The BBC series 'Walking with Dinosaurs' has aroused a great deal of interesting discussion across the country. Many people are in agreement that the visual effects presented were spectacular, but quite a number have been left feeling that many of the chronological statements it made seemed to be based more on speculation and conjecture rather than solid fact.

The real truth is that while we know what dinosaurs were like in structure and size we simply cannot say categorically when they existed or when they died out. When a TV series declares that dinosaurs died out about 66 million years ago we need to remember that this is only one of several possible theories and that there is startling evidence to suggest some were still around in Biblical times.

Job is the oldest book in the Bible and in Job ch 40 vs 15-19 we are given a description of a dinosaur-like creature called 'Behemoth' which means 'gigantic' in Hebrew. Its tail was as long and as thick as a cedar tree, its bones were like beans of bronze and it ranked first in size among creatures.

Later the whole of the next chapter is given over to a hair-raising description of a marine monster called 'Leviathan' which was said to be the largest of the sea-creatures. Worldwide, every single ancient culture of which we have any real knowledge gives descriptions and stories of unusual dragon-like or reptile-like creatures roaming the earth, and it is very difficult to believe that separate peoples of the world would all come up with similar accounts, if they did not have some basis of truth behind them. Early pictures of dinosaurs have also been found, one of the most famous being the Indian rock wall carving in the Have Supai Canyon in Arizona which depicts a dinosaur along with an elephant.

In 1938 the scientific world was shaken by the discovery of a live 'dinosaur fish' named 'the Coelacanth' off the coast of South Africa. This living specimen was unchanged from examples of fossil remains and was the cause of great embarrassment since current teaching stated that it had become extinct 60 million years earlier. We need to remain broadminded when it comes to looking at evidence about the history of our planet and remember that 'when the experts speak' they cannot speak with real certainty but only give the prevailing opinion they hold at that time.

If any reader would like more information about this subject then please send an A4 size SAE to me at -THE VICARAGE, LEIGH, SURREY RH2 8PD.

REV. J WILLIAMS

Surrey.