures wrote matter-of-fact descriptions of encounters with these creatures, and ancient artists from around the world produced a wealth of depictions of these animals.8-11
There is also overwhelming scientific evidence that these creatures lived recently. Original biomolecules (blood vessels, collagen, pigments, etc.) have repeatedly been found in dinosaur fossils.12 Lab experiments have shown that, even under optimal conditions, these fragile biomolecules could not survive for even one million years, let alone the 66 million years since the dinosaurs were supposedly wiped out by a meteorite impact. Evolutionists have no credible explanation for how these soft tissues could remain intact for such vast ages.13
Secular scientists and educators are working very hard to convince you (and your children!) that the evolutionary story is true, and they are willing to spend vast sums of money for this purpose. They are also more than happy to use peoples’ natural fascination with dinosaurs to this end. In contrast, the Institute for Creation Research does not have access to those kinds of funds, but through your generosity God has graciously provided over $35 million dollars to build a Discovery Center for Science and Earth History. We have worked very hard to wisely steward those resources in order to build a high-quality attraction that will share the true history of how God created our universe. Our Discovery Center includes a high-quality planetarium (with 3D capabilities), an Ice Age theater, a mock-up of a section of Noah’s Ark, as well as fossil and animatronic dinosaur replicas. We even have a full-size animatronic T. rex that roars!
If you are tired about the continual, one-sided barrage of evolutionary propaganda, here is a chance for you to do something about it! We are getting close to finishing the Discovery Center, but we still need to raise about $2.5 million. Would you please consider donating, so that we may bring this project to completion?
References
1. Inside the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s Newly Renovated Dinosaur Hall. Fox News. Posted on foxnews.com June 7, 2019, accessed June 10, 2019.
2. Darwin, C. 1859. On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life, 1st edition. London: John Murray, 490.
3. Clarey, T. 2015. Grappling with Megasequences. Acts & Facts. 44 (4): 18-19.
4. Clarey, T. 2017. South America Shows the Flood Progression. Acts & Facts. 46 (3): 9.
5. Clarey, T. 2015. Dinosaur Fossils in Late-Flood Rocks. Acts & Facts. 44 (2): 16.
6. This is quickly demonstrated by an online concordance search.
7. See the book of Job, chapters 40 and 41.
8. Thomas, B. and F. Sherwin. 2011. Eyewitnesses to Extinction. Acts & Facts. 40 (6): 16-17.
9. Thomas, B. 2017. Dinosaurs and Dragon Legends. Acts & Facts. 46 (7): 14-16.
10. Thomas, B. 2013. Jungle-Covered Ruins May Hold Surprising Hints. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org June 24, 2013, accessed June 10, 2019.
11. Thomas, B. 2011. Utah Dinosaur Petroglyph Disputed. Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org April 7, 2011, accessed June 10, 2019.
12. Thomas, B. 2014. Original-Tissue Fossils: Creation’s Silent Advocates. Acts & Facts. 43 (8): 5-9.
13. Thomas, B. 2013. Dinosaur Soft Tissue Preserved by Blood? Creation Science Update. Posted on ICR.org December 11, 2013, accessed June 10, 2019.
Dr. Hebert is Research Associate at the Institute for Creation Research and earned his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Texas at Dallas.
