We are currently in “the Year of the Dragon,” according to
the Chinese calendar. Have you ever
noticed that all of the other creatures in this twelve-year cycle (the rat, ox,
tiger, rabbit, snake, horse, goat, monkey, chicken, dog and pig) are animals we
are all familiar with by direct experience?
Isn’t it curious that in the midst of these ordinary animals there is
one mythological creature? Does it at
least suggest that what we consider mythical today may at one time in human
history have been very real?
In addition to the
Chinese calendar, there are accounts of Australian Aboriginees never taught
about dinosaurs in an academic setting recognizing them as entities that their
ancestors feared and faced.[1] An ancient carving from the ruins of the
temple at Angkor Wat resembles a stegosaur[2]. Why do cave paintings of woolly mammoths
have credibility and not those of dinosaurs except that they fit in with what
science has declared to be true?[3]
Both dragons and
dinosaurs have a modern fascination appearing in films like Jurassic Park
and more recent young adult fiction series such as “The Last Dragon Chronicles”
by Chris D’Lacey and the Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini. These fantasies place humans and
dragon/dinosaurs together despite the timelines taught to children from
Kindergarten that dinosaurs died out long before humans appeared on planet
earth.
It is striking
that the theme park “Canada’s Wonderland” chose to name its newest ride after a
mysterious creature named in the Bible, namely Leviathan. It joins the already popular ride Behemoth. Their descriptions in the oldest book of
the Bible, Job 41 and Job 40: 15 ff respectively are intriguing to the
open-minded.
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