Consider:
The Genesis account clearly outlines how certain animals were created BEFORE MAN was created. Some dinosaurs (and pterosaurs) may indeed have been created in the fifth era listed in Genesis, when the Bible says that God made "flying creatures" and "great sea monsters." Perhaps other types of dinosaurs were created in the sixth epoch. (Genesis 1:20-24)
And fossil evidence clearly shows that dinosaurs lived millions of years ago - LONG (65 million years) before man was created. So they became extinct well before Adam and Eve's time. (See: Dinosaurs - When Did They Live?; 2/8/90 Awake excerpt)
The ridiculous reason that some "Christian" Fundamentalists and Young Earth Creationists "believe "the devil" made fossils and buried them while we weren't watching" is to support their belief that that the Earth itself is only 6-10,000 years old. This conclusion by them is based on Bible genealogy and interpreting the 'days' mentioned in Genesis as literal 24 hour days. The Biblical creation account as recorded in Genesis IS compatible with scientific evidence...it is just that the conclusion mentioned above is a misinterpretation of the Genesis account.
Bible genealogy *does* provide evidence that MAN has been on earth for only thousands of years. But that does not have to mean that the "heavens and earth" have only been around that long as many "Christian" Fundamentalists and Young Earth Creationists will want one to believe. For these reasons, Jehovah’s Witnesses disagree with “Christian” Fundamentalists and many Young Earth Creationists. (For more see: "Are Jehovah's Witnesses Creationists?".)
Gen. 1:2 and on describes God's terraforming of the earth over a period of what the account calls as "days". However, these "days" were most likely NOT literal days, but rather figurative "days" such as the descriptive sayings: "Back in the 'day' of my youth" or "In the 'day' of the dinosaurs". The creative "days" mentioned in Genesis could not have been literal 24 hour days because, in just one example in Gen.1:11-13, grass is described as shooting forth and vegetation bearing seed and fruit trees yielding fruit in just one of these "days". So because these creative "days" were figurative, they could have actually been hundreds, thousands or even millions of years in length.
So in harmony with scientific evidence, God most likely created the earth billions of years ago and THEN created man only thousands of years ago.
For more, see:
Does Science Contradict the Genesis Account? (g 9/06 pp. 18-20; Watchtower Online Library)
How Does the Bible Show That the Creative Days Were Longer Than 24 Hours Each? (Defend Jehovah's Witnesses)
Day - Links to Information (Search For Bible Truths)
Creation - Links to Information (Search For Bible Truths)
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