Episode 261 – Dinosaur Duplicity – An Interview with Dr. Jonathan Sarfati
Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” The goal of Anchored by Truth is to encourage everyone to grow in the Christian faith by anchoring themselves to the secure truth found in the inspired, inerrant, and infallible word of God.
Script Notes:
Look at Behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox. What strength it has in its loins, what power in the muscles of its belly!
Its tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of its thighs are close-knit. Its bones are tubes of bronze, its limbs like rods of iron. It ranks first among the works of God, yet its Maker can approach it with his sword.
Job, chapter 40, verses 15 through 19, New International Version
I will not fail to speak of Leviathan’s limbs, its strength and its graceful form.
Who can strip off its outer coat? Who can penetrate its double coat of armor?
Who dares open the doors of its mouth, ringed about with fearsome teeth?
Its back has rows of shields tightly sealed together; each is so close to the next that no air can pass between. They are joined fast to one another; they cling together and cannot be parted. Its snorting throws out flashes of light; its eyes are like the rays of dawn. Flames stream from its mouth; sparks of fire shoot out. Smoke pours from its nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning reeds.
Job, chapter 41, verses 12 through 20, New International Version
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VK: VK: Hi! I’m Victoria K. Welcome to Anchored by Truth brought to you by Crystal Sea Books. Today we are pressing forward with our series that we call The Truth in Genesis. To help us in our exploration of one of the most fascinating – and controversial – parts of scripture, we’ve invited Dr. Jonathan Sarfati to be our guest in the studio. Dr. Sarfati is the lead scientist for Creation Ministries International. He has written a number of widely selling books that bring an understandable, yet comprehensive, scientific perspective on what empirical observations actually tell us about the age of the earth and the origin of life. Dr. Sarfati has sold hundreds of thousands of books such as Refuting Evolution volumes 1 and 2, By Design, The Greatest Hoax on Earth and The Genesis Account.
During this series Dr. Sarfati is addressing a wide variety of topics that pertain to a proper understanding of scientific evidence that conflicts with the conventional view that the earth is billions of years old. Today we’ll be exploring some of the most fascinating parts of that evidence because we’ve devoted today’s show entirely to dinosaurs.
Specifically, today we’re going see that recent discoveries about dinosaur fossils are at odds with the hypothesis that these fossils are tens or hundreds of millions of years old. But before we get too far into our discussion, Dr. Sarfati would you like to say a word of greeting to the Anchored by Truth listeners and maybe tell us a little bit about yourself and how you became involved with Creation Ministries International?
Dr. Sarfati: - Thanks for inviting me. It’s a pleasure to be on Anchored by Truth today. Introductory comments.
VK: Dr. Sarfati, in our first couple of episodes of our Truth in Genesis series you addressed some of the major problems that affect the validity of dating methods that are used to support the belief in an ancient earth. Last time we saw that the world-wide flood described in Genesis casts further doubt on the reliability of many of the popular claims about the old age of the universe and earth. Would you like to give us a brief overview of a few of the observations that you made?
Dr. Sarfati: Review comments for evidence of a young earth
VK: Thank you. That was very helpful. As we observed last time - it’s very important to note that the dates developed from geology depend entirely on the assumption that the current appearance of the earth reflects processes that have been consistent and continuous throughout the earth’s history. Yet this assumption is unproven and unprovable. But another problem is that geologists often look to paleontologists to corroborate their determinations. Ironically, though, paleontologists often do the reverse and look to geologists for date determinations. Do I have that correct?
Dr. Sarfati: Introductory comments on the geology-paleontology circle.
VK: So let’s delve more deeply into what we actually learn by studying dinosaurs.
Question List:
a. Do dinosaurs prove that the earth is billions or millions old?
b. How does much of the evidence that is available from studying dinosaur fossils actually demonstrate that Biblical time frame is more accurate?
c. How does the presence of blood cells, elastic blood vessels, intact cells, animal proteins and DNA, found in dinosaur skeletons demonstrate that such skeletons could not be as old as the conventional dating theories assert?
d. Could dinosaurs have been present on Noah’s ark? Is there evidence to suggest that dinosaurs lived on the earth for some time after the flood waters had abated?
e. Is there evidence to suggest that dinosaurs may have lived in proximity to people at one time?
f. How do preconceptions affect paleontologists when they assign long age time periods to dinosaur skeletons?
g. Are there any Christian paleontologists who support a literal reading of Genesis and what that mean about dinosaurs? That dinosaurs were created on the sixth day, accompanied Noah on the ark, and existed for some period of time before becoming extinct as millions of other species have.
h. In your opinion what are the three or four of the most important facts that point out that Christians can view dinosaur skeletons without surrendering any belief in a literal genesis?
i. What resources would you recommend for Christians who want to study more about what dinosaurs really tell us about the earth, it’s age and history?

VK: So the big takeaway from our discussion today is that dinosaur remains and dinosaur skeletons do not provide evidence for a long dated age of the earth. This reinforces the conclusion that we saw last time: that the Genesis flood explains geological phenomena that are observed around the globe. So if a billions of years age for the earth is not necessary to explain either geological or paleontological discoveries maybe we should begin considering an alternative. This means that the conclusion we get from Genesis – that the earth is thousands rather than billions of years old – is amply supported by empirical observations and scientific evidence.
Dr. Sarfati, we’d really like to thank you for joining us on Anchored by Truth today. Just as a reminder this show, as well as all Anchored by Truth episodes will be available by podcast shortly after the broadcast airing. So any listener today who has a friend or study group that could benefit from Dr. Sarfati’s depth of knowledge can go to their favorite podcast app and search on Anchored by Truth by Crystal Sea Books. Today for our closing prayer, since so many of our children study dinosaurs in school, how about if we pray a prayer for any of our kids who may be preparing to take a test.
---- Prayer before taking a test, radio version.
VK: We hope you’ll be with us next time when we’ll continue our discussion with Dr. Sarfati. And we hope you’ll take some time to encourage some friends to tune in too, or listen to the podcast version of this show.
If you’d like to hear more, try out crystalseabooks.com where “We’re not famous but our Boss is!”
(Bible Quotes from the New International Version)
Job, chapter 40, verses 15 through 19, New International Version
Job, chapter 41, verses 12 through 20, New International Version
https://creation.com/how-did-dinosaurs-grow-so-big
https://creation.com/3-rs-of-evolution
https://creation.com/divine-engineer-sarfati-by-design-review
https://creation.com/the-evolution-trains-a-comin