Mirror Neurons / November 14, 2019
An exhibit at the Creation Museum in Kentucky explores the connection between ancient dragon legends and dinosaurs.
Here's why this is a big deal. If the dragons depicted throughout the world are actually dinosaurs it deals a crushing blow to the theory of evolution, which insists that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago and went extinct long before humans evolved.
This is an illustration from the exhibit showing the many places around the world where dragon legends are found.
Some of the dragon legends that this exhibit highlights are:
Beowulf is an epic poem believed to have been composed 700 and 750 AD. It tells about a Scandinavian hero named Beowulf who defeats several dragons. There is no evidence of a historical Boewulf but some characters, sites and events in the poem can be historically verified.
When you are famous enough, they name legends after you. St George was a devout Christian and military officer who was martyred for his faith early in the Fourth Century, AD. According to his dragon legend, while on a journey in Africa he rescued a princess from a dragon. While this counts as a dragon legend, St George did not become the hero of this legend until the 11th century AD.
Here is how Albrecht Durer depicted St. George's victory over the dragon:
On April 26, 1890, Arizona's Tombstone Epitaph newspaper published a story about two ranchers who encountered a flying, alligator-like creature in the Huachuca Desert. Their description of the creature is quite close to a pterosaur. Native American descriptions of the legendary Thunderbird also match the fossil remains of pterosaurs.
Ancient Roman writers wrote about dragons, treating them as real creatures. Herodotus, the Greek scholar known as the father of history, wrote about encountering the skeletons of winged serpents in Arabia. And Athanasius Kircher (1610-1690), wrote a book that included an entire chapter on dragons. Eighth-century scholar John of Damascus and famed thirteenth-century explorer Marco Polo also wrote about dragons.
Then there is the artwork. Dragons that look a lot like dinosaurs are depicted in paintings, etchings and sculptures around the world. Either these artists had very vivid imaginations or they were creating images of actual creatures they had seen.
The behemoth of Job 40 is often cited as the Bible's foremost mention of dinosaurs:
"Behold, Behemoth, which I made as I made you; he eats grass like an ox.
Behold, his strength in his loins, and his power in the muscles of his belly.
He makes his tail stiff like a cedar; the sinews of his thighs are knit together.
His bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like bars of iron.
He is the first of the works of God; let him who made him bring near his sword!
For the mountains yield food for him where all the wild beasts play.
"Under the lotus plants he lies, in the shelter of the reeds and in the marsh.
For his shade the lotus trees cover him; the willows of the brook surround him.
Behold, if the river is turbulent he is not frightened; he is confident though Jordan rushes against his mouth.
Can one take him by his eyes, or pierce his nose with a snare?" (Job 40:15-24, ESV)
Here is a link to several articles from Answers in Genesis about dinorsaurs and dragons:
https://answersingenesis.org/dinosaurs/dragon-legends/
One of the most fascinating things to me about dragons is their ability to breath fire. Since we don't have any creatures around today that breath fire it's hard to believe there ever were such creatures but, again, there are so many legends and artistic depictions of fire-breathing dragons that it's hard to deny the possibility that there really were fire-breathing dinosaurs.
November 14, 2019 in art, religion & philosophy. Tags: behemoth, Beowulf, Creation Museum, dinosaurs, dragons, evolution, Kentucky, Marco Polo, St. George, Thunderbird
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