Believing in Feather Tales, part 1
Ryan Cox • June 2, 2022
Believing in Feather Tales, part 1
The grand premiere came in the 1970s through the influence of Yale professor and paleontologist Dr. John Ostrom. He developed his ideas of dinosaurs being warm-blooded and evolving into birds in the 1960s and taught them to his doctoral student Robert Bakker, who would go on to publish the controversial and very influential “Dinosaur Renaissance” paper in the April 1975 issue of Scientific American. Theirs and the efforts of others greatly popularized the dino-to-bird evolution narrative in the paleontological community.
However, the blockbuster event that most affected the culture was the 1993 release of Jurassic Park. The fictional character Dr. Alan Grant shares in the movie his theory of dinosaurs evolving into birds. His character was based upon renowned paleontologist Jack Horner, who revealed in the behind-the-scenes features his desire to eliminate the reptilian stereotype of dinosaurs, encouraging people to see them instead as birds. Both Horner and Bakker served as advisors to Jurassic Park.
And finally, in 2022, to their and many others’ elation, the grand conclusion to the 6-movie saga, Jurassic World Dominion, displays the culmination of their efforts with the franchise premiere of a fully-feathered dinosaur named Pyroraptor. Tragically, throughout our travels we have seen more and more young people come to believe that dinosaurs were feathered, warm-blooded relatives of birds, convincing them that evolution is true and the Bible is false. THIS IS WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO, travelling the country with our dinosaur fossil collection. Yes, it is cumbersome and time-consuming to haul in and set up dinosaurs, but it is absolutely worth it to have the opportunity to refute the dino-to-bird nonsense and share the incredible, undeniable reliability and accuracy of God’s Word. Our prayer in doing so is the ultimate reason – salvation found in Jesus Christ!
The scientific evidence for the dino-to-bird feather tale is severely lacking. As with many blockbusters, there are sequels, and we shall follow that pattern with this study. Exploring the evidence for feathers, warm or cold-bloodedness, and other anatomical comparisons, we will see how the historical record of God’s Word has and always will stand firm.
As many of you may know, I appreciate space. Not space around me, although the older I get the more I appreciate that as well. The things in the heavens fascinate me and have for a large chunk of my life. I love working with our telescopes, allowing people to see for themselves objects that the Lord made on the 4th day of history. When I was younger I followed our Space Shuttle program, and over the years I have had the opportunity to see a couple of those shuttles around the country. Now it is great to see all the renewed interest in exploring the heavenly creation. I know most of it is for evolutionary reasons, yet over and over again something is discovered that points to the trustworthiness of God’s Word. After all, we are to study His creation as Genesis 1:28 states. On a recent trip to El Paso, it occurred to me that Blue Origin’s launch facility is in west Texas somewhere. After some quick searching I realized we were within an hour and half of it, and there was a rescheduled launch window during the time of our meeting. So, with some persuading of my colleagues, we arose early one morning to make the launch. We made it with just minutes to spare. It was spectacular! The whole launch to just beyond the Karman Line (space boundary, 62 miles/100km) and return of the rocket and capsule is about ten minutes total. While Blue Origin is best known for its New Shepherd rocket that carries paying customers to space and back with the biggest windows ever in a capsule, this NS-29 launch was purely experimental with a payload of instruments to measure simulated lunar gravity. Even though it was not a Saturn V, Space Shuttle, Starship or Falcon launch, it was great to hear and feel a launch for the first time, from blast off to the sonic boom return. It has piqued my desire to see a bigger launch now. As I began to reflect on what I experienced, the Lord reminded me of His design. Earth, our home planet, is so well designed for life. There is literally nowhere in all the universe like it. Yet He gave us the ability to discover creation beyond it. The only reason we can launch rockets and do space exploration is because He set it up in an orderly way. Physics works because He established it to work in a predictable fashion. As much as we may never understand everything in the universe from our position here, it works on an ordered reality that is reinforced by God’s Word. This is what drove Sir Isaac Newton in his understanding of physics. He wrote, “The motions which the planets now have could not spring from any natural cause alone but were by an intelligent Agent.” Evolutionists may come up with theories about the origin of things in the heavens, but over and over again they are being shown through experimentation and observation to be wrong. The Lord set the order of everything in the beginning and sustains it by His Word (Hebrews 1:3). So as you look to the heavens tonight, gaze into the depths of space and observe the different facets the Lord placed up there for our eyes (Genesis 1:17). Peer through a telescope at the lesser light of the moon with marvel and anticipation of further human study in the coming years. Check out the amazing observations being made by the James Webb telescope from deep in space. All of these place a perspective of how awesome our Creator is and how much we depend on Him. Our design becomes more and more obvious with every discovery, yet in our universe we appear so minuscule and fragile. Thanks be to God that His infinite focus has, is and always will be here on us! Blessings.
Moses & History (part 2)