Living Pterodactyls

What do clear-thinking persons think of a news release about living pterodactyls? A World War II veteran says that he saw a live “pterodactyl” in New Guinea in 1944. Does he mean the pterosaur that is supposed to have become extinct millions of years ago? A real live pterodactyl in 1944 seems to contradict at least some science education programs.

 

If this press release referred to an isolated account, we might dismiss the veteran’s report, but natives on the island of Umboi (in Papua New Guinea) have reported the same thing: the long-tailed bat-like “ropen” eats fish. This is just north of Finschhafen, where the American veteran saw a giant pterodactyl that had a tail “at least ten to fifteen feet long.”

 

The ropen investigator, Jonathan Whitcomb (author of the book Searching for Ropens), is not the only one who believes that pterodactyls live in Papua New Guinea: a missionary has also interviewed natives who say that they have seen this pterosaur-like creature. Two other Americans have also interviewed Umboi Island natives in recent years; in the 1990’s other Americans did the same, and the investigations are ongoing.

 

Another news release gives additional information: This is about creation and evolution. Those who’ve gone to this remote island, “searching for ropens,” are creation-ists (Creation account in Genesis) who believe in using the Bible as the foundation for their beliefs (rather than using the assumption that everything was a big accident). But there’s more: They maintain that objective scientific investigations validate their idea that pterosaurs are still living, and that dogmatic adherence to the General Theory of Evolution is a major hindrance to scientific progress.

 

How can creationists be objective? Did not the trial of Galileo prove that religion is antagonistic to science?  No, the truth is that the causes of the trial of Galileo were more complex. Indeed, he not only believed in God, he believed that scripture, correctly understood, must correspond to the results of carefully conducted experiments. Objective thinking was within the reach of the Christians Galileo and Newton and it is within the reach of modern creationist scientists.

 

Regardless of what people might think about living pterodactyls, regardless of what people might think about creation and evolution, the enthusiasm of these Americans, searching jungles, is noteworthy. And what if they’re right? Wouldn’t living pterodactyls be good news in a world needing good news about life?

Other sites referring to living pterosaurs:

 

“Pterodactyls: Are they still alive?”

Yes! They do live.

 

American sees a giant live pterodactyl

 

Apparent Pterodactyloid on the island

of New Britain in Papua New Guinea

 

Duwas or ropen of Papua New Guinea

 

“What is a ropen?”

 

The treatment of Charles Darwin in

the book Searching for Ropens

 

“Interview Methods of Guessman

and Woetzel” (Umboi Island, 2004)

 

Ropen sighting at Lake Pung,

Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea

 

Living Pterosaur links