Searching for Ropens and Finding God
Press Release
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Title Page of the book:
This flies high above a common true-life adventure, revealing the early stages of what may become the most unsettling scientific discovery since Copernicus and Galileo. 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. A few Americans explored a few islands in the southwest Pacific, in brief expeditions scattered between 1993 and 2007, looking for a modern pterosaur. “Creationist” each man was labeled, yet many of those following them carried no religious purpose. The creatures have many names: seklo-bali, duwas, wawanar, indava, kor, kundua. In Papua New Guinea, natives in isolated communities speak in village languages numbering in the hundreds, yet many natives carry a common fear in the dark: a huge glowing creature flying in the night. Natives on Umboi Island call it “ropen.” Three  American  Christians—one middle-aged  LDS-Mormon  high priest  and two younger Protestant Young Earth Creationists—explored parts of Umboi Island in two separate expedi- tions in 2004, interviewing native eyewitnesses of the elusive ropen. They returned home even more convinced that long-tailed pterosaurs live, even thrive, in Papua New Guinea. This resulted in the publication of several books, two scientific papers in a peer-reviewed journal, and over a thousand blog posts, written mostly by those who trudged the jungle trails of Umboi themselves and spoke with the eyewitnesses face to face. Those two expeditions in 2004 also cleared the path for other searches in Papua New Guinea and elsewhere, including expeditions led by those with no religious purpose in searching for ropens. Why has the official scientific discovery been so long delayed? The causes are multiple and inter- related, but one obstacle has been resolved. Speculation that religious bias of investigators has played a big part in sighting reports of apparent pterosaurs—that conjecture has been shot down. Jonathan David Whitcomb
Paperback 6x9 inches 360 pages $17.50 SRP Pub: Oct 31, 2014 ISBN: 1502865521 EAN13 aka ISBN-13: 978-1502865526 Religion / Religion     & Science cross genre: true-life adventure human interest cryptozoology
Table of Contents: Acknowledgements Introduction Dedication 1: Awakenings 2: Eyewitnesses     on Video 3: A Sighting in    World War II 4: Sightings in     Australia 5: Following Strange     Lights 6: Early Challenges 7: To Papua New     Guinea 8: To Umboi Island 9: To Opai and     Gomlongon 10: Two Nights on       a Hilltop (plus 14 more chapters and an extensive appendix and large index)
Purposes of the book:
From the author, Jonathan David Whitcomb This is not a quest to save religion in a losing battle against science. It was written more to save real science from the pseudo-religious malignancy labeled “science” that shows itself in various symptoms, including reciting an ancient extinction date as if it repudiates human experience. Put simply, “Trust one eyewitness of a plane crash over the imaginations of a hundred professors who’ve agreed how that kind of plane should fly.” This is not a promotion of one narrow religious perspective. It was written more to promote an objective evaluation of many years of work by my associates and me, a fair look at the interviews and writings of those who have risked their health and even their lives in exploring remote areas in Papua New Guinea. The eyewitnesses we’ve interviewed have a variety of religious beliefs, a fact unmentioned by skeptics who have ridiculed the reported religious beliefs of explorers. This is not a book to prove a young age of the earth. It was written more to prove that those who hold onto origin beliefs differing from those most loudly trumpeted in Western countries, those often labeled “young earth creationists,” can conduct objective investigations, even valid scientific investigations, of eyewitness reports of sightings of apparent modern pterosaurs. With that said, the worldwide Flood of Noah is offered as a more reasonable explanation for the life of two basic types of modern pterosaurs, when compared with popular standard models. Note one purpose mentioned in the Introduction: “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.” Related to this, it also says, “I hope my readers will discover more than adventure—a purpose in life—as worthy a purpose as I have found. This is not an instruction manual for finding God, yet I suggest that the spiritual quest gives you the highest reward.” Why was this book written? The purposes are multiple and interrelated, but one stands out: Those with differing religious beliefs can work together in finding the truth. How we all need to work in harmony with those who seem, on the surface, to differ! How we need each other!
The official category is “religion: science & religion” but also relevant is cryptozoology, true-life adventure, autobiography, human interest, culture, Bible, Flood of Noah, Genesis, and travel, with only a limited history.
Copyright 2014  Jonathan David Whitcomb
Beginning with the third edition of the non-fiction book, three words were added to the title: “and finding God.”
Nonfiction book by Whitcomb: Searching for Ropens and Finding God
Called “the Bible of modern pterosaurs”
From a reader of the second edition: “I bought this book some time ago ex- pecting nothing but the typical, boring cryptozoology book. However, what I found was that it contains a wealth of INTERESTING infor- mation on a cryptid that until now, I had known relatively little about. Mr Whitcomb's way of storytelling was captivating to say the least. . . . “In this book, you will be presented not only with an entertain- ing "search for a lost animal" story, but you will also come across very specific details... all the way down to the exact silhouette of the creature, its diet, size, etc. . . .” J. Navarro: 5 Stars
From the author: “I did not give 2000+ hours of my time to the four editions of this book to make a hoax. Believe what you will about the meaning of these sighting reports of the ropen, but my associates and I have hiked into remote tropical rain forests in the belief that these flying creatures are indeed modern living pterosaurs.”
360 pages! LARGE 6” by 9”
survey form for head-crest length
She saw a modern pterosaur in Cuba in about 1965, at the Gitmo base
This World War II veteran saw a big ropen in what is now the nation of Papua New Guinea. At the time, Duane Hodgkinson called it a “pterodactyl.” He has been inter- viewed extensively since mid-2004.
He saw one in New Guinea in 1971.
A missile defense physicist analyzed the video of two indava lights: NOT from any hoax.
Revised and enlarged FOURTH EDITION
The author on his expedition
Compare Sordes pilosus to ropen