So much in “science” is said with such authority! As if they really, truly knew. Maybe Protoavis was a bird, and maybe it wasn’t. But “maybe” doesn’t pull in many grants, and certainly won’t land you any PBS specials.
What if there wasn’t really any Triassic Period, after all?
That fragmentary skeleton up there is all that remains of a creature which its discoverer says is the oldest known bird–so old, that birds couldn’t possibly have evolved from dinosaurs. This makes him a bad guy and his science “problematic.”
Mr. Nature here, on this extremely humid Fourth of July, along with the “Triassic bird,” Protoavis. Dr. Sankar Chatterjee was a good guy when he was just digging up dinosaurs and thecodonts in the Southwest: but if Protoavis really is a bird, like he says it is, and if it really lived alongside early dinosaurs in the Triassic Period, like he says it did, then a whole lot of pet scientific paradigms and just-so stories have to go down the drain–and scientists hate it when that happens.
As some of you know, I’m a radical agnostic about the age of the earth. Can’t help it: the Bible doesn’t say how long Adam and Eve were in the Garden before they sinned and got expelled, and were made subject to mortality. I suspect it was a very long time indeed.
But one thing’s sure: Protoavis has no business turning up in the Triassic fossil record, it’s unforgivably rude, and Dr. Chatterjee ought to be ashamed of himself. Why, he’ll be doing Climbit Change Denial next!
That funny little sound you hear in the background is Protoavis snickering.
We can worship God in many ways; and one of those ways is by enjoying and marveling at His handiwork. No matter which way we turn, the work of His hands is in front of us. It testifies to Him, and we do well to listen.
Hi, Mr. Nature here. Behold the hoatzin, a bird that lives in the Amazon rain forest. Its babies are like no other bird in the world–baby hoatzins have claws on their wings, which they can use to climb and crawl and grasp, and sometimes get themselves out of trouble.
Oh, but we’ve seen birds with claws! Well, fossils of ’em. Archaeopteryx had claws on its wings. It also had a beak full of teeth, which the hoatzin doesn’t have. But maybe the hoatzin is the last of the Archaeopteryx tribe.
(If you look closely at this famous Archaeopteryx fossil, you’ll be able to see it had claws on its wings, just like a baby hoatzin.)
Yes, I know, the Evolution crowd will climb all over this. “See! See! Birds evolved from dinosaurs!” Please ignore the perfectly modern-looking bird tracks discovered in Argentina in rocks supposedly dating from the very beginning of the age of dinosaurs. And under no circumstances trouble yourselves with the Protoavis bird fossils from the early Triassic.
We are at liberty to ignore those people.
As we are at liberty to enjoy the Lord Our God in his handiwork.
