There Are No Real Dragons

(By Jafira)

Disclaimer: This was a reply I wrote to a topic on a dragon themed message board, the topic was why there are no real dragons on earth, assuming that they even existed. It is not necessarily a rant but simply a reply.

Well, first off I'd like to give a quick disclaimer that this is only an observation and I mean no offense to any beliefs involved. It would appear from my past research that a vast quantity of ancient cultures have had at least one "dragon-slayer", but if there were any physical dragons existent on this planet it is highly likely that a vast percentage of their waning numbers may had been hunted to extinction over the centuries by Christian zealots and knights more then by the past actions of peoples from earlier cultures.

The early Christians tended to use dragons as a symbol of evil in an attempt to convert pagans. Dragons and serpents became evil and believers in them were to be converted. An example of which would be a biblical reference which made mention of a dragon in a temple of Bel, which was poisoned to death, in order to prove that it was not a deity. Later in history dragons would become common targets for knights to prove their chivalry an example of which would probably be the story of Saint George, and others like him.

A book titled “British Dragons” contained quite a few examples of dragons being hunted or slain under religious grounds. Thus adding to belief that a majority of later dragon myths ended in the dragon slain either by a religious knight or similar factor. Considering the dragon myths from the last thousand years and modern hard core Christian’s vocal dislike of dragons in general, it is somewhat easier for many dragon lovers to attack and solely accuse Christian religious sects as the cause of draconic extinction over other beliefs.

As well, if dragons did exist and survive into the Common Era it is feasible that the increased hunting of them weakened their numbers to the point of extinction, in which it would indirectly be the fault of Christians for finishing dragons off. As the majority of ancient dragon slayings apparently happened Before Common Era and dragons continued to exist (in theory) long afterwards into the middle ages, their numbers may had been weakened obviously but they did not all die off as a result of ancient cultures.

In the long run humanity itself would probably be to blame rather then any specific culture as the vast majority of cultures had apparently played some part in their extinction over the millennia. Regardless I feel that blaming anybody living or dead for the lack of dragons is foolhardy, until it has been proven that physical dragons did exist any accusations would be baseless. Even if said evidence were found nobody alive at current would be responsible for the species demise.

Even to blame a specific church or religious sect for the demise would be fruitless as it is unlikely that much could be achieved in doing so. I feel that much of the scapegoating that may be appearing online is most likely just the result of venting, “They don’t like us because we like dragons, well I don’t care, it’s Their fault there’s none left in the first place! Grr..” or something similar, so I just tend to ignore it. If our communities as a whole had a specific proven group of people to blame for the lack of dragons would it really improve anything, or would it just create greater tension? I feel it’s best not to place blame, when there is little that can be achieved in doing so.