For esample, the provenance of some of the ICA stones is verified by a regional report prepared by Jaun de la Santa Cruz’s in 1613. In that report , Santa Cruz states that “…during governing of Pachakuti Inca Jupanka (1438-1471) in the region where Ica province is situated today, great number of stones with engravings had been revealed.”

That provenance however, does nothing to substantiate the cottage industry of thousands of stones carved by local indigent farmers as response to the market of the local tourist trade. (As is practiced all over the world at high traffic ‘ancient civilization’ tourist locations.) One does not negate the other. Some of the stones are genuine, and some of those stones display images of man and dinosaur co-existent. And some of the stones are current ‘fakes’.

Both sides of the argument need to just quit their posturing, and start digging into the truth of both giants and recent dinosaurs, figuring out how to bring science and religion kicking and screaming into the 21st Century. You might just add most of the rest of Newtonian Physics along with the historical sciences. Their paradigm aren’t going to last the next decade either.

In a time where the opulence of the Khmer Empire was at its peak, and peace was made between the surrounding nations, people in the area successfully excavated and identified fossil remains.

When thinking about this evidence logically, this explanation requires the fewest logical steps to fit the evidence. Why is it so hard to believe that someone other than western trained paleontologists are capable of discerning that what looks like bones could be from what used to be an animal? How did this end up being a religious discussion? Is it so hard to believe that westerners are not the only people capable of unlocking knowledge of the past?

A child can also tell you that the earth is flat, and that the sun moves across the sky. As an alternative to a childish world view, you might consider listening to Galileo — and to other adults who take the trouble to “scratch their heads” head before giving an answer.

The critter in the carving is most probably a Sumatran rhinoceros. You have a choice between “throw out the incredibly vast array of evidence for evolution” and “this is an embellished rhino carving.” Only an idiot would choose the latter.

On a related note:The History Channel and Discovery Channel spoon feeds people all kinds of nonsense about ancient aliens, and the pyramids.maybe Angkor was built by aliens! After all, it’s too “sophisticated” to have been built by humans.All these crack-pot History channel “experts” filling peoples heads with crap.

Maybe i should start a re-thinking of the origins of Christianity and the saints? After all, many of the saints depicted in Church look an awful lot like singer Kenny Loggins, and if you show any child a photo of Kenny Loggins, and depictions of saints, there is clearly a similarity. Don’t be so quick to disregard these images, maybe we need to fully examine the relationship between Kenny Loggins and the saints? Of course not, just using typical Creationists nonsense logic.

What about the extraordinary claim of mindless evolution of the information in the DNA? I think that requires some very extraordinary evidence! No brain, and there was information!

This article shows that image interpretation is a business of ambiguity, as is also the interpretation of fossils and strata, as well as determining on what terms different kinds of measurements are to be made and interpreted.

As there are numerous sane young earth creationist scientists around finding support for their view in what is measured and observed, one could just as well say that the Darwinists are distorting nature to make it fit their narrow worldview.

For a skeptic like me all Sauropoda looks the same, hence they are the same species. And for a scientific skeptic like the author all the man-dinosaurs cave paintings and arts are just “something that looks like dinosaurs”

Scientists are not supposed to jump to “blind conclusions”. Who knows what we could find in some unexplored parts of the Amazon? Living fossils are not urban legends, they are real.

1) The carving does resemble Stegosaur, vaguely, and also vaguely resembles other animals, such as a rhinoceros. The carving is crude, and not an accurate depiction, even if it were a Stegosaur. The only feature that truly causes one to think it may be a Stegosaur is the plates over the back; without those, there would never even be the suggestion that it is a stegosaur. There are other carvings with background objects, so the “plates” may or may not actually be on the back, but rather objects behind it that were carved just as crudely. There are other carvings of animals, but they are all modern animals, and equally inaccurate… artistic renderings, not attempts at accurate illustration. The most likely conclusion is that it is modern animal, carved with the same inaccuracies as all the others.

2. There are other drawings, carvings, etc, in other places that appear to be mythical creatures that resemble dinosaurs. The existence of such carvings is no evidence that they were carved by someone who had actually seen such creatures. Carvings and drawings do not mean that the creature existed or was seen by the artist; the artist could have been carving some mythical creature that we think looks like a Stegosaur. I don’t find that likely, though, since the other carvings all seem to be of real animals.

3. The idea that a crude and indeterminate carving is serious evidence of anything is absurd, when there is absolutely no other evidence to support it. We have written histories from multiple cultures on several continents, and none of them mention dinosaurs in any form. If dinosaurs had existed with humans, there would certainly be some mention of them in writings such as the Bible, or ancient Greek, Roman, Arabic or Chinese historical accounts. But there are none. That one group of Stegoasaurs survived in Cambodia and nowhere else is a slim possibility, but highly unlikely.

4. Finally, even if it were a Stegosaur, carved by someone who had seen a live Stegosaur, this would not disprove the theory of evolution or the accepted science that the earth is billions of years old; it would certainly not provide any evidence for a “young earth” theory. It would simply mean that the ancestor of a dinosaur species had survived to modern times, as unlikely as that is. It would mean that all non-avian dinosaurs had not become extinct when it is believed that they had. Many species descended from other species older than the dinosaurs survive today, such as crocodiles, so the possiblity that a dinosaur species also survived the mass extinction is not out of the question. If such a thing were true, it would not in any way refute current science, and it would not support the belief that the earth is less than 10,000 years old. Finding evidence of a live dinosaur in modern time or would not disprove evolution. The only thing that would disprove evolution would be finding human or any modern skeletal remains in the lower strata where only dinosaur or other ancient fossil remains are found.

PS: Marco Polo’s account sounds like an exaggerated description of a Komodo dragon more than any dinosaur. They are not as large as he describes, but they have a serpent-like tongue, large claws, and can kill almost any other animal. Polo is known to have “embellished” his stories (lied?); he was probably recounting a description he had heard second- or third-hand. To assume that he was describing a dinosaur is as silly as believing that the temple carving is a Stegosaur.

Leaving the city of Yachi, and traveling ten days in a westerly direction, you reach the province of Karazan, which is also the name of the chief city….Here are seen huge serpents, ten paces in length (about 30 feet), and ten spans (about 8 feet) girt of the body. At the fore part, near the head, they have two short legs, having three claws like those of a tiger, with eyes larger than a forepenny loaf (pane da quattro denari) and very glaring.”
The jaws are wide enough to swallow a man, the teeth are large and sharp, and their whole appearance is so formidable, that neither man, nor any kind of animal can approach them without terror. Others are met with of a smaller size, being eight, six, or 5 paces long; and the following method is used for taking them. In the day-time, by reason of great heat, they lurk in caverns, from whence, at night, they issue to seek their food, and whatever beast they meet with and can lay hold of, whether tiger, wolf, or any other, they devour;

THERE ARE “LIVING FOSSILS” BEING FOUND ALL THE TIME – -ANIMALS WE WERE TOLD DIED OUT LONG AGO ONLY TO BE FOUND ALIVE AND WELL – CASE IN POINT THE FISH KNOWN AS THE COELACANTH. READ AND LEARN, MY FRIEND