Confronting Dinosaurs

In a recent post, Rabbi Slifkin writes as follows:

How do you evaluate whether a professed expert on Torah and science is worth his salt? One step (of many) is to see whether he is ready to confront dinosaurs… whether he is ready (and has already thought about) some very basic questions. Like, when the dinosaurs live? Did they live at the same time as people? Did they all live at the same time as each other? And if so, why are their fossils consistently found in different layers of rock?

Ahhh… dinosaurs. Again. Evolutionary scientists claim that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago. Combined with their remarkable structure and categorical absence in today’s zoological landscape, dinosaurs have become the very image of the purported Torah-Science loggerhead. Indeed, Rabbi Slifkin’s primary Torah-Science book has a picture of T-Rex prominently featured on the cover.

But here’s the thing. Dinosaurs are actually the easiest thing to answer! The truth is, the dino problem is nothing more than evolutionary dogma combined with media hype. Dinosaurs went extinct some time in the past just as countless other life-forms. Extinction is an ongoing reality which most-likely attended the biological condition from its very inception. So what? Extinction has nothing to do with age. There are over 750 documented species that went extinct in the past 500 years alone. Dino fossils don’t come with an “age” stamp. Fossilization occurs rapidly and there’s no way to know how old a fossil actually is.   

Rabbi Slifkin misleads his readers (or perhaps himself) by asking:  

Did they all live at the same time as each other? And if so, why are their fossils consistently found in different layers of rock?

Unfortunately, this is simply not true. Dinosaur fossils are consistently found in identical rock layers. All one has to do is study the material. But rather than conducting a proper scientific investigation of the material at hand, Rabbi Slifkin chooses to base his conclusions on sensationalist stories in low level media outlets. This blog has already demonstrated on numerous occasions that dino fossils are often found in identical layers and it is merely evolutionary dogma which dupes the public into thinking otherwise. Rabbi Slifkin has no business writing the things that he does. His blog is supposed to be an explication of the “rationalist” approach to Judaism. Rationalists form their opinions based on empirical observation, not subjective belief.

Rabbi Slifkin writes:

Interestingly, the Christian Young Earth Creationists (YECs) are eager to confront dinosaurs… Yet there is no parallel to this amongst Orthodox Jewish YECs. Whether they ultimately claim that dinosaur bones are an incredible work of art created by God, or that they lived before the Flood, one finds that Orthodox YECs simply do not want to discuss the topic at all.

Actually, I find this comment insulting. I am an Orthodox Jewish YEC and I have spent countless hours, days, weeks, months, and even years discussing dinosaurs. I personally have penned several dozen posts on this blog dealing with this issue and in fact have discussed it directly with Rabbi Slifkin in online debates and even discussed it with him in person when he came to Toronto. My Rebbi, Rav Avigdor Miller, spent sixty years discussing the issue of dinosaurs. His books are readily available. Rabbi Slifkin’s comment is simply false.

Here’s some more from the good Rabbi:

Forget abstract jargon about radioactive decay and cesium atoms. Think about something tangible and familiar, such as animal life. The fossil evidence clearly shows that there were dinosaurs and all kinds of other creatures which lived before people (since no fossils of contemporary creatures are found in the same strata).

Once again, this claim is simply false. Here's something "tangible and familiar". Dino fossils were recently found on the North Slope of Alaska in the exact same location that old cow bones would be expected to be found.  

Dinosaurs pose no problem to our mesorah. The Torah states that Hashem Created all life forms recently over a period of six days. Science provides no evidence to the contrary and in fact all the available evidence points to rapid creation.