Does any of our religions mention them anywhere? Why did God create them? Why did they have to die?
I’ve got a couple of theories, but lets hear what you’ve got to say. 
Queerosaur,
Only last week Paleontologists say that they have discovered something that they had despaired of ever finding: the heart of a dinosaur.
It is estimated to be 66 million years ago.
In my mind there is no question about it that dinosaurs existed. My 9-year-old son knows about Dinosaurs than I will ever know. The Museum of Natural History is our regular hang out. He is pressuring me to take him to North Carolina Museum of Natural Science, where they have a lot of stuff on Dinosaurs.
Very interesting question. I have never heard of any Quranic reference to them but I could be wrong.
Queer, very nice and interesting posts! I'll bet that, depending whom you asked, someone could read the dinosaurs into the Quran somewhere! :) Maybe they are one of the lost communities, destroyed by God because of their bad ways? Kidding.
The fact that dinosaurs are all destroyed now, proves that they had more than one religion.
They are not mentioned in any part of Holy Quran.
NYA,
yup! saw a report on cnn on the dino-heart. looks like you've taken the right step of not restraining your children's curiosity :) i'm sure you'll soon be taking your son to NC, tell him about the Baloocharium, our own giant desi fossil. when i was 12, i'd wanted to be an anthropologist. i wanted to go to east africa and dig for bones one million years old.
Romz,
cant you think of any? aint there any reference to dragons or huge slimy creatures?
Zara,
Maybe they are one of the lost communities, destroyed by God because of their bad ways?<
that's not fair! that was my theory number 1. :)
and yeah, i'd like to see some instances of dinos being read into Qur'anic verses. how i wish we had Bubbly and Co around!
ZZ,
et tu? :-(
The fact that dinosaurs are all destroyed now, proves that they had more than one religion.<
that was my theory number 2!
garam,
if they aint there in the Qur'an, is it justified to consider it an all-encompassing book?
ps> i still got one theory left, lets see who gets it.
Ok, this like no time for riddles, I dying to know what's third theory?
ok, but dont blame me if you dont like it!
Theory #3
There were no dinosaurs! all 'em fossils found are devices of God’s own prank - he just wanted to have some fun, so buried a few bones here 'n there for crazy jobless men to dig up and spend time and effort speculating over how evolution has taken place. it was a superb move by God so that he could live incognito in peace, fooling humans into believing they are the result of billions of years of refining by chance, no supernatural beings to crib to for protection and stuff. but humans are so argumentative that some nasty ones decided to believe in God just to oppose the scientists claims, and to justify their aim of having a lot more senseless arguments and dirty fights, they invented religions.
my brilliant corollary is that those who believe in God are the people who are going against God’s will, they’ll surely end up in hell.
Hence, the dinosaur fossils are unquestionable proofs that it;s the believers who are the actual kaafirs and it’s the kaafirs who are followers of the natural path shown by God!
http://www.pak.org/gupshup/biggrin.gif
ps > it’s all in good humor (even if it doesnt seem so), it aint meant to offend anybody’s religious beliefs.
Queer
Your theory number # 3 does sound like a joke so no explanation on your part was required :). As a matter of fact, this post should be moved to the joke section. He he.
Now on the serious note, let me ask you this. Why do we try to test the validity of Quran by trying to find out what it says about Dinosaurs, Theory of relativity, Quantum mechanics, etc.
Now to the explanation, and mind it that I am not a scholar and definitely not trying to act like Bubble Baby or refrigerator.
Allah said that we revealed Quran in easy to understand language. Here, Allah is talking to the whole mankind but specially to the people of Mecca of that time. 1500 hundred years ago, what was the level of scientific knowledge among general public? They did not even know if Sun is revolving around the earth or Vice Versa. They use to think that earth is flat. Quran was not revealed as a book of science. It came upon them so Prophet (PBUH) can set the foundation for the growth of Islam.
Lets imagine that you are one of the followers (to be) of Prophet (PBUH) 1500 years ago and have the same level of scientific knowledge that those people had. You are sitting among a group of people who are sitting in front of Prophet (PBUH) and listening to him. Lets assume that you are still non-Muslim and are in this group for the first time and are little curious about Islam and want to know if this the religion of truth. (Naooz' billah) Prophet (PBUH) is telling all the people that Gabriel visited him last night and revealed this text, and he started talking about "giant, huge lizards, roaming around the earth, birds of prey that lay the eggs equal to the size of a full grown sheep, 100 feet long grass eating mammals grazing around and one day, a ball of fire came upon them from the sky, killing them all". What would be your reaction. Would you take Quran as a book of truth by listening to these details or a just a compilation of fairy tales.
Thing is this my friend that we don't give a PhD level lecture to a fifth grader because he cannot comprehend that. Islam's intention was not to impress people after 1500 years but, as I said, to set the foundation among the people who were illiterate.
Thanks for reading. Enough said.
Tariq,
:) it was indeed meant as a semi-serious post. great points there!
Why do we try to test the validity of Quran by trying to find out what it says about Dinosaurs, Theory of relativity, Quantum mechanics, etc.<
i guess that's my viewpoint too, though my initial post in this thread goes a bit against it. it was sort of directed mockingly at people who claim that modern scientific discoveries are embedded in the holy texts, who painstakingly "interpret" the verses to include scientific discoveries once they have become too obvious to deny. there's a thread running in another forum about the statistical marvel of the frequency of some words in the Qur'an, and how ingenous interpretations of the numbers can unleash a wealth of knowledge! i've seen people pulling out verses from the atharva-veda,(i think), that mean E=mc^2. what's einstein when compared to the vedas!
Quran was not revealed as a book of science.<
i agree. but it's annoying to see people cite the Qur'an or the Bible to refute scientific theories, or to condemn scientists engaging in research in those fields as outcasts - the theory of evolution being one of the favourites, not just by muslims, but by christians as well (probably maybe more religions too, hinduism too has a creator God). i was recently amazed when a christian friend of mine, a very bright chap, confidently stated that he firmly believed in spontaneous creation.
my view is that holy texts shouldnt be taken literally - they are spiritual and moral guidelines, they shouldnt be looked at as all-encompassing works or used to discourage scientific research. it's cheap to rummage thru holy books like a crossword enthusiast trying out various obscure techniques to "decode" the encrypted factual information it contains. in that case, what use do they serve the common man? comments like "scientists whould shut down their labs and take to decoding the Quran to make more discoveries" are so ridiculous! "Dinosaurs" were just an excuse to take a potshot at this frog-in-the-well attitude.