God Made the Dinosaurs

Having grown up in a young earth creationist environment, I’m very invested countering the claims made by the individuals who promote it. I’ve previously reviewed God’s Word or Human Reason? & Baby Dinosaurs on the Ark?, and while these were great, I’ve frequently lamented that despite the supposedly high proportion of “theistic evolutionists” in the sciences, they seemed content to cede the children’s book market to YECs. Dinosaur Devotions refreshingly refrained from referencing any creationist topics, though it stopped short of affirming any evolutionary concepts, either. At long last, however, I have come across a book that addresses this oversight!

Written by Michael & Caroline Carroll, and illustrated by Jesús Sotés, God Made the Dinosaurs emphasizes how mainstream science does not inherently conflict with Christianity, including evolutionary theory. Sponsored by the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, it also highlights some of the contributions Christian paleontologists have made to mainstream paleontology.

The primary focus of the book, of course, is simply the dinosaurs themselves. The authors organize them by family groups, focusing on a few exemplary species from each category. Said species each get a solo illustration and a quick blurb about some of their more interesting features.

There was little attention given to how the larger groups related to each other, however. I might not have picked up on this however, if not for the confusing way in which feathered dinosaurs were separated out from the rest of the theropods. Perhaps if the feathers themselves (and their evolution) were the focus, it might make sense to separate them, especially if depicting such distantly related dinosaurs as Psittacosaurus and Microraptor. But the dinosaurs depicted are all theropods, and discussed more from the perspective of the evolution of birds as a group. It feels jarring, then, that the hadrosaur section randomly separates the feathered dinosaurs from the other theropods, and while the text makes clear that birds belong to the theropod dinosaur family, I feel like this formatting de-emphasizes the connection in a way. (For a book that does a fantastic job in explaining evolutionary relationships in an extremely kid-friendly way, I cannot recommend Grandmother Fish highly enough!)

The artwork is generally pretty good, though it seems to be strongly influenced by pre-existing work. There were several illustrations whose inspirations I immediately recognized (including a Triceratops that was a dead-ringer for the Papo toy), though I would say they’re generally on the level of “strongly referenced” rather than “copied”. This is both to the benefit and detriment of some of the individual animals depicted, as while most are pretty good, there are a few inaccuracies that slip through. This dichotomy can be best seen in the feathered dinosaur pages: while most are very good and up-to-date, the Oviraptor and Velociraptor randomly have the “wing sleeves” common to early 2000s paleoart.

In an era where the Christian faith is being coopted to promote various ideas of dubious merit, God Made the Dinosaurs is a much-needed bit of outreach to people who are often made to feel that they can’t trust science to discover the truth about the natural world. I appreciate the authors’ affirmation of scientific principles, and their assurance to their fellow believers that it need not threaten their identity. Indeed, little “calls to prayer” appear in inserts throughout the book, as a means to ease the minds of people who may wonder if the authors ignore religion completely, though it doesn’t lose the thread and just become Dinosaur Devotions (which was also decent in its own right, just not what this book was billed as). While my own spiritual journey has pointed me in a different direction, it is nice to know there are still committed Christians I can regard as peers in my enjoyment of prehistoric life, and I highly recommend it to anybody with youngsters who wish to avoid the young earth creationist rabbit hole. For fulling this much-needed niche in children’s dinosaur literature, I think it’s only appropriate to give it my Dino Dad Stomp of Approval!

For more in-depth books on creation and evolution, check out my reviews of Baby Dinosaurs on the Ark?, as well as God’s Word or Human Reason? I have also visited and recorded my thoughts on the ICR creation museum in Dallas, for those interested (not to be confused with Ken Ham’s version).