Aw, Bigfoot died, boo hoo for the believers (1 Viewer)

[Alex Prosak]

A college buddy of mine who is now a teacher nearly got fired for a Snowman prank he pulled two years ago. He teaches in a remote eskimo village in Alaska. They are very superstitious people and apparently they have a myth about a Snowman that used to roam the tundra and had been know to eat small children.

Well, there's not much to do in a small village so one night he and another teacher tossed back a few beers and made a couple of Snowman footprints. They took a walk with the fake feet and the next week they took the kids out on a "fieldtrip" and "discovered the footprints".

It caused quite an uproar in the village and surround villages as well. Parents began walking their kids everywhere and would not lot them go out at night. My friend didn't think it would have near the reaction it did so he fessed up. Nearly got canned had to give an apology to the tribal elders and community council.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Actually, women are still reporting sexual attacks by strange beings. Only these days they're called 'aliens' or 'greys'.

And so are men, although they often couch the sexual aspect in terms of medical "probes". That's the point. It is the same (possibly psychological or physiological) phenomemnon, but the imagery and the explanation conform to the norms of the contemporary society. Just as the detailed descriptions of the mystery "airships" spotted during the Victorian era do not feature glowing balls or saucers, but mechanical "airships" with visible seams, rivets and gears, sometimes with ship-style propellors. If you've ever seen the Vincent Price film Master of the World you've seen a pretty good depiction of the "UFOs" from the period. Now, did the aliens radically alter their ship designs in a mere 150 years (seems unlikely given a mature technology) or were our forebearers projecting the familiar onto an unfamiliar and ill-seen object in the sky? And what does that tell us about today's UFO observers.
Regards,
Joe

 

[RichardMA]

The capacity for humans to extrapolate the extroidinary
from the ordinary is momumental. Giant squids become
huge, ship-eating sea monsters, gorillas were considered
by the Romans to be a new species of man.
When you find the actual skeleton and date it to the last
20 years, then maybe there will be a "bigfoot" or another
piltdown man.

 

[Grant B]

The thing about these storys, they are impossible to dismiss totally. No matter how many times they scour Loch Ness, you can always say they just didn't do a good job and missed it.
I try to keep and open mind on most things. Sure there are always jokers that fake a picture for a laugh, but generally there are sincere believers in most myths and who am I to say they are wrong.
I forget (Cooper maybe) which astronaut believes in UFOs; saw a formation of them while flying a jet over Germany.Who am I to say this guy is nuts? 95% (maybe 99%) of reports photos etc can be explained but what about those that cant?
Many years ago while driving in rural Wisconsin a light came out of nowhere and scared the hell out of me....almost out of Close encounters. I like to think it was something from the defense department but there are details that make me wonder.
I think when the news in the newspapers turn really depressing, people tend to focus on Bigfoot storys as a relief from reality....and considering other things people take refuge in, its pretty harmless

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

No matter how many times they scour Loch Ness, you can always say they just didn't do a good job and missed it.

We didn't find it, so it must exist? You can only say that they didn't do a good enough job to find it if you have a desparate need to believe that it exists. Otherwise you say, "Guess it ain't there." Same thing as the people who are still investigating the "mystery" of the crop circles. Since the original circle makers (and many of their imitators) have unmasked themselves and shown how the things are made the circle buffs are now claiming that there are genuine circles and hoaxed circles, and that they can tell the two apart by arcane methods of their own. They're so invested in the idea that they can't back down and admit that they were fooled. (Like the scientists who continued to defend Piltdown man long after they should have given up.) So they continue to investigate "sites" that were created by some other group of hoaxsters.
Regards,
Joe

 

[Edwin-S]

I have had people call in to ask about things in the sky. In the past year or two, a flight of five helicopters flew in from the east. Someone called on the phone and asked what the "UFO's" were. I told the guy that they were helicopters. His response? "I knew you'd say something like that!", and then he hung up.
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For some odd reason I find this really humorous.

 

[Max Leung]

Y'know, I experienced sleep paralysis, and not once did I think I was visited by alien beings. And, luckily for me, I lacked the imagination to get anally probed or some such nonsense.

It definitely was really strange, and I thought I had gone psychotic or something. But, a couple of years later (and a few episodes during times of extreme stress), I did some research on the subject, and found a way to duplicate the experience 100%.

I could have easily fooled myself, yet somehow, my gut instinct told me it was all in my head.

In this current environment of fear, I am worried that seemingly harmless irrational beliefs will get out of hand and cause even more real harm, beyond typical monetary fraud. Hell, it's already happened in Africa, where a band of armed rebels will send in a woman who walks backwards looking into a mirror in the mistaken belief that their enemies will not be able to see her, so that she can plant a grenade behind their lines.

It will get worse.

 

[Julie K]

People roam widely over the wilderness every fall looking for hairy critters. If there were a bigfoot, someone would have checked him in at a deer station by now.

That's all it will take for science to take such claims seriously. People who point to giant squid or coelocanths and say "See! They were only recently discovered!" miss a crucial point. We have giant squid and coelocanth bodies.

Photographs can be faked and individual sightings are not evidence. People can be easily fooled, whether by an accomplished hoaxer or by their own minds. So, believers, take up the challenge. Produce a real live (or dead) bigfoot, alien, lake monster, troll, or leprechaun. Otherwise, don't expect science to take you seriously.

 

[BertFalasco]

Don't be skeptical about aliens... If only I could share what I have heard.

 

[GeorgeTW]

"People who point to giant squid or coelocanths and say "See! They were only recently discovered!" miss a crucial point. We have giant squid and coelocanth bodies."

We have bigfoot bodies too. Archeaoligists have evidence of multiple sub-species existing before the age of homosapiens.
They even know that these large hominids were wiped out of existance by competition. I am not talking about the giants mentioned by the Bible. I am referring to a number of sub-human giants whos fossilzed skeletons show brutal living conditions, and fatal wounds some scientists claim supports proof that wherever giants existed, they were the 'red headed step child' that didn't make it though natural selection.

or did they?

 

[Jordan_E]

All I know is that this has started another bigfoot thread and I'm loving it! You see, I'm a screenwriter and have always gathered all of these sort of stories over the years and they have paid off in an endevour I am unable to reveal at the moment, but I want to thank everyone who has ever seen a UFO, bigfoot, lake creature, alien, ghost, or has been possessed!

 

[Philip_G]

People roam widely over the wilderness every fall looking for hairy critters. If there were a bigfoot, someone would have checked him in at a deer station by now.

exactly. Man, it's not bigfoot that scares me, you meet some weird mo'fos in the back country

 

[Jack Briggs]

That was way out of bounds, Grant.

Now, go back to Julie's post, as she makes a serious point: Where's the evidence? Until such is presented, there's no reason to take bigfoot reports seriously. And this seems all the more maddening in light of the hoax having been exposed.

As for making cryptic claims about not being able to "share" evidence that would support the existence of UFOs, same thing. Positing a "cloak" of "government secrecy" is so convenient when it comes to talking about flying saucers.

What is wrong with wanting to be offered evidence before reaching a conclusion that something of this nature exists or merits "belief"? (I love how all these things—crop circles, flying saucers, alien abductions, sea monsters, Yetis, etc.—involve "belief" instead of evidence.)

 

[Jack Briggs]

Oh, and Buzz: That's a nice Xmas present! Also suggest Skeptical Inquirer, which I'm sure you read as well.

 

[Evan Case]

Don't be skeptical about Peter Hyams' directorial ability... If only I could share what I have heard.

Evan

 

[Julie K]

Don't be skeptical about aliens... If only I could share what I have heard.

Oh, that would go over so well when submitting a paper to a scientific journal "Don't be skeptical about this violation of general relativity... If only I could share what I have heard." Hearsay is not evidence.

It deserves saying again: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.

 

[Michael Pineo]

I've also got "Why People believe Strange Things" and "Why We Believe", by Michael Shermer and "The Dragons of Eden" and "Demon Haunted World", by Carl Sagan on the list.

Buzz -

I haven't read the other 2 yet, but "Why People Believe Weird Things" is an excellent book. I recommend it to everyone, no matter what side of the fence you fall on.

Mikep

 

[Greg_Y]

I can't believe none of you believe in 'Sassafras' when there is video evidence of him playing drums with Tenacious D.
Scientists have proven that the Sasquatch is real.
Take a look at the plaster cast of his foot,
now you know he's real.
Listen real close to the audio tape,
not human, now you know he's real.
Couldn't be a man in gorilla suit,
no f'n way, now you know he's real.
I'll spare everyone the rest.

 

[Peter McDonald]

I actually shot and killed a bigfoot a few years back. It's hanging on my living room wall. Unfortunately, I can't show it to anyone because of the curse the witch put on me.

 

[Seth Paxton]

scouring the Mediterranian looking for Pandora's box, either.

Yes, well I did. Graduate thesis. Amazingly I found what I'm pretty sure is it. There is only one problem, for absolute proof I need to open it and examine the inside.
To be quite honest I haven't been willing to do that at this point. I couldn't take the guilt of letting anything else loose on the world, even if it meant getting an "A".