J.D. Mitchell
[Originally published as Children & Dinosaurs]
Fact #1: According to the Barna Research Group, a high percentage of Christian teenagers (70%) plan to leave the church when they leave home.
Fact #2: Children love dinosaurs.
Are these two facts just random and unrelated or is there a valid way to show that they are related? Let’s walk through the evidence.
Children love dinosaurs
…elementary children especially. I personally experience this in the fervent demand for the small model dinosaurs that I hand out free to children. Over the years, I have handed out hundreds of these toy dinosaurs to children at churches, homeschool conferences and creation science meetings.
We see this love for dinosaurs in the great demand for dinosaur books, posters, toys, costumes, DVDs, movies, character memorabilia, etc. If you search the internet for dinosaur books you would find that over 53,000 titles (at last count) are available. A statistical sampling of the contents of those 53,000 titles result in the conclusion that nearly all of these titles were written with atheistic presuppositions and within the secular worldview that is founded on the ideas of naturalism (evolution and millions of years).
The atheistic presuppositions of most dinosaur books:
- There is no God or God is irrelevant.
- Everything came randomly from nothing.
- All lifeforms evolved from common ancestors over billions of years.
- Homology (the study of similar structures in lifeforms) proves evolution.
None of these are scientifically proven facts, they must be believed by faith. These presuppositions are directly at odds with the statements concerning reality we read in the Bible.
But this is what is presented in nearly all of the dinosaur books and movies. A typical opening statement will read, “Dinosaurs lived millions of years ago, before there were any people.” The same premise is also found in popular dinosaur movies such as Jurassic Park and Jurassic World.
It is my observation that most Christian parents and many Christian educators of children and youth do not see the connection between the worldview presented in these dinosaur books and movies and the apostasy of the Christian youth.
When very young, children become interested in dinosaurs due to the excitement, the mystery, the size and their perceived ferociousness. They ask their parents and teachers for colorful books on dinosaurs and most adults are happy to provide them. The parents believe they are making their kids happy and at the same time assisting in their science education.
Many Christian parents never give a thought to the dangers of the atheistic worldview immersing their kids, and all of this is before the reinforcement of these same atheistic interpretations at the public school.
In addition, many Christian educators of children and youth do not know how to answer the questions that arise because of the obvious differences in interpretation between naturalism and the history depicted in the Bible. If they do not know the correct biblical answers, the educators tend to either avoid answering the questions, or will defer to naturalistic explanations or concocted compromises to the true exegesis of God’s word.
The vast majority of children go to public schools
Christianity and the Bible have been removed from the public schools over the past sixty years or so, and have been replaced with secular humanism, a worldview based on the philosophy (arguably religion) of naturalism. As kids progress through the schools they are constantly bombarded with evolutionary concepts.
If the children are not brought up in a Christian home, they will know only the precepts of the anti-God philosophy which they have been taught. Christian kids will be in a similar boat as well, unless they have been ingrained constantly and consistently with the biblical worldview.
Biblical Christians teach their kids that they are to trust Jesus (Acts 14:23) and that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). And these are important truths that need to be taught. But, if the atheistic presuppositions concerning origins are accepted and thereby the clear and plain foundational teachings of Genesis chapters 1-11 are rejected, aren’t we telling our children that Jesus was at least terribly ignorant of his creation, and at the most an accomplished liar?
Kids aren’t Stupid
With this type of teaching it is no wonder that 7 out of 10 Christian teenagers plan to leave the church when they leave home!
Remember that Jesus—the God-man—as well as all of the New Testament writers, believed that Genesis chapters 1-11 were historical narrative. Kids are not stupid and when they see the obvious hypocrisy shown by the compromised thinking in Christian education circles, it is all too easy for them to doubt their faith and accept the philosophy surrounding them in both their schools and the world culture.
And in most cases this indoctrination all started with the dinosaur books and movies of their early childhood.
So, what can be done?
Quite a lot can be done if each Christian parent and educator will avail himself with readily available creation science and biblical apologetics educational materials, and learn the biblical answers to the common questions that kids (and adults too) ask about dinosaurs.
There are seven questions most often asked about dinosaurs all Christian adults should know the answers to:
- Why don’t we don’t find the word “dinosaur” in the Bible?
- What really happened to the dinosaurs?
- How old are dinosaur bones?
- How did Noah fit all of the dinosaurs aboard the Ark?
- Is there evidence showing dinosaurs lived with man?
- What other evidence shows dinosaurs lived recently?
- Why don’t we see dinosaurs alive today?
Do you have biblical answers to these questions that are supported by true science? Many of the resources available here address these questions and many more. The book, Guidebook to North American Dinosaurs According to Created Kinds, is an excellent resource that all Christian adults who interact with children should have close at hand.
Let us work together to take the dinosaurs away from the evolutionists and return them to God’s creation where they truly belong!
[You can find resources on dinosaurs as well as many other topic designed especially for children at the Creation Superstore.]
