the discussion on dinosaurs versus the traditional view of the church has to do with chronology and the creation of life and the earth.When the remains of extremely old and unknown reptiles were discovered in the 1840s, it proposed two problems for the view of the church on creation: why were these animals not around anymore if Gods creation was perfect and why do these animals appear to be significantly older than ought to be possible according to a church dogma?

The first scientist to describe these old reptiles was Englishman William Buckland. He himself tried to reconcile this problem by seperating Gods creation in two distinct occasions: the old creation and the new improved (tm) version.