Why Did God Create Dinosaurs? Selena’s View

Selena asked me a question the other day, “Why did God create Dinosaurs?” I was curious as to what her hypothesis was, so we set out to take what information we know and figure out the best answer we could.

First of all Selena grabbed the Bible and turned it open to Genesis.  She started pointing information out to me pretty quickly, so I had to slow her down and make her think. I asked just a few questions:

1. In the Beginning how many people were on the Earth?
2. What do you think the Earth looked like?
3. Why would dinosaurs be important to the health and ecology of the earth?

Based on these questions Selena decided that because in the beginning there were not a lot of people on the earth, that God created dinosaurs to protect the earth. I asked How?

She continued, well we needed lots of large herbivores to eat or mow down the vegetation to prevent it from overtaking the Earth, plus we needed the Carnivores to prevent the herbivores from eating all the vegetation.  We also needed Omnivores to keep the balance.

I asked her one last question: “Why did God allow the Dinosaurs to go extinct?”

She thought real hard and at first she said that God killed them all during the flood. I asked her if she was sure of that answer, after all God did command Noah to put 2 of every animal on the Ark. This took her a while, and she counter questioned me with, How do we know that God put dinosaurs on the Ark, and if he did why don’t we still have dinosaurs, though we do have relatives to dinosaurs, I mean real dinosaurs?

In an attempt to come help her think this through I asked her a few questions:

1. Thinking to our study of Dinosaurs, when did the largest amount of dinosaurs die? Is there evidence of Dinosaurs after that time?
2. How long did Noah and the animals stay on the Ark?
3. What do you know about floods, and how do you think the Earth looked like after the flood?

After a little thought she decided most of the dinosaurs died during the flood, but yes, there is evidence that some were still on the Earth after the flood. She remembered that Noah, his family and the animals were on the ark for a year. Thinking to how the Earth looked like after the flood, she remembered seeing some of the flooding we have had around here, and decided that the Earth went through a change, after the waters went down, it would not have been the same, maybe not as much vegetation for the herbivores, if they couldn’t survive, the carnivores wouldn’t survive long either, and we wouldn’t need the omnivores to keep the balance.

I don’t know if her hypothesis is correct, and neither do you, but I did remind her the day would come that she would be standing face to face with God and could ask Him for herself. Rather her hypothesis is correct or not, she put a lot of thought into it, and worked hard to try to look at everything, from science, biblical, to geography to make her hypothesis, so it sounds like a good one to me.

Thinking like a Paleontologist

I found this cool Fossil Find'R at Walmart a while back. Since we are beginning a study on Dinosaurs I picked up one just to see what Selena would think. The kit came with this plaster egg shaped ball, and a small plastic chisel/brush tool. Inside is hidden a Dinosaur Fossil. They have it marked for ages 4+ I think I would offer this to an older child though, it is a lot of work, slow, and tedious. We are having fun with it though. I did appreciate the fact that the first bone siting was very close to the surface, so the child knows there is definitely something inside.

After I gave my instructions to Selena on how careful she would have to be to find the fossil, and to not just try to smash it open, she went right to work on trying to find her fossil hidden inside. We started this process on Saturday afternoon. Selena carefully worked, taking many breaks from the tedious task, only to return and work some more. Yes, Papa and I did get involved and helped a bit, but Selena has done most of the work on her own. We have resisted digging in and speeding up the process.

So far this is the point we are at. Selena has made a few observations and hypothesis as to what type of Dinosaur this might be. From the shape of the head she thinks it is a meat eater, and the shape of the bones she feels it is a Tyrannosaurus (T-Rex). I love how this simple kit is making her think like a Paleontologist, as well as showing her how tedious they have to work in order to discover all they do about the animals from years ago that use to walk on our earth. Stay tuned we will reveal what we find, and conclude on Selena's hypothesis when we get this little critter out.