Searching for Ropens and Finding God
Press
Release
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