Jennifer (05/05/1996)

Hello! My name is Jennifer! I was just looking at your website & I thought

I would e-mail you & ask you some questions? Do you believe that the Plesiosaur

still exists today? Please explain your answer! This is my own personal opinion,

I believe that plesiosaur's still do exist! How long do you think it's been

since Dinosaurs or Plesiosaur's have been here on earth? You know, most people

will say millions & billions of years. I would have to disagree with that.

This world is not that old. I mean just think about, we are in the year 2000

A.D. The world could not be much older than that! Also, here's another question.

Do you believe that Dinosaurs & people lived at the same time? Please explain

your answer again! If someone was to ask me that I would have to say, "Yes!"

I do believe that Dinosaurs & people lived at the same time! Once again,

think about it! In the Bible it clearly states The Creation starting in Genesis

1:1, In the beginning God created the heaven & the earth! Now, on Day 1:

The Bible says that he created Night & Day. Day 2: There was the evening

& the morning. Let's just get to where I'm going. Day 6: God created man

in His own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created

he them. (Genesis 1:27) So I'm saying, Male & Female was Adam & Eve.

On the 5th day is when he created all the animals, which would have to include

Dinosaurs. Therefore, Dinosaurs & man would have had to live at the same

time. One more question & I'll let you go. Are you a christian? Have you

accepted Jesus Christ into heart? I got saved by the grace of God on October

23, 1997. He's done wondorous thing for me & I know he will for you. Please

think about this. If you do not get saved, do you know where you will end up?

You will end up burning eternally in hell. I know you don't want that. The bible

also says that every hole in your body will have worms crawling out. That's

grose I know, but that's exactly what will happen if you choose not to get saved.

Hell is nothing fire & darkness. You say, "How is that possible for

there to be fire everywhere, but pitch dark?" The fire will be so hot that

it's clear! Please accept Jesus Christ today so you can live eternally!

I don't think that plesiosaurs still exist - they are large, air-breathing

animals which probably had to return to land to lay eggs, and I think they would

have been noticed. The report of a plesiosaur being caught be Japanese fishing

boats is nonsense - what the photos show is nothing like a plesiosaur, and genetic

tests show it to have been a shark. That is not a matter of faith, it's a matter

of evidence - there is no evidence to show that plesiosaurs still exist though,

as we found in the case of the coelocanth, that doesn't rule it out completely.

Personally, I'd love to examine a live plesiosaur to find out how much of what

I've tried to work out from small clues is accurate.



The age of the earth is something we know from many branches of science, and

I have no reason to doubt that they are reasonably acurate. The idea that the

earth is only a few thousand years old can be shown to be untrue by looking

at such things as tree rings, varves, deep ocean cores, and ice formation on

the Greenland Icecap. In each of these cases years show as anual deposits (or

rings in the case of trees) which can be counted, and take us far back into

the past - up to 30 million years ago in the case of the deep ocean cores. Dating

rocks by a variety of radio-active elements is based on what we know of physics,

and simply to dismis them would also dismis most of what we have learned of

the science of physics over the last 150 years. Science is a web of connected

knowledge, and it's simply not possible to take out one strand and reject it

without rejecting a whole lot more.



If you believe that dinosaurs and people existed at the same time, it is not

based on any physical evidence whatsoever. The picture of the history of life

built up by centuries of research relies heaviliy on the concept of evolution,

as do much of the modern sciences of biology and genetics. It is not a theory

which was invented to attack religion, it is a model of the way life has developed

on this planet built on overwhelming physical evidence. Many of the early workers

in geology and palaeontology were devout Christians who resisted strenuously

ideas of evolution and change, but were forced to change their attitude because

of this overwhelming evidence.



I have read books written by scientific creationists such as Duane Gish and

Henry Morris, and the content worries me. This is not because it has forced

me to reconsider my attitude to evolution and geology, but because I find the

way they present the facts basically dishonest. Creationism is not science -

it denies science. I find it ironic that the people who claim the moral high

ground are dishonest in their presentation and argument.



You should consider carefully the following passage from Steve Jones excellent

book 'Almost like a Whale' which presents the science/faith dilema more clearly

than I could: "To deny truth on grounds of faith alone debases both

science and religion. This point was made by Galileo himself. Summoned to explain

his views, and their conflict with Scripture, he argued that the Church had

no choice but to agree with the discoveries of science. It would, he said be

'a terrible detriment for the souls if people found themselves conviced by proof

of something that it was made a sin to believe'. Creationists have not yet faced

that fact."



Consider this: Your beliefs describe a the model of a small, brief universe

in which mankind under God has a central role. The model of the Universe built

by science is vast beyond our understanding, old beyond our comprehension, complex

beyond any possibilty of our ever understanding even a fraction of the whole.

Which model is closer to the mind of God?