religion, fossils, theoryWhat is the name of the theory that dinosaur fossils were placed by Satan to test the “faith” of mankind?
Omphalism, or omphalos, is the notion that God created the universe with the appearance of age (i.e., God created the Earth 6000 years ago, but did so in such a way to make it look 4.5 billion). Note that this is God pulling our legs, not the other guy.
I don't think there's a formal name for the notion of Satan planting fossils to fool us; I think it's just a corrupted form of omphalism, probably because those people don't want to believe that God could lie to them.
Of course, omphalism opens itself up to last-Thursdayism, so it's not a terribly robust hypothesis.
The closest thing I can find is “Apparent Age Theology”, which attempts to reconcile observed reality with the texts by saying a god made the universe “with age” (i.e. “we now return to your universe, already in progress”).
It’s an interesting way to answer “why you, of course” to the question “who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes” ;-)
I believe you are talking about Creationism?
I don't know that there's a formal "theory" to the assertion, however Job 40:15-24 is regarded by some as a reference to dinosaurs. While I consider this to be a bit of a stretch, even by theistic standards, it's one of those grasping-at-straws things we see a lot of creationists doing to try and justify their worldview.
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