Dinosaurs, The Lost World, and You
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Dinosaurs, The Lost World, and You is a creationist publication in booklet form that's written and published by ICR member, John Morris in 1999.
Rebuttal
There was a lost world. But it never happened in the eyes of a YEC named John Morris, who is the son of Henry Morris, the so-called "father of the modern creationism movement"; who knows nothing of what he's talking about and whose talks and teachings will never amount to anything worthwhile. Just like his father, John knows zilch about dinosaurs, and it shows in his 1999 book, Dinosaurs, the Lost World, and You, where he tries to make his case for the world's greatest dinosaur lie to his gullible followers, while in denial of the fact that this kind of preaching would make people get lost forever in the so-called "Lost World" he regards the human society that don't accept Jesus Christ as.
The front and back cover just simply shows a Tyrannosaurus romping about with a Stegosaurus' shoulder back and plates being shown on the bottom right hand corner.
At the back cover, there is a summary read with my rebuttals to it in bold parentheses,
It was a lost world...A time before Fax Machines, Cell Phones, and the Internet-- when fearsome creatures roamed the earth. Where did they come from? What were they like? And where are they like? With the failure (success actually) of the standard evolutionary explanations (that worked due to evidence pointing to it being so), a new wave of answers has appeared in the form of the Chaos Theory. But all these solutions deny (and confirm depending on what kind version of the Biblical account your embracing) the Biblical Account of God's creation (The twisted version) and His destruction of the world by the Flood (which implies Morris' God to be a very cruel, heartless God.) Join us as we learn (nothing) about dinosaurs and the Bible (that are never found in there except birds) and the new theory (that's really just a theory) of Chaos and Creation (YEC style).
Both Wikipedia and this site will give you the information needed to help you get a grips of what these 2 theories are really all about.
Pass the first 2 intro pages, we get to pages 3 and 4, where we find to why did Morris, in his notes, created this book. He created this book in a pathetic response to Michael Crichton's sequel to the 1993 sci-fi smash hit Jurassic Park, a blockbuster hit based on his 1990 novel that tells a cautionary tale about cloned dinosaurs running amok in a fictional island theme park. Apparently, Morris became aware of the chaos theory while watching the movie that featured a certain character by the name of Ian Malcolm, who was a chaos theory mathematician and the main character in the movie's 1997 sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park. Also based on a novel written and published by Crichton as well. Apparently, Morris, just like all YECs, is being threatened by the huge dinosaur paraphernalia and the prominent truthful views based on insurmountable scientific evidence that points to such a time "Millions of years ago, when dinosaurs ruled the earth, long before man evolved..." or so Morris assumes (according to his notes) what most children's books on dinosaurs start like quite similar to that of "Once upon a time.." while every dinosaur book I've enjoyed reading, in nearly every case, doesn't start out that way with such an intro.
Morris goes on and explains on how throughout the 2 blockbuster hits along with all other dinosaur movies, information about dinosaur evolution is subtly and not so subtly conveyed, which is a blatant lie. All of the dinosaur movies were just made to entertain people, Not giving them an education and not hiding doggone thing from anyone. He think these films also popularized the "chaos theory," which he thinks is incorrectly used to promote many evolutionary ideas, which is also a blatant lie.
Morris knows nothing about the chaos theory. Looking at this article on Wikipedia site above, one finds that there none being said about evolution and lots being said about physics and mathematics. Morris then claims that Crichton researched and interviewed many scientists, including Paleontologist Jack Horner (who served as technical consultant of both of the movies) as background for his works. Even though much of the information (not the plot) on dinosaurs is a reflection of Horner's views on dinosaurs, Morris stupidly claims that most of Crichton's views are controversial, even among other paleontologists and evolutionary scientists, while many of the features in the movie were all actually made up by Hollywood producers to provide dramatic effects to the film, including highly intelligent dinosaurs stalking humans and opening doors to find them, jumping extremely high, spitting poison, living in herds, caring for their young, and hunting in packs. Morris claims that this is not proven scientific fact, while blatantly ignoring the fact that scientists have uncovered fossilized evidence that points to all these things to be true with the exception of the few notions of spitting poison, opening doors, jumping extremely high, and highly intelligent dinosaurs stalking humans. These few notions are all the result of Hollywood fantasy, not fact.
Morris claims that this, what he claims to be misinformation about dinosaurs, accentuates the need for this booklet (which there's no need for in reality), and intends to answer some common questions and give what should be called, "a loud, jarred, clanging, crashing, misunderstanding, bibliolatry style" of these fascinating and wonderful creatures...or so he claims.
He then states that today, such an understanding becomes vital as dinosaurs are now being used to promote the so-called anti-Christian worldview of the so-called "evolutionary pantheism" and so much so is Morris and all other YECs doing the exact same thing; using dinosaurs nowadays to promote the anti-truthful, anti-Christian, destructive, satanic worldview of the young earth pantheism. Can you say, "Morris, like Ham, is a lying hypocrite?"
He then claims that there are scientists who have biases that are interfering with an evaluation of the evidence. There are. Take a good look at Morris himself, his dad, Ken Ham, Duane Gish, Paul Taylor, and Kent Hovind. These so-called "scientists" all have biases and these biases are indeed interfering with an evaluation of the evidence they themselves choose to ignore. Despite what Morris claimed, the teachings of young earthism do not adheres to the facts and better explains the scientific evidence. Instead, it opposes it, call it a lie, and threatens to people everywhere, "Embrace our teachings or rot in Hell!" and to the Christians, "Embrace our teaching or lose your reward in Heaven!"
Page 5-11, in the first chapter entitled Evolution or Creation? (Answer: both!), deals with Morris own view of what evolution and the chaos theory is and what he thinks about them. It comes to no surprise of how little Morris know about what he is talking about....none at all. Just like all YEC books, he lies and gives out a short review of the history of life on earth and then claims that fossils don't come with labels on them that explains what they were and how they live...as if Morris here is thinking of soup can labels one looks carefully at in a grocery store. No Morris, not those kinds of labels. Some fossils actually contain radioisotopes, the substance that helps scientists to determined their age through radiometric dating.
Morris then denies evidence of Earth history's past when he claims that history is reconstructed according to an individual's belief of the past, but the belief held for philosophical reasons has never been proven, which is a blatant lie unless it involves young earthism and how this kind of a historian's reconstructive philosophical beliefs has never been proven. No form of history is based on one's philosophical beliefs, except when it comes to YECism. YECism is the only form of historical philosophical belief that has never been proven time and time again. Sadly, Morris could care less. He's also in denial of the fact that evolution is far from being philosophical. It is exactly what Morris claims its not, which is science. He then claims that evolution 'thinking' dominates schools, media, and the entertainment industry. That's because of mountains of factual evidences pointing to such 'thinking'; proven by tons of references, including sites like the TalkOrigins Archive which helps make evolution be accepted by these places (even the church) that comes to grip on what this so-called philosophy is truly all about.
Morris claims that many scientists reject evolution for both philosophical and scientific reasons. Name one! However, he can't. If he does try, then he would refer to such people as Louis Agassiz and Isaac Newton, while being in denial of the fact that these scientists were born at the time when evolution is entirely unknown and were in some cases were not entirely familiar with the concept. Yet, these men were great scientists who made a special contribution to science by discovering evidence that points to a world that's billions of years old, not to mentioned learning about how plants and animals, living and extinct, are related to each other, and gathered up lots of specimens to study and learn about them in the finest detail.
Always in denial of evidence pointing to evolution, Morris asserts that evolution has never been well supported and much of the available evidence doesn't conform to the evolutionary theory, which no doubt is false. Morris, on the other hand, just rather lie and make up fabrications and states that every living thing from the past and present exhibits a majestic design that appears to be in direct opposition to the so-called random evolutionary change. It doesn't. But sadly, Morris refuses to admit this lest he loses his followers and the almighty dollar he gets from them to reality.
Page 6 deals with Macro-evolution verses Micro-evolution (according to the subtitle) and the YECs' falsehoods about them, which I'll leave it up to this page to explain of what's it all about and this page to debunk Morris' falsehoods about them.
Page 7 deals with the Morris' falsehoods about the Second Law of Thermodynamics (which the subtitled refers to) that has been refuted time and time again, but Morris, like all YECs, is too stiff-necked to abandoned it.
Page 8-11 deals with the Chaos theory, something this page will explain what it really is. This page will debunk Morris' horse manure about the Chaos Theory and this page will explain what is really the Edge of Chaos (as asked in the subtitle on page 10) for me. Contrary to what Morris' assertion about the observable evidence of dinosaurs being killed in Noah's Flood in many cases as told on page 11, the observable evidence for this certain event does not exist.
On page 12, in Chapter 2 that asks How Do We Know What Dinosaurs Were Like? Morris gives out his views on dinosaurs that are nothing more than blatant lies. First off, he goes to explain how scientists gathered information, study, do experiments on them, and make conclusions on the bases of these observations. That's what real scientists do unlike YECs who only make up lies and fabrications here and there.
Morris states that this method does not worked well in dinosaur research, which is a blatant lie. The method works all too well even though it is very painstakingly, difficult thing to do. Putting together a dinosaur and its world based on evidence requires a lot of patience, correction of errors when needed, careful study of fossils, and drawing together conclusions based on the observations made of the fossil find. Morris claims that thousands of pieces (in italics) of bone fragments, and a tad few complete skeletons have been uncovered, which is half-truth. Scientists have uncovered more than that. They, over the years, have uncovered scores of traces of fossils of footprints, feces, eggs, skin and feathered imprints, partially completed to fully completed skeletons, even dinosaur 'mummies' like the famed mummified Brachylophosaurus fossil nicknamed "Leonardo" for instance.
Page 13-18 deals with the following questions on dinosaurs one can see in a normal dinosaur book:
1. How big were dinosaurs (They came in different shape and sizes. No, they were not on the average of them being as big as a hippo.)?
2. Did dinosaurs lay eggs (Some of them did laid eggs. No one knows for sure if all dinosaurs did it or not.)?
3. Warm blooded or cold blooded (How can scientists know about dinosaurs being warm-blooded, or so Morris asks? Does he knows about the haversian canals in the bone? And how they show to scientists that dinosaur bones have much more canals (as in mammals) than reptiles like turtles and crocodiles? No he does not. Instead, Morris live in denial and claim that the fossils don't tell, while they do as described here. Note: Scroll down to "BONE STRUCTURE AND HISTOLOGY" to read the article.)?
4. Did dinosaurs have scaly skin (Yes, dinosaurs did have scaly skin....and feathers too! Morris, on the other hand, use fabrications and distorts the story of the discovery of a Sinosauropteryx fossil, Morris assumes, was found, after it was scrutinized, to have strange fibers embedded in the skin, which is debunked because the one who reached such a conclusion, Alan Feduccia, who drew his conclusions from just a photograph of the fossil and not the actual fossil itself, have overlooked many areas of the fossil that shows the fossil to have hair-like feather imprints all over its body, not just the neck, back, and tail.)?
5. What did Dinosaurs Eat (Most ate plants, others ate meat, the rest ate both. Despite Morris' ignorance, there were more than a few dinosaurs out there that ate meat other than T.rex and Velociraptor.)?
6. What do fossils show (Plenty! Morris admitted that scientists make mistakes. But as for YECs, they recycled the mistakes over and over again, never to learn from them no matter what. In the answer paragraph, Morris deals with the debate over T.rex was either a predator or a scavenger. Morris claims that many scientists come to the conclusion of T.rex being a scavenger while only a tad few scientists have made such as proposal over the years. Morris also claims, on page 16, that if a T.rex fights, all of his teeth would fall out due to the teeth being shallow rooted, which is false. There is undeniable evidence that points to T.rex's teeth being deep-rooted, not shallow. How can T.rex perform a bone crushing bite on its prey if his teeth is shallow-rooted instead of what the well perserved T.rex skulls and the Edmontosaurus skeleton and a Triceratops bone is showing to us?)?
7. How fast could a dinosaur move (It all depends of the long strides of their tracks and how far apart their footprints are.)?
8. How intelligent were the dinosaurs (No one knows for sure how smart they were, but despite what Morris claims, scientists can determined what kind of brain they have just by looking at the dinosaur's braincase and make model casts of the dinosaur brain cavity based on the shape of its braincase. Here's one example of how a cast replica of a Triceratops' brain cavity is created based on the studies of its braincase.)?
And finally, How did dinosaurs behave (It all depends on the fossil clues the dinosaurs themselves have left behind when they died out 65 million years ago.)?
Chapter 3 on pages 18-19 is entitled, What Makes Dinosaurs Unique?, where Morris talks about how dinosaurs are not like any other reptile ever known (They're more of bird than reptile to be exact. I wonder how do Morris like it if dinosaurs are, from now on, going to be highly regarded as special birds, instead of being called reptiles anymore. He may not like it, but this is exactly what the fossil evidence clearly is showing us. Dinosaurs being feathery warm-blooded birds instead of scaly cold-blooded reptiles.) and how they are distinguished from their hips, their skulls, and all other prehistoric animals that lived before and during the time of the dinosaurs. A little bit outdated, but no big deal.
Chapter 4 on pages 20-23 is entitled, Is There Evidence That Dinosaurs Evolved From Another Kind Of Creature? Yes there is! According to the fossil evidence, dinosaurs evolved from basal archosaurs such as Euparkeria and Ornithosuchus. Morris, on the other hand, denies this and says that every time a dinosaur fossil is found, we find that everything about them is fully functional and fully made to do what it's supposed to do. Thus, there is no evidence for any dinosaur to change into another dinosaur, which is a blatant lie in the third degree. Also is a blatant lie in the thirds degree is the falsehood of not finding evidence of dinosaurs evolving into anything else, which the scientific evidence clearly rule out against. There are multiple scores of evidences pointing to the concept of dinosaurs evolving into other dinosaurs (like Styracosaurus evolving into Pachyrhinosaurus for instance) as well as dinosaurs evolving into birds like what is shown here.
Next, in the subtitle, What about Archaeopteryx? Morris tries to deny Archaeopteryx, a late Jurassic feathered dinosaur, as a transitional creature (rebuttal to his denial here); saying that Archaeopteryx is a just fully developed extinct bird (Not!) and in the subtitle Would a Transition Survive?, he deceivingly expresses his doubts on the creature's survival if the creature is a transitional form with 'inadequate legs (Which it didn't.),' yet possessed long fingers and arms for climbing, not to mention giving out an example of the breathing apparatuses being different in modern birds than reptiles. With this, Morris concludes that there is no evidence of birds evolving from dinosaur or any other reptile..or so he thinks. In other words, Morris is expressing his doubts on how could Archaeopteryx survive only on 'half a wing' (Read the rebuttal to this here and here.). This what Morris is doing is pure deception. Morris is only bluffing it. He's not really expressing his doubts on the matter. He's only pretending to express his doubts on the matter in order to deceive the lay audience into believing everything he says about no mutations occurring (rebuttal) and no transitional forms (rebuttal) found despite what the fossilized evidence is clearly pointing to.
The fossil evidence is clearly pointing to the fact that birds are dinosaurs, dinosaurs are birds, dinosaurs evolved away from reptiles and into birds. Like humans, they are highly unique, not like any other animals ever known. Despite Morris' efforts to make up fabrications about a controversial fossil know as Protoavis by just saying that there are advanced bird fossils being found below the strata where the fossils of Archaeopteryx are buried at, there is powerful evidence, all valid and real (including the ones that made up the Archaeoraptor forgery that actually belong to 2 separate dinosaurs, Microraptor and Yanornis), that clearly point to the concept of birds being direct descendants of dinosaurs.
Morris then tries to deny evidence of reptiles evolving in to mammals (rebuttal to Morris' claim here) in the subtitle Did Reptiles Evolve to Mammals? and claims that actually even 'evolutionists' admits to the unlikely nature of their evolution at all, while what they are actually doing is debating over how evolution works and how are the animal related to each other. No one in the scientific community is doubting evolution and Morris knows it. So, living in denial is not going to get it.
The next chapter is found on page 23 and it's entitled When Did Dinosaurs Lived? Answer: Dinosaurs lived from 230 million years ago to 65 million years ago. However, Morris, while ignorant of the fossil record that shows no evidence of what is shown in the warning disclaimer on the right, displays his idiocy, twist Bible verses around fit his views, and says that dinosaurs allegedly lived with man, today's animals, and all other extinct animals other than Pterosaurs and Mesozoic Marine reptiles at one point in time, 6,000 years ago, using invalid evidence the Bible to prove his falsehood.
Pages 24-26 in the subtitle Day Five – Dragons continues with more of Morris' lies and claims that the term dragons and dinosaurs are one and the same and that dragon legends were actually tales of dinosaurs meeting up with man, which are all nothing more than direct fabrications YECs like Morris made up for poops and giggles as well as to convinced the lay audience of his views to be true.
He continues, in the subtitle Day Six – Land Animals, with the myth and distorts the meaning of Genesis 1:24-25 to include dinosaurs in the fix, while what is shown in the warning disclaimer on the right is nowhere to be found in the fossil record. He also claims that dinosaurs were originally created to be vegetarians ('no death, no bloodshed, no meat-eating' according to Morris, except when it come to plants.), while ignoring the features found in many animals including dinosaurs that tell us that they were all full-fledged meat-eaters right from the start.
Pages 26 starts the next chapter that asks, How Did the Dinosaurs Acquire Their Characteristics? Morris, like all YECs, do not have an honest answer. So, he invokes the 'goddunit' crap and blames Adam and Eve for every characteristics the dinosaurs ever acquire when they ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. He also does the Original Sin tripe as displayed in The Curse subtitle and blames the predators, the death of people and animals, the whither and fade of plants (While the killing of plants has already begun just before the fall!), the 2nd law of Thermodynamics (which Morris claims to began just after the fall, which is debunked here. Surprisingly, AIG has also debunked this myth in their Arguments They Think Creationists Should Not Use page. I wish this list of arguments include dinosaurs living with man. That would severely undermined the idiotic campaigns Ham and other YECs are making when it comes to using models, books, toys, exhibits, and film to spread stupid, satanic lies about dinosaurs being in the Bible and living with man as portrayed in faulty exhibits being made for Ham's idiot faux-museum if the list does include the dinosaurs-living-with-man fallacy.), diseases, stars burn out, elements of decay, "the whole creation groaning and travailing in pain until now, (Romans 8:20 taken out of context.)" etc. all on Adam and Eve's rebellion against God. A dangerous form of "blame game" isn't it? No wonder the Original Sin dogma has destroyed many a innocent person, including those of Christian faiths over the centuries because of this. Here are reasons why. Also, this article from Rich Deem's site will debunk the YE claim about the so-called "groaning creation" according to Morris.
