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Dragon

From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science

The dragon although dismissed as myth today, may recount sightings of recent dinosaurs. The World Book Encyclopedia states that: "The dragons of legend are strangely like actual creatures that have lived in the past. They are much like the great reptiles [dinosaurs] which inhabited the earth long before man is supposed to have appeared on earth. Dragons were generally evil and destructive. Every country had them in its mythology." [1]

drag·on

A mythical monster traditionally represented as a gigantic reptile having a lion's claws, the tail of a serpent, wings, and a scaly skin.
A fiercely vigilant or intractable person.
Something very formidable or dangerous.
Any of various lizards, such as the Komodo dragon or the flying lizard.
Archaic. A large snake or serpent.

1 Dinosaur Extinction
2 Historical Accounts
3 Dragons in the Bible
4 Feasibility
5 Related References
6 See Also

Dinosaur Extinction

Main Article: Dinosaur extinction

Dinosaurs are a group of large extinct animals classified as reptiles. According to the traditional paleontological interpretations of Earth's history, the dinosaurs are believed to have dominated the ecosystem for more than 100 million years. It is furthermore believed that they went extinct about 65 million years ago, about 55 million years before the first humans appeared on Earth. However, most creationists believe that dinosaurs coexisted with mankind on Earth and lived recently. Creationist theories regarding dinosaur extinction include one of the most relentless causes of animal extinction - mankind.

Humans have a natural instinct to kill any animal that possesses a threatening imposition. Historically, reptiles of any significant size have been automatically and immediately killed when in the proximity of human habitats. Large reptiles the size of dinosaur would certainly be perceived as a threat and hunted-down by humans possessing hunting capabilities. However, historical accounts of dinosaur-sized animals are being dismissed as mythological because these animals are assumed to have gone extinct millions of years ago. We use "Dinosaur" in reference to a group of large reptilian animals as did the term dragon previously. Perhaps the extinct dinosaurs like the Tyrannosaurus survived the flood, but they could not survive mankind.

Historical Accounts

There are numerous legendary accounts of dragons and their slayings. Some believe that many of these are historic accounts of when humans were hunting and killing dinosaurs following the flood of Noah.

Saint George

The most famous account of a dragon slaying is the story of Saint George and the Dragon, which was included in Jacobus de Voragine's collection of Saints' lives written about 1275, to become part of the Golden Legends, translated into English and published by Caxton in 1483. Cathedrals named after St. George have been built in recognition of St. George in Ontario Canada (1828), Perth Australia (1888), and London England (1848). There are also several in the United States, etc. These cathedrals all proudly display a painting or relic somewhere depicting the slaying of the dragon by St. George.

A modern version of the legend says: "At the town of Silene, in Libya, there was a dragon, who was appeased by being fed two sheep a day; when these failed, the townsfolk offered by lot one of their young people. One day the lot fell on the King's daughter, who was led out to the sacrifice, dressed in her wedding gown. George appeared and transfixed the dragon with his spear and then using the Princess's girdle led the bemused dragon into the town, where it was beheaded." Catholic Encyclopaedia

Beowulf

Main Article: Beowulf

Others

On May 13, 1572 a dinosaur may have been killed by a peasant farmer in Italy. (pg 41 "The Great Dinosaur Mystery" by Paul Taylor ISBN 0-89636-264-7).

Dragons in the Bible

Main Article: Leviathan

There are graphic descriptions of an animal in the Bible called Leviathan, which is portrayed as a terrifying fire-breathing sea monster. Some believe that Leviathan is a reference to an extinct animal that was alive and known to those who lived during the days of the Old Testament.

Feasibility

It is generally assumed that a fire-breathing animal must be fantastical. However, it is possible that one of the dinosaurs possessed such a defence, for example by producing methane or other inflammable gas in its digestive system and expelling it with some means of ignition to produce flame. Since the soft parts involved are unlikely to fossilise, we would not expect to find evidence of them in the rocks. It would be quite easy for evolutionists to invent a scenario for the production of such a system by natural selection (as many other examples have shown), so it would be useless carping for them to claim it was impossible. The Bombardier beetle is an example of such a natural defence on a small scale.

Flying "fire-breathing-dragon" legends may relate to the bioluminescent ropen of Papua New Guinea. Natives on Umboi Island call any glowing embers fire, regardless of whether or not there is any open flame; a few of them have compared the red glow of the ropen's tail to "fire." Other peoples, in other areas of the world, may have interpreted in a similar way the glow of similar creatures, centuries ago: a bioluminescent glow, to them, may have resembled the glow of burning embers. Now, modern living-pterosaur investigators believe that the ropen is a Rhamphorhynchoid pterosaur.