Growing up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (hereafter referred to as the Mormons) led me to believe that I understood all the important questions of life. Who was I? Where did I come from? Where was I going? When was I allowed to date? How close could I dance to the girls at the monthly dances? I KNEW the answer to all of these questions and was quite content to go through life knowing that God would take care of me and anything that happened in my life was part of the bigger plan and was meant to be.
As I grew up though, I began to have questions that were not so easily answered. Even when I would ask those persons older and wiser than me, I would only get nebulous statements about how that wasn't important to my salvation, or that all would be revealed in time, or my favorite; "Why are you bugging me with this nonsense? Get the heck out of here." There were many questions that I had. Later posts to this blog will deal with some of the questions that I had and the answers I found. However, for now, I will focus on the primary question. What about the dinosaurs.
In the Mormon church, and indeed in Christendom itself, it is taught that God created Adam and Eve and all the animals in a 6 day (time period) orgy of creativity. Furthermore, Adam and Eve lived with the animals in the Garden of Eden and were given lordship and dominion over them. There was no death in the world until the fall of Adam (brought on by Eve, but that is another topic for another day). The lion and the lamb lived peacefully together until such time as our ultimate father and mother were given the boot. Then of course it was on like Donkey Kong and animals started to eat each other, and weeds grew instead of fruit trees and the blasted mosquito decided it needed blood to exist while at the same time helping out God with the whole "afflict and torment man" bit.
Hence, the problem. Anyone who has walked through a natural history museum will come across the remains of some rather large animals that people call dinosaurs. Where did they come from? I mean, my bible says the earth has only been around for 6-7000 years, so where did they go? Why didn't they eat all the other animals like elephants and such and survive. And how come those pesky scientist say they are 65 million years old? That is impossible, because that would mean that millions of species lived and DIED on the earth before Adam and Eve. But I know from my teachings in church that death came into the world as a direct result of the FALL OF ADAM. So, as you can see I had myself a pretty big question and no one to answer it for me.
Some apologists for the Mormon church, (people who have never heard of Occam's Razor and who enjoy coming up with the most convoluted reasons possible to explain away a question) stated that it may be that the fossils of the dinosaurs found didn't come from this planet at all, but were from another planet, or planets, whose material was used to form this earth. Do we not know that God and the Word saw that there was matter unorganized and so used that matter to create the earth? That matter may have been where the dinosaurs lived and so their bones were in the ground when the earth was made.
Wow. Wow. This led me to thoughts I had never experienced before. I decided to overlook the obvious thought of why God/Jesus/Michael-Adam would go to all the trouble when making the world to make sure that all the fossils from the previous world were layered in such a way as to completely and totally confuse the poor humans that would dig them up. I immediately thought of what I had been taught about this world from the Mormon Church. We are made in God's image. He provided a savior for us so we could return to him. All creatures great and small will be resurrected in the last days. This is necessary for Jesus' sacrifice to be complete. If even one being who was alive was not resurrected, then death would still hold victory. Therefore, everything must resurrect. Not only that, but the Mormon Church has an article of faith that states that in the end of days the earth will be transformed to a paradise where the good will live. The very world we are on will be resurrected and made perfect for ever and ever.
Now you may start seeing the problem. What about the dinosaurs? They came from a different world. A world that was in part or possible wholly used in the creation of this world. Were they not also created in their creator's image? This Dino World would have a Dino God. And, since I was taught that the Plan of Salvation (God makes you spiritually then physically, sends you to earth, perfects you if you're Mormon, you become a God, create your own children and worlds, etc, etc) is eternal and the same throughout the universe, said Dino World would also need a savior. A DinoJesus. But obviously things went terribly wrong.
Hold on to your hats folks, for now we get in to the deep stuff. Mormons and some other Christians talk about a war in heaven where Lucifer was cast out. Maybe this is really a metaphor for something completely different. Lucifer was known as the great serpent or dragon. The very word dinosaur means terrible lizard. In other words, a great dragon. Isn't it possible that the story of the war in heaven isn't about rebellious spirits in the preexistence, but instead is about a war for possession of matter that was in the possession of DinoGod and DinoJesus, but that was needed to create this world for the humans. Is it any surprise that we humans have always fought wars on this earth for resources? Maybe we are only following the example of our creator.
It becomes plain that DinoJesus would not have stood a chance against Human Jesus. With a brain the size of a walnut, and no opposable thumbs, as well as tragically short arms, he was done before the war even began. Millions of creatures will never be resurrected because their world was taken in a hostile land grab. Their world will not become a paradise where they can live, both plant eater and meat eater, in peace and love. All those creatures that have died will not get perfected bodies again but will be trapped in the spirit world. Needless to say, this does not diminish the divinity of DinoJesus. And maybe, just maybe, some kind of arrangment can be agreed upon later. All things will be made clear to us in the last days I'm sure. I for one, look forward to seeing DinoJesus and feeling the teeth holes in his side.
