Look Overhead, not Underfoot

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On page 191 of the fourth edition of Searching for Ropens and Finding God I wrote:

You cannot see what’s overhead when you focus on what’s underfoot, and you cannot perceive what you believe cannot be seen. C. S. Lewis was aware it’s not “seeing is believing:” Believing allows us to see.

“Extinction” – Really?

A skeptic may look down on those of us who publicize reports of apparent modern pterosaurs, yet where is the explanation for universal extinction of all species of those flying creatures? Consider the following, quoting from three nonfiction books on these extraordinary flying creatures:

From the Book Live Pterosaurs in America, third edition

My experience interviewing natives [in Papua New Guinea] and reviewing interviews done by other explorers—that suggests it’s easier to catch a giant ropen in a fishing net than to find a native eyewitness who disbelieves personal experience because of what American professors assume. Eyewitnesses in a culture that dogmatically teaches pterosaur extinction—they sometimes have problems dealing with an experience that they feel should not have been experienced; native eyewitnesses in New Guinea have no problem. [from page 95 of the book]

From Live Pterosaurs in Australia and in Papua New Guinea

The first discovery of a pterosaur fossil by a Western scientist, in 1784, was decades before Charles Darwin began writing about his ideas on extinctions and evolution. Before Darwin, Western scientists had assumed that all species of pterosaurs were extinct for a simple reason: Those who discovered the fossils had no experience with any similar animal that was living.

Also important, probably no scientist at that time had considered that a few species of pterosaurs might still be alive, rarely seen because they’re both uncommon and nocturnal. Today, some cryptozoologists believe that one or more of their species are indeed uncommon and nocturnal—and still alive.

From Searching for Ropens and Finding God, fourth edition (Chapter 23)

The paleontologists are rare who take notice of my associates and me, at least through mid-2014. When one has commented on what we declare about modern pterosaurs, it’s usually with a word like “extinction” but in a difference sense: the demise of all species of pterosaurs. Am I slicing quarks? I know of nobody who denies that many pterosaurs may have lived without leaving any fossil. Beware of the fog around two meanings of a word. Even if all species of pterosaurs known from fossils had become extinct long ago, we live in the real world of the present, a world in which people report encountering living pterosaurs.

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Why do I often use the phrase “apparent modern pterosaurs?” Since I firmly believe that some species of these flying creatures are still living, why do I use the word apparent? Take any particular sighting as an example: We probably cannot come to any certain conclusion if that one encounter was with a modern pterosaur. But the overall reports worldwide, over years, over decades, and over generations—they prove the case, for it is practically impossible for all of those countless sightings to have come from non-pterosaurs, when so many descriptions so clearly point to pterosaurs.

Consider sighting reports of a rare bird that may become extinct. One reported encounter alone, in a particular location, is not proof that the species is living there. But a number of reports can make it obvious.

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Perosaur Sketch by Eskin Kuhn
Kuhn saw two pterosaurs in Cuba, in 1971

Sketch drawn by eyewitness Eskin Kuhn

Extraordinary Declarations Demand Extraordinary Evidence

Why should any paleontologist insist that all species of pterosaurs must have become extinct many millions of years ago? That’s an extraordinary assumption, an extreme position that demands explaining. Remember, this is not about one or two or fifteen species or varieties of pterosaurs but ALL of them that ever existed.

How many species of them have lived on this earth? It’s impossible to say, but the experts believe that most of them left no fossil evidence for their existence. Taking that point of view, how can anybody point to fossils as if they are evidence for universal extinction?

Is Pterosaur Extinction for Real?

I have estimated that millions of eyewitnesses, worldwide, have seen a modern living pterosaur, perhaps as many as 128 million persons. How can I make such an extraordinary statement? From the number of eyewitnesses who have contacted me, over the past eleven years, from around the world. Only a tiny fraction of the world’s population has the knowledge, desire, and ability to communicate with me about the flying creatures that they have encountered in their lifetimes. Consider some of the reasons so few of them have contacted me:

  1. Natives of Africa, Papua New Guinea, and elsewhere have no internet access
  2. Where pterosaurs are more common—that’s where people don’t talk much about them
  3. Eyewitnesses who have a computer—they have other things to talk about
  4. Most eyewitnesses do not know English
  5. Most of them do not know a few Americans are looking for pterosaurs
  6. Few eyewitnesses can afford to communicate by email

Please be aware: When I say that few eyewitnesses have contacted me, I mean compared with all of the probable eyewitnesses worldwide. I continue to get emails from those who have encountered these flying creatures, and the great majority of them hold up under my credibility examinations. So how do fossil experts reply?

One prominent paleontologist explained, during an interview, that the reason pterosaurs are extinct is that people would have seen them, if they still existed. Unfortunately, that paleontologist seems to have neglected to question any of the cryptozoologists involved. He seems to have assumed their investigations are somehow invalid or of little or no consequence. He has mentioned misidentifications to explain native testimonies, yet he has kept quiet about critical non-native testimonies of giant flying creatures that could not have been birds or bats. He says nothing about Duane Hodgkinson or Brian Hennessy or the couple in Perth, Australia.

Conclusion

Look overhead, rather than underfoot, for these worldwide sightings of modern pterosaurs refute the old universal-extinction proclamations. Take a break from swimming in your imagination, Mr. paleontologist, and open your eyes to the real world of the present, where people see these extraordinary flying creatures.

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Searching for Ropens and Finding God, fourth edition (2014)

pre-publication version of the front cover of this nonfiction book

Nonfiction paperback on modern pterosaurs worldwide

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. [From the title page of the book]

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