I was (previously) one of the fundamental Christians who didn't believe in evolution, but I certainly never doubted that dinosaurs were real. I think "dinosaurs weren't real" is incredibly niche, I don't know anyone personally that believes that, even though I know people that believe in flat earth, lizard people, etc. Definitely plenty of weirdness in the fundamental Christian groups, but I think "dinosaurs never existed" is weird even for that. For example, many (most?) fundamental Christians believe the leviathan is a type of dinosaur, so it would be weird to doubt they ever existed.
But I do still agree with your main point -- fundamentalist religions encourage the kind of belief that persists _in spite of_ evidence, leading to some very strange (and sometimes dangerous) beliefs.
fwiw, here are some interesting and mostly-harmless beliefs that my "cohort" held
- Men have one less rib than women
- Noah's ark is still somewhere on Mt. Ararat, we just haven't found it yet
- If you dredge up the Red Sea, you'll find Egyptian chariots from when they chased the Jewish people fleeing Egypt. Evidence to the contrary be damned!
- Pokemon, DnD, and Harry Potter have real-world evil power. We were not allowed to read / play / watch these things as kids. But LOTR and Chronicles of Narnia are ok, because the authors were Christian, and the stories are basically the Bible in a trenchcoat.
- All languages departed from a single common tongue around 6k years ago, near Babylon
- The first humans lived _super long_, like 300+ years. It's only recently that lifespan is reduced to the sub-100 range. There was serious discussion that this effect is because there was a layer of water high in the atmosphere that was drained during Noah's flood (ie, the "waters above"). With that protective layer drained, human lifespans were cut short. I guess the implication is that the sun's rays are somehow super damaging in all sorts of nefarious ways? Just don't think about it too hard lol
But I do still agree with your main point -- fundamentalist religions encourage the kind of belief that persists _in spite of_ evidence, leading to some very strange (and sometimes dangerous) beliefs.
fwiw, here are some interesting and mostly-harmless beliefs that my "cohort" held
- Men have one less rib than women
- Noah's ark is still somewhere on Mt. Ararat, we just haven't found it yet
- If you dredge up the Red Sea, you'll find Egyptian chariots from when they chased the Jewish people fleeing Egypt. Evidence to the contrary be damned!
- Pokemon, DnD, and Harry Potter have real-world evil power. We were not allowed to read / play / watch these things as kids. But LOTR and Chronicles of Narnia are ok, because the authors were Christian, and the stories are basically the Bible in a trenchcoat.
- All languages departed from a single common tongue around 6k years ago, near Babylon
- The first humans lived _super long_, like 300+ years. It's only recently that lifespan is reduced to the sub-100 range. There was serious discussion that this effect is because there was a layer of water high in the atmosphere that was drained during Noah's flood (ie, the "waters above"). With that protective layer drained, human lifespans were cut short. I guess the implication is that the sun's rays are somehow super damaging in all sorts of nefarious ways? Just don't think about it too hard lol