How does the church explain dinosaurs?

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No, Jesus, the son of God, took on human physicality. From the perspective of time, He didn’t have that form prior to the incarnation. I’ll agree it get’s a little complicated when you start looking at God’s timeless existence though.

You are falling into the Protestant trap of literallism. Seriously, hundreds of thousands of hours of Biblical study have gone into understanding Genesis. The opening chapters are, quite clearly, poetic historical allegory. You’re welcome to ignore this all you want, it just puts you at odds with reality.
 
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Nelka said:
Show me where God created monkeys turning into humans rather than God making humans as we are.
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Nelka - there is not a single scientist who says we evolved from monkeys.

So please do not make that argument, because that’s not what evolution teaches.

God Bless
 
Funny, most protestants I have debated with are against my point of view. We did not evolve from bacteria to reptiles to apes to humans. It just doesn’t work.
 
Let’s not let this degrade into another exhibition of Evangelical Protestant pseudo-science. The OP’s question has been answered… by a priest to boot… as far as the Magisterium of Holy Mother Church is concerned, there is no conflict between the faith and modern science. Yes, I am passionately anti-creationism, because I believe this very Protestant pseudo-science drives souls away from the Church. It’s scandalous in my opinion and needs to be fought tooth and nail.

I say this as a convert to Catholicism who grew up believing pseudo-science.
 
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Nelka said:
Not debating time at this point but he created us as we are, not as animals evolving.
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God breathed into Adam’s “nostrils”. If Adam had nostrils then he already had a human body. The Church allows that evolution is the detailed explanation for the origin of that physical body:
  1. For these reasons the Teaching Authority of the Church does not forbid that, in conformity with the present state of human sciences and sacred theology, research and discussions, on the part of men experienced in both fields, take place with regard to the doctrine of evolution, in as far as it inquires into the origin of the human body as coming from pre-existent and living matter (emphasis added)
– Humani Generis
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The Church is correct in taking this position.

rossum
 
I wrote this a while ago, but it’s definitely germane to your OP.

The short answer is: dinosaurs are in Genesis on the 5th day.

The long answer:

"This fifth day is also the day God creates the “great sea creatures-monsters-whales-serpents-dragons”. In the Hebrew of Genesis 1:21 it reads “Elohim ath e-thanniyn e-gadlowim”. “Tanniyn, H8577, means dragons, serpents, land or sea beasts, etc.” and “gadowl, H1419, means mighty, great, loud, etc”. These mighty, great and loud land & sea serpents / beasts were called in Greek zoon herpeton, living reptiles, ketos megas, massive fish. Gadowl tanniyn in Hebrew or megas zoon herpeton could easily be considered synonymous with deinos sauros, or dinosaur. So when folks ask “where are dinosaurs in the Bible?”, or more specifically, where are dinosaurs in the creation account? You can say “they are right there mentioned by God in the 21st verse of that 1st chapter of the 1st book of Sacred Scripture.”
 
Nelka said:
Funny, most protestants I have debated with are against my point of view. We did not evolve from bacteria to reptiles to apes to humans. It just doesn’t work.
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You are right. It doesn’t work, which is why evolution doesn’t teach that.

Look, I beleive the story of Genius 100% happened. But it didn’t take place in 144 hours.

More likely each hour lasted several million years
 
That’s quite the limitation you’re placing on God’s soverignty there. :roll_eyes:

Just because you don’t think it makes sense doesn’t change the overwhelming physical evidence we have in favor of evolution, nor does it change the fact that the Bible isn’t a scientific textbook. It also doesn’t change the fact that the opening of Genesis is written in the form of poetic allegory.

You are doing nothing but willfully ignoring the substantial evidence we have used our God-given brains to discover. I don’t understand why you have a problem here. I view the guidance of species over billions of years to be a far greater example of God’s power than simply popping us into existence.

Whatever, be ignorant, you’re the only one whose made lesser for it. I’m out.
 
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phil19034 said:
There isn’t conflict as long as you accept that Adam & Eve were the first Homo Sapien Sapiens
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Homo Sapiens Sapiens is a scientific designation for all modern living humans. The Church does not teach that Adam and Eve were Homo Sapiens Sapiens. We don’t know how they would be classified by modern anthropologists / biologists. What we do know is that they were the first humans from a theological perspective… the first hominids to have eternal souls… and that all living humans are descended from them.
 
If you’re suggesting that God the Father has a physical form and that Adam and Eve were created in his physical image, then you are in defiance of Church teaching…that is flat out heresy.
If I misread your post, I apologize.
 
Nelka said:
Genesis 1:27 God created man in the image of himself, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.
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Correct. This is 100% accurate. This is Dogma.

But the Church allows for believers to understand the part where God created Adam out of the clay as figurative language.

Personally, I think God took a primate (most likely one similar to the Neanderthal and altered the DNA to create Adam in His image and gave him an immortal soul. Then, He used Adam’s DNA to create Eve.

Personally, the reason I don’t see any issues with this is because SCIENCE is simply us slowly learning God’s secrets of creation. Because we are like God, we have the ability to understand— but if we were to learn everything all at once, it would be disastrous.

God Bless
 
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Nelka said:
have no idea what this sentence even means.
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It means if you’re getting your information from “creation science ministries” and people like Dr. Dino Kent Hovind or Conman Ken Ham, then you’re relying on Evangelical pseudo-science over against reliable Catholic scientific & philosophical teachings.
 
Nelka said:
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phil19034:
But it didn’t take place in 144 hours.
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Nobody said that.
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Young earth, creationists do. The same ones who say the earth is approx 5000 years old
 
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