A DISTINGUISHED academic is guest speaker at the Dinosaur Sunday event at a Greenock church tomorrow.

Paul Younger, professor of energy engineering at Glasgow University, will share some insights into the environment including the very rare mineral of 
‘Greenockite’.

The fun event has become a popular fixture in Greenock West United Reformed Church’s calendar and is hosted by minister David Coleman and his wife Reverend Zam Walker.

Mr Coleman said: “Dinosaur Sunday has now become a regular special occasion for our church, when we consider and celebrate the awe-inspiring aspects of God’s creation over the infinite ages of history, and in the bewildering diversity of life, of which we ourselves — and Jesus — are part. 

“As Jesus, fully human, therefore shares and blesses our evolutionary history, so too, the body of Jesus of Nazareth was built up of the same minerals as us, which we likewise share with the earth, as well as its water. 

“The Bible in no sense contradicts this; recognising that we and all other living things are made from the Earth.”

The theme for this year’s events is from the Book of Job: Speak to the Earth, and it will teach you.

There will also be a display of fossils provided by the ministers’ son Taliesin, taking inspiration from references in the Bible to precious stones and involvement with the rocks, stones and the earth.

Mr Coleman said: “We are delighted to be welcoming as a highly distinguished guest speaker Professor Paul Younger, who is often sought out by the media as an  energy expert; to give us some special insights into our mineral environment, including the remarkable and very rare rock ‘Greenockite’, a crystalline form of cadmium sulphide.”

Professor Younger is involved with ‘Christians in Science’ and holds the Rankine Chair of Engineering.

The event is being held at the church at 6.30pm tomorrow. Everyone is welcome.