Humans and dinosaurs did not live at the
same time. Their existence, in fact, was separated by millions of years. Such
is the conventional theory offered in standard texts on evolution and is not
questioned by the scientific community, For fundamentalist Christians, however,
the issue is far from settled. Believing, as they do, that the earth is just a
few thousand years old, they’re convinced that man and dinosaurs must have
roamed the earth at the same time, and some of them think they have the evidence
to prove it.
In Stephenville, Texas, Alvis Delk, a
72-year-old pentecostal preacher, and his ex-con friend James Bishop, say they
have a fossil which shows the footprint of a man superimposed over the
footprint of a dinosaur. They have sold the footprint to the Creation Evidence
Museum in Glen Rose, which exists to display evidence supporting the
creationist view of history. A number of similar artifacts from the area, some
found almost a century ago, are also in the museum.
But before anyone can get too excited, Zana
Douglas of Glen Rose says the artifacts are probably all fakes carved by her
grandfather George Adams in the 1930s as an easy way to turn a buck. He was a
good sculptor, she says.
Once again the arguments over “creationism
vs. evolution” has diverted attention from what some say should be the real
debate, “gradualism vs. catastrophism.” For so-called catastrophists, the
evidence shows that our history, while perhaps extending back for aeons, has
been punctuated by many sudden and immense catastrophes which have accounted
for much that is unexplained in the fossil record and thus brought about
fundamental changes in life on earth, playing an important part in our
evolution. Such arguments remain unsatisfactorily answered by mainstream science
which prefers to change the subject.
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