Answers with Ken Ham

This week we’ve been asking why dinosaur and human fossils haven’t been found together. But suppose it did happen. Who would be shocked—evolutionists or creationists? Well, evolutionists! It’s only impossible in their worldview.

Consider this example: Wollemi pine trees were only known from the fossil record, so evolutionists assumed they went extinct millions of years ago. They were shocked when living Wollemi were discovered in Australia, saying it was like finding a living dinosaur!

But we know that the Wollemi fossils formed just a few thousand years ago so this find wasn’t a big shock.

Yes, worldview makes a difference!

Ten years ago I debated Bill Nye at the Creation Museum. During that debate he said there aren’t any examples of fossils that are out of the expected evolutionary order in the fossil record. But many out-of-order fossils have been found—evolutionists just reinterpret them or change their timeline!

For example, the famous Laetoli footprints in Tanzania look fully human but evolutionists interpret them as from some human ancestor because they just can’t be human in their worldview—even though they look human!

It’s not an evidence problem. It’s a spiritual problem! People simply don’t want to believe God’s Word.

Yesterday I said no pre-flood human fossils have been found. Well why is that?

Well, fossilization is a rare event. It takes unique conditions—like those during the global flood. But humans are very mobile, fleeing to higher ground and clinging to debris. So many humans probably wouldn’t’ve drowned until the later stages of the flood, making it less likely they’d be buried.

Could we someday find a preflood human fossil? Of course. Most of the fossil record hasn’t been explored! But do we need to find one? No—we know the flood happened, and all humans not on the ark perished, because of God’s Word.

This week we’re answering the question “why don’t we find human and dinosaur fossils together?” Well, let’s think about what’s in the fossil record.

Ninety-five percent of fossils are of shells and corals. Ninety-five percent of what’s left is plants and algae. Then nearly all of the tiny bit left is invertebrates, like insects. Only a fraction of a percent of the fossils ever found are vertebrates, like fish, birds, mammals, and, yes, dinosaurs! So, finding a dinosaur fossil is very rare—and no pre-flood human fossils have ever been found. But that’s not a surprise since most of the fossil record is shells and corals!

I believe, starting with God’s Word, that humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time. Dinosaurs were land animals, and the land animals were made on day six of creation week—and so was mankind! Therefore, dinosaurs and humans lived together. And both dinosaurs and humans were destroyed during the global flood. So why don’t we find them buried together?

Well, the fossils record various ecosystems that were buried as the floodwaters rose. Would we expect dinosaurs and humans to live in the same environments? No! Humans probably lived away from them! So it’s no great mystery why we haven’t found them fossilized together.

Do we really need ideas like the gap theory that we’ve looked at this week to add millions of years into the Bible? Why not consider a different approach—believing God’s Word!

Ideas like the gap theory haven’t been suggested because Genesis is so vague we can’t know what God meant. It’s very clear—and a plain meaning is confirmed in places like Exodus that say, “for in the six days the Lord created.” The Bible isn’t the problem! The problem is taking man’s ideas about the past and then reinterpreting God’s Word as if we know better!

We must reject this approach and allow God’s Word to be the authority in all areas!

This week we’re looking at problems with the gap theory, an idea that adds millions of years into the Bible by putting a gap between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. During that gap God supposedly judged Satan’s sin with a flood and then reshaped earth and recreated life.

Now in Genesis 1:28 Adam and Eve are told to have kids and “replenish” the earth. Does this mean God was refilling the earth? Well, the Hebrew word simply means “to fill”—that’s why modern translations say “fill the earth.” But older translations say “replenish” because, well, replenish used to mean “to fill!”

You see, there’s no hint of a gap in Genesis one!

According to the gap theory there’s a gap of time in Genesis during which Satan fell and God judged his sin with a global flood, and that’s were fossils come from. After that, God reshaped the earth and recreated life in just six days.

Now the gap theory is supposed to fit millions of years into the Bible, but the millions of years supposedly comes from the rock layers. But such a flood would catastrophically lay down rock layers, erasing the supposed proof of millions of years!

And what about Noah’s flood? They’re forced to conclude this flood was so peaceful it didn’t leave a mark!

The gap theory just doesn’t work!

This week we’re looking at the idea of a gap of millions of years between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. This gap supposedly accommodates for long ages, while still interpreting the days in Genesis as normal days. But the gap theory has the same problem as every attempt to fit millions of years into the Bible—it puts death before sin!

You see, the supposed millions of years comes from the rocks and fossils. Of course, fossils are, well, dead things. So, a gap in Genesis means millions of years of death before sin. And God called that “very good”!

No matter how you try, you can’t add millions of years into the Bible!

As the idea of millions of years became popular in the 1800s, many Christians wondered what to do with Genesis. After all, millions of years can’t be found anywhere in the text! Some decided there must be a gap of time that Scripture doesn’t mention, between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. It’s in that gap that they put the millions of years.

Now there are big problems with this but notice that in creating the gap theory these men didn’t start with God’s Word. They started with man’s ideas and tried to squeeze them into the Bible! But we should never put ourselves as the authority over God and his Word.