A different kind of attack has been launched, as an American paleontologist has dismissed the ropen as a “fake” pterosaur and dismissed me, Jonathan Whitcomb, as one who practices deception. He also ridicules my belief in the Garden of Eden and in the Flood of Genesis. If I were a paleontologist who had a valid point to make about pterosaur fossils, I hope I would not respond to a misguided cryptozoologist by ridiculing that person’s religion or assuming the worst regarding honesty.
“Stupid Dinosaur Lies”
Those are not my words. They are part of a URL that I first saw around mid-2005, perhaps the first major online attack against those who promote the possibility that not all of these featherless flying creatures are extinct. Search the words of my book Searching for Ropens and Finding God (fourth edition) if you will, and you’ll see, in those 360 pages, that only twice is the word stupid printed: once quoting that word in that libelous web page and once for an eyewitness who was discouraged because of the possibility that he had been mistaken through misidentification, his own word for his predicament. I do not use that word for a person who disagrees with me.
I will not link to that web site having the URL words “stupid,” “dinosaur,” and “lies.” I will quote from page 118 of my nonfiction book:
I will quote no more from that web page, but I deny that my associates and I have perpetrated a hoax to make money. In addition, I have never led any Young Earth Creationists on any expedition and have never set foot in Africa. Those noticing the misspelling of both my first and last names, they may take a clue that other details on that page may also be inaccurate. Enough said.
Honesty of Explorers
- Perhaps nobody accused Paul Nation of dishonesty after his Umboi Island expedition with his son in 2002; hardly anybody knew about that.
- Few persons, if any, seem to have accused him of dishonesty after his 2006 expedition on the mainland of Papua New Guinea.
- Nobody that I know of accused him of any lie after he returned from his 2007 expedition, in which he found that he had made a misidentification in part of the 2006 endeavor.
When an American like Paul Nation travels to remote tropical wildernesses to look for flying dinosaurs (not the phrase he himself normally uses), his return to the United States is not usually met with loud proclamations of dishonesty. For those who dismiss the possibility of a living pterosaur, accusations of lies could be interpreted to mean that the explorer was not telling the truth about observing nothing resembling a pterosaur, and that would defeat the skeptics’ purpose.
But that is the point in all those expeditions in Papua New Guinea: Liars would not be expected to return home admitting they saw nothing like what they were most hoping to see. In other words, the following explorers were telling the truth when they returned from Papua New Guinea:
- Garth Guessman
- David Woetzel
- Jonathan Whitcomb
- Paul Nation
Attack From an American Paleontologist
This highly acclaimed scientist, whom I will not name here, recognized in his field of paleontology and acknowledged on Wikipedia for his many scientific papers (published in peer-reviewed journals of science, no doubt)—he never mentioned the word expedition in his attack against my honesty. Of course such an admission could seriously detract from what he wanted to portray, that I am dishonest. He concentrated on one apparent political blunder that I seem to have made, but he twists it around, even 180 degrees around, making it appear that I was using deception.
The early years of my publications were met with skeptic comments questioning my honesty. I then continued writing in web pages and online blogs, usually using my normal name, Jonathan Whitcomb. I also started using two pseudonyms: Norman Huntington and Nathaniel Coleman. That was to allow readers to be informed about the living-pterosaur investigations. To at least a few readers, my name had been smeared to some extent, and it could have been a distraction. In other words, I used those two pen names to get the truth to as many persons as possible, while still using Whitcomb on many blog posts, including on my dominant blog Live Pterosaur. So why does this paleontologist assume that I intended to deceive anyone?
He seems upset that my web pages dominate the internet, at least when people use Google. But what would be fair if that skeptical scientist had spent over 10,000 hours in a project, for eleven years, and had published online articles and posts that outnumbered those of all of his colleagues? Would he not think it fair that his ideas would show up on the top of search-engine results?
Conclusion About Honesty
I am shocked that somebody with so much education would make so many mistakes, indeed errors that are facing 180 degrees away from reality. But I do not accuse this man of dishonesty, for I cannot see into his mind or into his heart. Being honest or dishonest is, after all, about one’s intention. Those who search diligently will find the truth.
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Is Jonathan Whitcomb a Paleontologist?
I’ve received emails from eyewitnesses from four continents plus islands in the Pacific, emails about flying creatures that resemble “primitive” or “prehistoric” animals more than any bird or bat. On occasion I am able to talk with an eyewitness by phone or by face-to-face interview. One critical point here, unappreciated by some paleontologists, is that those eyewitnesses come from various countries and have different backgrounds and beliefs, including differing religious beliefs.
1400 Eyewitnesses of Pterosaurs
Whitcomb’s current reply to this week’s Cryptomundo posting and nearly 40 comments is given in full below, without edits
Videographer in Papua New Guinea
. . . explored part of Umboi Island . . . in 2004, searching for the elusive ropen . . .
We defend both the Genesis account of creation and the worldwide Flood. We believe in the God of Biblical miracles and in a recent life on earth, devoid of molecules-to-man evolution (GTE).
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“Settle into a comfortable chair and prepare for what may become the most unsettling scientific discovery since Copernicus and Galileo. This true story takes you into the expeditions that began to prepare the Western world for a discovery not yet recognized by scientists in developed countries.”
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