Dinosaurs in church? We’re for that
Photos by Andrea Tintori. The small inset box is not in the correct location; it should be under the rail on the far right side. The measuring rod and the fossil itself are visible in the larger photo. The image was taken from discovery.com; this is obviously not Mr. Tintori’s mistake
A small-town cathedral in Italy has raised the bar for “open and accepting” churches.
Parishoners of this church worship in the presence of the dinosaurs. And have been doing so for centuries.
We just stumbled upon this story in last October’s Discovery News. Apparently, Italian scientist Andrea Tintori discovered this fossil in the marble within the Cathedral of St. Ambrose in Vigevano. It’s in the open, out there in front of God and everybody. So far, paleontologists have been unable to uniquely identify the dino’s species, but this is undoubtedly the leftover of a small skull (the measuring stick in the inset image is 10 cm long).
We wonder how many people have noticed this since the building was constructed in the 16th century. What would 16th century people have thought? The mind boggles.
This gets us to thinking, it seems to us that science — on some level — should be taught in churches. Now that would be a movement we could really get behind. We think churches should educate their kids (and adults) about sex; why not let them in on the delights of evolution and cosmology?
Why not invite the dinosaurs to church?
Your thoughts, dear Alert Readers?
P.S. Here’s one delightfully clever thought, posted on FaceBook by Alert Reader Mary Irvine Sweet: “I dunno, Paul. It seems a lot like finding an imprint of Jesus in your toast. Call me a skeptic.”
There are 6 Comments to "Dinosaurs in church? We’re for that"
People would have noticed it earlier if it resembled the VIrgin Mary or Jesus.
The highlight rectangle on the main image is in the wrong location.
Thanks, Jonathan. Do you know where it’s supposed to be? Is it even in the main picture? I got this image from discovery.com.
Paul
Ah! I found it. It’s on the right. You can even see the little measuring rod.
P.
Beautiful! Oh the irony!
Well, I don’t know how much it happens now, but back in the 17th and 18th century they used to do that a lot. The whole “natural theology” movement involved a lot of talking about science (mostly Newtonian physics and astronomy, I guess) in church. Newton had a famous exchange of letters with Richard Bentley while Bentley was preparing a sermon (or maybe a series of sermons) on Newtonian physics and astronomy and how it provided evidence for God’s providence.
The arguments (planets all orbiting in common plane and directions, solar system stable despite gravitational perturbation, stars not falling in on each other, etc) were not that great – they amounted to a “God of the gaps” kind of thing. But Bentley was still espousing what was a fairly new vision of the universe: an infinite universe filled with stars and operating according to the principle of gravity (with occasional DIRECT intervention by God). At the time this was pretty liberal thinking for an Anglican clergyman, I think.
There is a long tradition of studying both of God’s “two books” (the Bible and the natural world). It does seem that in many (most?) churches these days one book has ascended at the expense of the other. Don’t see why churches couldn’t go back to looking seriously at both, though. Paul, let me know when you give your first sermon on dinosaurs. That’s SO worth the trip down to the ATL.