I just came back from the beach, where the footprints I put into the sand disappeared beneath rushing waves as the tides rolled into shore. So it surprises me that the footprints we leave behind aren't as transient as we might think.
I came across to stories about footprints that actually have scientific value. The first is about chancing on dinosaur footprints in Alaska. The second is about finding 40,000 year old human footprints in Mexico. It kind of leaves you stunned about how we leave our mark on the world in so many little ways. (Too bad our era will probably be dated by the Big Mac wrappers, Starbucks venti cups, and Old Navy t-shirts found in conjunction with every site of human habitation in North America.)
However, as you might've guessed by now, there's always something looney to go with these profound thoughts. Fossil footprints are being used by creationists to "prove" that scientists are wrong about the age of the earth, the end of the dinosaurs, Noah's Flood, blah, blah, blah... I don't feel qualified to even begin to explain this stuff away, other than to say that frequently people who want to believe something will find "evidence" when they squint really hard while looking at something. So here are some websites I found that try to explain the matter scientifically. The sad thing is that the number of "true believer" outnumbers the "skeptic" websites by an astronomically high number.
3 comments:
I have a lot of questions in this area of my own. I'd really like to see a computer simulation of what the earth's atmosphere and gravity would be like if its rotation were slower. How would this affect climate, gravity, atmospheric pressure? There are certain huge sea animals, a few that were once thought extinct, that must stay in ocean bottoms because of the pressure. If they come out of their element, they become sluggish, their heart can't handle the decreased pressure, and they die. I also remember hearing that people with gigantism die younger because of the stress on their heart. Also, there are these funny legends in my church about Cain being Big Foot...or at least resembling Big Foot. The most famous story is that of a David W. Patton. The story is this:
. . . of Cain to Brother David W. Patten in the State of Tennessee, about which you wrote to me, I will say that according to the best of my recollection it was in the month of September, 1835.
It was in the evening, just twilight, when Brother Patton rode up to my father's house, alighted from his mule and came into the house. The family immediately observed that his countenance was quite changed. My mother having first noticed his changed appearance said: “Brother Patten, are you sick?” He replied that he was not, but had just met with a very remarkable personage who had represented himself as being Cain, who murdered his brother Abel. He went on to tell the circumstances as near as I can recall in the following language:
“As I was riding along the road on my mule 1 suddenly noticed a very strange personage walking beside me. He walked along beside me for about two miles. His head was about even with my shoulders as I sat in my saddle.
He wore no clothing, but was covered with hair. His skin was very dark. I asked him where he dwelt and he replied that he had no home, that he was a wanderer in the earth and traveled to and fro. He said he was a very miserable creature, that he had earnestly sought death during his sojourn upon the earth, but that he could not die, and his mission was to destroy the souls of men. About the time he expressed himself thus, I rebuked him in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by virtue of the Holy Priesthood, and commanded him to go hence, and he immediately departed out of my sight. When he left me I found myself near your house.”
What is notable pertaining to your post is how tall he reported Cain to be. I just copied the whole story because it's one of my favorite Mormon tales.
A true ninja leaves no footprints and no trace.
Perhaps these humans who lived with the dinosaurs were all ninja? Perhaps.
Let me get this straight. You're saying there was no Flood? Next thing you'll be telling is that Noah wasn't 600 years old either.
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