Ask the Rabbi with Rabbi Chaim Mintz
Do Torah-believing Jews believe in dinosaurs? If we don’t, how do we explain the finding of 230-million-year-old dinosaur fossils?
Rabbi Chaim Mintz responds:
An Era of Giants
The existence of dinosaurs does not contradict any Torah fundamentals. The Malbim, one of the great Torah sages of the 19th century, makes mention of the dinosaur fossils that are evidence dinosaurs walked this earth, probably before the Great Flood. Since the Torah describes those times as an era of giants, and there is other evidence of a stronger world, such as their longevity, it is understandable that there would be giant animals as well. They existed, and the bones we find today are clear proof of that.
The Age of the Universe
The conflict between the Torah and science is not if dinosaurs existed, but in regard to the age of the universe. The scientists claim that these fossils serve as proof that the world has been around for millions of years. However, there are a number of factors that they don’t take into account, which change the whole picture.
The Impact of the Flood
The first point is that the Flood changed the nature of the world. Scientists using the carbon dating method to estimate the age of the bones and fossils do not take into account the fact that the earth as it exists now is not the same as it was prior to the Flood. This was a flood of global proportions, like no other that has taken place in the entire history of the world, and scientists have no way of knowing how it affected the chemistry and physics of the earth.
A Mature World
Another important point to keep in mind is that Hashem (God) created a mature world, which may appear as if it is millions of years old. He created Adam and Chava (Eve) as adults. He placed the light of the stars into the sky even though the stars are thousands of light-years away. He put coal, oil, and diamonds into the earth, which by the laws of nature, would have taken millions of years to form out of carbon. Because scientists do not take these facts into account, their proof of the age of the earth is not a proof.
In short: There is evidence of the existence of dinosaurs, but that is not proof of the age of the earth.
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