All the dinosaurs drowned in the Great Flood

I don't believe in a God that plays "Gotcha!" I believe the Supreme Creator wants faith as opposed to blind faith, and that Homo sapiens was given intelligence and intellect to use. God did not plant evidence of the universe being billions of years old, of fossilized dinosaurs and the chain of evolution simply so he could trick gullible intellectuals and pop out from behind creation on Judgement Day shouting "Fooled you! Damnation is yours!" That kind of petty, twisted juvenile behavior I'd expect from a Ba'al or Zeus, but from the Christian God of love and peace? I view humanity's intellect, curiosity and drive to question and understand everything about the universe as a gift given to us by the master, not unlike that in the Parable of the Talents. Those fundamentalists that reject the evidence God has placed throughout the universe simply because "The Bible says so" are playing the role of the servant who buried his money and sat smugly until his lord returned home, while the other two servants went out and did something productive with their gifts.

I mean, even the Catholic Church has come out in support of the theory of evolution, albeit with some attached theological caveats.

So is it any wonder that stories like Christian dinosaur hunters dig for signs of Biblical dragons from The Telegraph drive me absolutely bonkers?

Evolution is "the dumbest and most dangerous idea in the history of humanity", said Kent Hovind, a vocal enthusiast for the cause who also runs the theme park in Florida. Explaining his Creationist creed, he said: "We think dinosaurs were part of the normal Creation and were just big lizards. Noah took some of them on the Ark, probably babies, when the floods came."

This is one of my really big push-button issues. Byzantium's Shores gets credit (or blame) for setting me onto this story. I've see so much faked "evidence" on the part of Creationists, outright fabrication and lies--I saw lots of this during my college years, as Creationists saw Texas A&M as fertile ground for their "seminars"--that I have to wonder how fragile their faith actually is, if they have to literally cheat to validate their own beliefs. Shouldn't the Truth be sufficient?

My family and I go to Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose on occasion. Right outside the park entrance is the Creation Evidence Museum. Their claimm to fame is an "excavated" imprint of a human footprint overlapping a dinosaur footprint. Which, of course, "proves" that dinosaurs and man walked the Earth at the same time. I've been very, very tempted to go in, but never have. First, we suspect they charge an entrance fee, and I have no desire whatsoever to financially support these lunkheads. Second... well, Lisa doesn't want me to have a stroke or aneurysm. I wouldn't intentionally create a scene, but keeping all that contempt bottled up inside might send me into convulsions.

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