book – Page 2 – The Bible and Modern Pterosaurs

October 21, 2014October 21, 2014

Fourth Edition of the Biggest Live-Pterosaur Book

Bioluminescent Glow of the Flying Creature

I sometimes get a report of a large glowing creature, a shocking animal seen at night, even in the United States. The latest one was about two miles from Point Pleasant West Virginia, on the night of October 20, 2014. An eyewitness may search online for a similar sighting in the same general area where he/she witnessed the flying creature. This may result in disappointment, for reported sightings may be in other areas of the country but not near that person’s area. Please be aware of two factors:

These large ropens (or other glowing flying creatures) can travel long distances
They do not always glow and are not always noticed at night

Please also be aware that more than one species may be involved and that the ropen may be only one of two general types of modern pterosaur, both of which may have bioluminescent capabilities, at least in some species. Much scientific research needs to be done on this, even thought it now lives within cryptozoology, not yet acknowledged commonly by many scientists.

What one Book Reports About the Ropen Light

Two chapters of Searching for Ropens and Finding God cover this strange attribute of at least some ropens, this ability to glow with a bright light:

From page 41: How radical is the glow of a modern dragon or non-extinct pterosaur! Yet a fire-breathing dragon, to people in old times, was thought to be a real animal. Why should old stories all be completely fictional?

As I reviewed the videotaped interviews of natives on Umboi Island, early in 2004, my imagination was fired by a conviction: Old stories may contain truth. The fiction of Bilbo’s encounter with Smaug, the great dragon who burned up a town with his fiery breath, left an impression (like dieing embers) too dim to fire up my resolve to fly away to Papua New Guinea; but older ideas about dragons let in just enough light to spark my imagination: I believed native testimonies of a glowing creature flying over a remote tropical island.

Bioluminescence is more common than most Americans would imagine, as I would see for myself later that year. Could old stories of fiery dragons include some truth? Could that kind of glow have lead away our early ancestors into imaginative fiction: dragons burning down towns with fiery breath? . . .

From page 277: The sighting of a glowing “dragon” in England, around 1987, could be dismissed, for it was just a ten-year-old girl watching the stars, and that’s just one story. The two sightings of huge glowing flying creatures in the San Fernando Valley could be dismissed, for they were near Hollywood (the land of fictional creations), and that’s just two stories. The glowing creatures flying in the Caribbean could be dismissed, for they appear like nothing in any biology textbook, and that’s just two sightings. But scan the landscape of sighting reports and see what few other humans have seen for the past two centuries: Trees connected by underground roots, revealing the edge of a forest. How many eyewitnesses there must be who never contacted me about appearances of glowing flying creatures!

Searching for Ropens and Finding God, fourth edition, by Whitcomb

This religious/spiritual cryptozoology book should be published in the fourth edition before the end of October, 2014. Please see the latest posts of this blog.

From the title page of this nonfiction book:

This overshadows common true-life adventures, revealing the early stages of what may become the most unsettling scientific discovery since Galileo and Copernicus. It soars above disputes about religion, revealing why an official discovery of an extraordinary animal was delayed for so long. Above all, this explores human experiences—of eyewitnesses and those who interviewed them. People have become connected by common encounters: Persons of various faiths, with various levels of education, from various countries and cultures, have seen a living pterosaur.

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August 28, 2014

Free Book on Modern Pterosaurs

nonfiction cryptozoology book in electronic format - living pterosaurs

Think of a friend who needs to be informed about sightings of modern pterosaurs. Perhaps think of yourself, too. The nonfiction digital book Live Pterosaurs in Australia and in Papua New Guinea is now available FOR FREE, no strings attached, to let the world know about these astonishing nocturnal flying creatures.

This short book says little about the Bible, so why is it promoted on The Bible and Modern Pterosaurs? Here is what it says:

Expeditions and Bible-Believers

Who could organize any expedition to search for living pterosaurs? Only an official discovery could awaken Western scientists so they could search for extant pterosaurs, but discovery normally comes after searching, not before. Looking back at this problem, from the time of Darwin until 1990 it appears to have been an almost hopeless atmosphere for a discovery. But a solution eventually appeared . . . from an unexpected source.

It was only a partial solution, to be sure: only cryptozoological. But in the 1990’s a few American Biblical creationists began intermittent light expeditions in Papua New Guinea, investigating reports of possible living pterosaurs. This led to more expeditions, from 2002 to 2007, by cryptozoologists who were better prepared and who had more success with interviews and observations.

But why Biblical creationists? For the moment, lay aside any judgment of any concept of earth-age; look only at the recent history of expeditions in Papua New Guinea. Who would be more likely to search for living pterosaurs, those who believed in a major extinction event 65 million years ago or those who believed in many pterosaurs living 6,000 years ago? How much easier to organize an expedition when the organizers are convinced of the recent existence of what is being sought!

Before considering what those Biblical creationists discovered, we need to go back into history a bit more. How deeply extinction ideas had been ingrained into Western culture!

The above does not directly relate to evidence that the Bible is true; these few paragraphs only briefly explain why Biblical creationists became involved. Yet the book as a whole does suggest that the world should listen to what these few American explorers, Christian men, discovered for themselves, even though their first discoveries were limited to within the realm of cryptozoology.

Consider the following excerpts.

Preface (second paragraph)

I believe in living pterosaurs and hope they will soon be officially discovered. More important, I believe in you, that you can soar above dogmatic assumptions about extinctions. I hope that you already understand that we are more than a by-product of culture: Our existence transcends the boundaries of the human cultural assumptions that have shaped our beliefs.

What is a Pterosaur (from the Introduction)

We must begin with the basics: What is a pterosaur? It’s not really a type of dinosaur, although it’s associated with them. The flying creature is called “pterodactyl” by many non-scientists; some Americans call those featherless fliers “dinosaur birds” or “prehistoric birds.”

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Now consider excerpts from a much larger book, in print format.

Searching for Ropens and Finding God (third edition)

We live in a world in which modern Westerners, at least many respectable or respected ones, have believed all magical dragons to be only legendary and all pterosaurs to be extinct and even more ancient; also in this world, many natives, whom we had assumed more primitive or less gifted than us, have believed all dragons to be real and either magical or spiritually gifted. In some areas, they believe dragons to be both ancient and modern. What if all of us have been only partially correct? What if flying dragons are not so much ancient as modern, not so much magical as physically gifted, not so much legendary as real? [From Introduction]

The existence of life I credited to God, from childhood choosing to respect the Bible as nonfiction. When I was ten, my father, psychologist for the San Bernardino School District in California, showed me the largest collection of bird eggs in the Western United States, in the museum in our own little town of Bloomington. The variety of eggs and birds, all dead, fascinated me. Then I read the labels. Non-birds becoming birds discomforted me, for each type of life appeared to have a role in its own basic form. [first page of the first chapter]

Jim Blume, a missionary in Papua New Guinea for thirty years, had interviewed about seventy nationals (we call them “natives”) who had seen the creatures in many coastal areas, and the eyewitnesses gave similar descriptions. I obtained an audio recording of Blume himself being interviewed: astonishing details from Garth Guessman questioning him by telephone. Within a year, Garth would become an associate of mine and a treasured friend.

The wingspan is said to be twenty feet, on the mainland and on some islands, according to natives who spoke with Blume, but only three to four feet around Manus Island. They have “hands” about halfway up their bat-like wings and tails having flanges that are “almost eel-like.” The bill is somewhat like a pelican’s, and a comb-like structure on the head has been described like a rooster’s comb, “only stiffer.” Flying at night, it glows. [from second chapter]

Apparently, those estimating how much gasoline we would need to take were unaware of the significant difference between nine passengers and the usual three to five. I was ten pounds lighter than I was two weeks earlier, and my luggage was only half as heavy, for I left many things in Gomlongon (or ate them), but it was insufficient: The boat was still low in the water, which took more fuel.

We were only a few hundred meters from the shore of Umboi Island, so what was the problem? I thought we could get to land somehow and hike through the jungle up to the main trail that leads to Lab Lab. The natives knew better.

For one thing, this coast is a mangrove swamp. Should we abandon the boat, it would be a horrible trek to trudge through the muck, inching toward the main road—a poor option. Soon, we would be in the swamp but for a different reason. [from Chapter 14]

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Live Pterosaurs in Australia E-Book

This digital book is now ready for you to easily download FREE, to promote worldwide public awareness of modern living pterosaurs. You are free to download and read the book, with no obligations, but consider telling a friend about this free book, at least one or two friends and relatives, so that others may know the wonderful truth about modern living pterosaurs.

Modern Pterosaurs and Suicide Prevention

Like many others, I was sad to learn of the passing of Robin Williams. Yet I suggest we each now focus on someone, among the billions of persons now living, who can benefit from something we can do or say positively. My own part may seem especially weak and indirect to some skeptics, perhaps, but I’ll be satisfied if only one person will benefit.

Evidence for Pterosaurs and Honesty

I’ll answer your last question first, but I feel it needs to be taken in context: There is no physical evidence for the universal extinction of all pterosaurs. In addition, there is no eyewitness evidence for their complete extinction. In other words, there is NO EVIDENCE, of any kind, that all species of pterosaurs became extinct.

August 12, 2014

Modern Pterosaurs and Suicide Prevention

The complexities of depression and human despair—those should not be taken lightly, nor shoved aside with a simplistic poem or cute phrase of advice. And the best response to suicide is not to grab onto an impulsive and severe judgment of those who have chosen to throw away their lives. With all the lonely suffering in this world, however, we can each find some way to bring something positive into the life of another person, however small our lone attempt may appear on the surface, in this big world of ours.

Like many others, I was sad to learn of the passing of Robin Williams. Yet I suggest we each now focus on someone, among the billions of persons now living, who can benefit from something we can do or say positively. My own part may seem especially weak and indirect to some skeptics, perhaps, but I’ll be satisfied if only one person will benefit.

Living pterosaurs—what a discovery! Not in a biology textbook do we now see them but in the words of eyewitnesses of different races, religions, and languages. How many millions of years ago were they all supposed to have gone extinct? Look to the future, not to an imaginary past, for those flying creatures can be seen by almost anyone, almost anywhere on this big wonderful planet that we share with them. With few exceptions, they live in the shadows of nocturnal flight, with only the reported sightings being rare, not the nightly sorties of featherless wonders. They fly overhead every night.

Consider now what is written about suicide, and also about hope, in the book Searching for Ropens and Finding God:

After reading this book, if one person finds a reason to live and abandons thoughts of suicide, what a reward for all of us involved! This is not a textbook for preventing suicide, yet I suggest each of us can find ways to bring meaning into the lives of persons around us, motivating all of us to keep living and learning. [second paragraph of the introduction]

I remember an earlier shock from suicide. My sister Cindy came home from junior high upset about what happened with the science teacher. I tried to imagine what tragedy could have lead to such despair. He had appeared full of life. . . .

I would not mention any of that here, except to emphasize what we all need. It was far more than adventure, the hope that my associates and I shared, a hope that carried us to a remote tropical island to search for a living creature that almost all scientists had set aside as if dead for millions of years. How dearly we all need the mother of that little hope: a sense of a worthy purpose to live!

What did I hope to accomplish? What was that little hope that I shared with a few other Americans who were about to explore a remote tropical island? How dearly we need good news! The discovery of a living pterosaur—wonderful news to a zoologist—could spark somebody to abandon despair and grasp the hand of hope, to be sure. How worthy a purpose, even if only one human life is saved!

If anyone might be lifted out of some degree of depression, even if only with a little lifting, I would be willing to send that person a free copy of my book, as long as I have the ability to do so (my finances have been stretched, with very few sales of late). Please contact me.

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May 21, 2014November 14, 2014

Religion and Science in the new Ropen Book

Four copies (front and back covers) of nonfiction cryptozoology science/religion - "Searching for Ropens and Finding God"

How much religion and science are found in the nonfiction Searching for Ropens and Finding God? It depends on what you’re looking for. If it’s quantities of Biblical quotes or complex scientific concepts that prove the Bible is true, this nonfiction would compete poorly with at least two books available on Amazon. But for true-life adventures of Christian explorers who live their faith by getting actively involved, Searching for Ropens and Finding God may be a step above any other book in the religion/science-and-religion genre.

Noah’s Flood

If you look for references to the Flood of Genesis, notice fourteen pages listed in the index. Yet no detailed analysis of geologic strata will you find in this book. The Biblical account is taken as a foundation:

The model of Noah’s Flood suggests that some of them survived into the time of Noah’s descendants, and whatever conditions threatened some species, within several thousand years, some dinosaurs and pterosaurs should have survived. [page 16]

Fiery Flying Serpents in the Old Testament

Look up “fiery flying serpent” in the index and notice four pages on that Biblical animal. Yet no detailed analysis of Hebrew word-meanings will you find. The modern-winged-creature interpretation is explained in simple English:

My associates and I believe that the fiery flying serpent of the Old Testament was a “basal” pterosaur, perhaps related to the long-tailed ropen of Papua New Guinea. We believe they called it “fiery” because of its glow, which we attribute to bioluminescence. “Flying” is literal, with wings. [page 44]

Evolution

Why not look up “evolution” in the index? Seventeen entries you’ll find, but without any obscure scientific words or baffling concepts, mostly just the basics:

Is this a tool for promoting Biblical Creation and ridiculing evolution? Clear thinking we need, without fear, allowing us to discover both truth and error in whatever camp we find ourselves, entrenched or visiting, at the moment. I suggest we beware of simplistic labels. That said, expect explanations for why my associates and I have rejected extreme naturalism philosophy and Darwin’s unlimited common ancestry philosophy, what some call the General Theory of Evolution. [third paragraph of the Introduction, on page 7]

In my childhood, nobody insisted to me that small simple life must have changed into large complex life long ago. I had read of ideas contrary to the General Theory of Evolution by my mid-teens, after our family had moved to Pasadena, California. But I was brought up to believe or disbelieve what I chose. My own feelings, perspective, and belief in God raised my doubts about Darwin. [page 13]

(3rd edition shown above) Searching for Ropens and Finding God – Buy ropen book on Amazon

Science, Mathematics, and Common Ancestry (Unlimited Evolution)

Not all references to scientific investigation are that simple, yet basic explanations of results—that is what you’ll find in this book:

Late in 2002, I began working on what I called an “Evolutionary Boundary.” I wanted to force one step in the evolution of a new biological structure. That would demonstrate how unlikely it would be for all life on this planet to have arisen through evolving from simple organisms in countless steps. It surprised me when my mathematical models failed to produce such a step, even after half a year of work. It proved to me that Darwin’s ideas about the origin of life were even more unrealistic than I had thought.

Conclusions

For those who are offended at ideas contradicting popular standard models in Western science, avoid this book if you don’t want to be offended. For those who want only details that support all Young Earth Creationism ideas, you can be inspired by the faith promoting expeditions of Young Earth Creationists, although only a limited number of the 353 pages directly support a very young earth, and none of them support a young universe.

For those who simply want to know what can fly over our heads at night—you should find this book inspiring, entertaining, and instructive.

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The most recent edition, number four: Searching for Ropens and Finding God by Whitcomb

The Fiery Flying Serpent

If the Israelites had been attacked by an animal well known to us, with a clear label, we would feel no need for oblique interpretations. And if we were always humble enough to admit that our modern science might not include knowledge of every dangerous animal encountered by ancient Israelites, we would feel no need for continuous obliqueness.

“Pterosaurs Alive in, Like, the Modern Day”

I’ve written elsewhere about this paleontologist, about his extensive criticism of the concept of modern living pterosaurs (“Pterosaurs alive in, like, the modern day”). His lengthy writings, on that one page, about questionable reports—they ring like strawman arguments to me, for the credible accounts are entirely neglected by Darren Naish.

Recent Pterosaur Sightings

The wingspan was around 30 feet, according to the sailor. The ship was doing target practice at an island in the Pacific. It looked like their ship was found by a Japanese plane, but the men came to realize that it was a flying creature, after it flapped its wings.

September 19, 2013November 3, 2014

New Pterosaur Book on Ropens

front cover of the fourth edition of this nonfiction book

I hope that the third edition of my first book will be finished next month. [It was published in April of 2014, but the fourth edition was published October 31, 2014.] The revised title is Searching for Ropens and Finding God. Those last two words should solve a problem that came up with the first edition, when a few vocal readers railed against it because they were offended by any promotion of religious values; they wanted a book only about cryptozoology.

Much of this third edition with relate to cryptozoology, although the book is not quite in that genre. It’s also not a book about religion, although the values and beliefs of Christian explorers is explained. Is it a true-life adventure? Almost. It’s more like all of the above: cross-genre.

Here is part of the introduction, although it is subject to more editing and revising:

Introduction

Expect answers in this book: why my associates and I traveled to a remote tropical island to search for living pterosaurs and why so few professors have given us any hope that they still live. What about adventures, with danger, failure, and success? Yes, expect those, but I hope that readers will discover more than adventure—a purpose in life—as worthy a purpose as I have found, even if without “flying dinosaurs.” This is not an instruction manual for finding God, yet I suggest that the spiritual quest gives the highest reward.

After reading this book, if one person finds a reason to live and abandons thoughts of suicide, what a reward for all of us involved! This is not a textbook for preventing suicide, yet I suggest each of us can find ways to bring meaning into the lives of persons around us, motivating all of us to keep living and learning.

Is this a tool for promoting Biblical Creation and ridiculing evolution? Clear thinking we need, without fear, allowing us to discover both truth and error in whatever camp we find ourselves, entrenched or visiting, at the moment. I suggest we beware of simplistic labels. That said, expect explanations for why my associates and I have rejected extreme naturalism philosophy and Darwin’s unlimited common ancestry, what some call the General Theory of Evolution.

This is not propaganda for any human philosophy, yet I extoll the accomplishments of those Young Earth Creationists who have been my associates for many years. I suggest we allow ourselves to find literal truth in the Bible, regardless of whatever passages are mainly symbolic. For those who think that pill too bitter, at least avoid ridiculing those labeled “creationist.”

Some of you have read the first or second edition of Searching for Ropens, so the first paragraph of the first chapter, quoted below, will be no surprise. Additional paragraphs have been added, however, to better explain how event in my childhood may have related to the extraordinary opportunities that I received, and grabbed onto, in my older years:

Chapter One: Awakenings

It looked like a dead pterodactyl, not fossil bones but with skin, like it had died recently. Could those creatures, non-extinct, still fly? Although I never verified the authenticity of the photograph in the soon-forgotten book, the idea behind that image would be awakened four decades later, to plunge me into the most dramatic adventure of my life: exploring a remote tropical island, searching for giant living pterosaurs.

My first exposure to a remote tropical island with a giant reptile—when my younger sister Cindy and I were infants—came from Mommy reading Peter Pan. When I was four, the new sister was born, not to the name chosen by Cindy and me, “Captain Hook,” but to a name chosen by compromising parents: “Wendy.”

I came to regard the Peter Pan story a practical fiction, useful in more than just providing names for new babies. Each character had a role; the crocodile, however, at first puzzled me. In time, it resolved into both good and bad: useful to Peter Pan as true enemy to Hook but dangerous when out of place. Perhaps that was the seed of my understanding that a general principal can be complex, both true and false, useful sometimes but false when out of place, even dangerous.

The existence of life I credited to God, from childhood respecting the Bible as nonfiction. When I was ten, my father, psychologist for the San Bernardino School District in California, showed me the largest collection of bird eggs in the Western United States, in the museum in our own little town of Bloomington. The variety of eggs and birds, all dead, fascinated me; but non-birds becoming birds discomforted me, for each form of life appeared to have a role in its own basic form.

New nonfiction book, fourth edition: Searching for Ropens and Finding God

Mount Bel, northeast of Gomlongon Village on Umboi Island (image by J. Whitcomb)

Cryptozoology Book

Third edition of Live Pterosaurs in America, by Jonathan David Whitcomb

May 4, 2013May 20, 2014

Revising a Cryptozoology Book

I’m revising my first book, Searching for Ropens, and expect it will be published before Christmas. [Actually, it was published April 18, 2014, after major additions and editing.] The third edition will differ from the second in two significant ways:

It will have new pterosaur sighting reports and insights, and more about the explorers themselves, including Garth Guessman, David Woetzel, and Paul Nation (and, of course, me: Jonathan Whitcomb). It will also have more details about other expeditions: Destination Truth and the Monsterquest-episode expedition with Guessman.
The genre will still be a mixture of spiritual-religious and cryptozoology-adventure, in that order, but this will be made clear in the promotions; I have no desire to offend any cryptozoologist who would dislike reading about religious beliefs.

The title will also be revised: Searching for Ropens and Finding God.

Anything I would quote from the new edition may be revised before publication, so I now quote from the second edition:

Acknowledgements (previous edition)

A key to successfully exploring a sparsely populated wilderness is, ironically, people-skills. My father and mother inspired others, lifting self-esteem; following their examples, I’ve tried inspiring others, though I’ve usually been the one encouraged or inspired. In particular, the pioneering investigations of Jim Blume, Carl Baugh, and Paul Nation illuminated the path for my own investigation in Papua New Guinea; the 2004 follow-through of Garth Guessman, David Woetzel, and Jacob Kepas filled in the gaps of previous expeditions, amplifying and supplementing the successes of those of us preceding them; the generosity of Alex Aguila made possible the 2006 expedition of Paul Nation, whose exploring of a remote area verified the location of many of the creatures (and he brought back the first visual images to the United States; the veracity of the images and testimonies were proven through the work of two physicists: Clifford Paiva and Harold Slusher); the eyewitness testimonies of natives, Australians, and an American veteran, contributed priceless evidence; the love of my wife and three daughters strengthened me to leave the comforts of home; the prayers of family, friends, and other Americans were answered when I found Luke Kenda, who became my interpreter, bodyguard, and counselor. By the grace of the Father of us all, Luke and I were welcomed like brothers by those we met on Umboi Island, and by accepting the friendship of humble Christians in remote villages, we were sheltered, fed, and led to those who made this book possible: the eyewitnesses. Thank you; tenku tru.

Lake Pung, Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea (where seven native boys had seen the giant ropen around 1994) – photo courtesy of Garth Guessman, one of those on the second expedition of 2004

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Pterosaur Extinction (or not)

In Searching for Ropens, I wrote, “Since no researcher in Europe [when fossils were first being discovered] had any knowledge of living creatures similar to the fossils, it was assumed that they were all extinct. The key word is ‘assumed.’. . if only 1% of the population of Western Europe, in the late 18th Century, had . . . [seen] living pterosaurs, the universal-pterosaur-extinction notion would never have gotten started.”

Cryptozoology Book

Eskin Kuhn was a U.S. Marine, in 1971, when he witnessed two large pterosaurs flying over the navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He has maintained his testimony for decades: He saw, in clear daylight, two featherless long-tailed flying creatures with very prominent head crests.

Civil War Soldiers and a Monster Photo

To begin, I do not present Photo #1 as overwhelming evidence for the existence of a huge modern living pterosaur that has a head suggesting a Pteranodon; I interview eyewitnesses, and some of them report sighting details that have convinced me that huge pterosaurs (rare and nocturnal as they may be) live in this modern world of ours.