Why does the Bible talk about 'dragons'?
The idea that dragons once walked the earth among humans--or even existed at all--sounds like something from a fairy tale. But Darek Isaacs, a creationist author and filmmaker, is now on record arguing that dragons were real creatures that lived thousands of years ago.
In an interview with Christian talk show Creation Today posted to YouTube on Wednesday, Isaacs says that dragons are real because the Bible says so.
As a so-called Young Earth Creationist, Isaacs is guided by the scientifically discredited belief that the Earth was created by God several thousand years ago. (Scientists believe the Earth came into being about four billion years ago.) In addition, he believes in biblical inerrancy--the belief that the sacred book contains no errors.
"The Bible speaks about dragons,” Isaacs told the show's hosts. "Our authority -- everything we do, we have to measure by the word of God. That is what I believe. So we have to go to the Bible, and the Bible speaks about dragons."
Isaacs said that dragons are compared to Satan in the Book of Revelation. And God wouldn't just throw that in without factual basis, he said.
“If dragons in fact were entirely mythological, if they were a figment of the imagination, and if they never ever did exist, then God just compared our adversary to a make-believe creature that never existed,” Isaacs said.
In his 2010 book, Dragons or Dinosaurs, Isaacs noted that biblical dragons have received a bad rap for years because they couldn't shake their storybook reputation.
"Modern translators simply could not allow the dragon to have an authentic seat at the biblical table in these modern sophisticated times," Isaacs wrote. "Therefore, in poor form, a blind eye is turned to that scaly and unwanted dinner guest ... So, to the temporary hope of secularists, and to the anxiety-riddled, uninformed Church, I will shine a spotlight for all to see that the bible speaks of dragons as real."
Staunchly anti-evolution, Isaacs also believes that humans and dinosaurs co-existed, according to a 2010 profile on ChristianCinema.com.
While dragons are a bit of a stretch even for many creationists, the belief that humans and dinosaurs lived together has many adherents. In a recently released radio commercial, Ken Ham, president of the creation-themed Answers in Genesis-U.S. and the Creation Museum, has argued that dinosaurs not only lived during the biblical era -- they even joined humans on Noah's Ark.
Scientists dismiss such arguments, of course, citing paleontological evidence that shows the last dinosaurs died nearly 60 million years before humans existed, according to the New Scientist.
So what inspired tales of dragons? The imaginary creatures may have been inspired by Komodo dragons and other scary-looking creatures, along with discoveries of fossils of giant prehistoric fossils that confused people living in ancient times, according to an article published recently in LiveScience.
"For millennia no one knew what to make of the giant bones that were occasionally unearthed around the globe," according to the article, "and dragons seemed a logical choice for people who had no knowledge of dinosaurs."