[.ca] Searching for Ropens - Living Pterosaurs in Papua New Guinea (ISBN 1595940049)

defies categorization:
Author's Introduction (Jonathan Whitcomb) "Searching for Ropens" is captivating to some readers, this non-fiction about investigations and expeditions for living pterosaurs. It defies categorization. According to the introduction, it's a true-life adventure, a religious commentary, an expose of a "Western superstition," and a scientific inquiry. For the most part, it blends these aspects well but it relies on the appendix (extensively), explaining the origins of the "Western" belief in ancient extinctions of all pterosaurs and filling in details on both scientific and religious philosophies. (But it's easy, pleasant reading even in the appendix, considering it's an appendix.) I'm a Creationist but the book was not created from a mold: It blasts the General Theory of Evolution not with a sermon but with a merciless scientific examination. It questions the popular Creationist axiom of a 6000-year-old earth not with a scientific examination but with Bible scriptures and reasoning. (I lean towards a young earth more than a 5-billion-year-old earth.) Beware: It's possible for some people to be offended, if they have adopted the philosophy of Darwin as their own philosophy. This book uses scientific reasoning to expose weaknesses in universal common ancestry, also known as the General Theory of Evolution. (Not to be confused with other forms of evolution which creationists accept as real.) It exposes the weakness of the idea that researchers believing in the General Theory of Evolution are more objective than researchers who believe in traditional interpretations of the Bible. It supports believe in the Bible as a proper foundation for a person's decisions and beliefs. With all the spiritual messages woven into it, the book still has, in the first half, more of a true-life-adventure feel. Although I did not mention it in the book, this investigation of the possibility of living pterosaurs in Papua New Guinea (and elsewhere) seems to be one of three things: one of the most complex, far-reaching hoaxes in history, or one of the most perplexing series of coincidences in history, or one of the most extraordinary scientific break-throughs in history. (Personally, I know that this is no hoax, and I believe in the third choice.) There is not much middle ground in this quest for living pterosaurs.