Big Foot Biography
Bigfoot Introduction: The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry is an organization that’s mission is to promote scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and the use of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims. Pseudosciences are beliefs that claim to be science but do not meet the criteria of science. Pseudoscience is not based on scientific literature or on scientific experiments that have been peer-reviewed. It is based on someone saying that they did an experiment and got a certain result and that result not being tested in order to see if it can be duplicated therefore it is not falsifiable. There are many different pseudosciences, astrology, palm reading, and crystal healing are some more commonly known ones. Cryptozoology is one as well all of these can be found on The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry website. (CSI) Cryptozoology is the study of the unknown animal.
The belief in the existence of Bigfoot is cryptozoology. When you google the word bigfoot you will get 8,400,000 hits. (google search). The trash has to be weeded out which can be done by using google scholar’s advance search options and narrow down the field in which bigfoot research and scientific peer-reviewed articles can be found. Most of the reliable links lead back to the skeptical inquirer, which is a publication from The Committee of Skeptical Inquiry. Other resources used to support this paper were found at one of two libraries located in two different counties. All of the other literature at these libraries that were on Bigfoot was found in the fiction section, so was determined to be trash. Bord and Colin Brod’s The Bigfoot Casebook states that Bigfoot sightings date back to the 1830s. Some believers think that Bigfoot lives all over the United States.
Evidence: There are four types of evidence that have been brought forth as Bigfoot evidence. They are eyewitness sightings, footprints, recordings, and somatic samples which simpler put means hair and/or blood samples. It is known that eyewitness testimony is the weakest form of evidence like scientists, lawyers and judges want hard evidence to prove their case. The footprint tracks that have been classified as evidence to support Bigfoot believers have all varied in size, shape, and other factors that have been closely examined. How can there be such a difference and be from the same animal or species? The evidence contradicts itself. Ignoring evidence that conflicts is part of pseudoscience. It is poor quality and most have been proven to be other animals or synthetic fibers. With so many gunshots fired at this creature where is the hard evidence. In Ben Radford’s review of The Field Guide to Bigfoot, Yeti, and Other Mystery Primates Worldwide, written by Loren Coleman and Patrick Huyghe published in 1999 by Avon Books, He points out that the believers who wrote the book cannot explain why claims of Bigfoot being killed presented no bones or bodies as evidence. The book also claims that eyewitnesses even admitted they could have misidentified another animal as Bigfoot. A short film taken in 1967 by Roger Patterson and Bog Gimlin shows the alleged Bigfoot crossing a clearing. (Radford 2002) The question of it is a hoax or not is not important the important thing is the fact that the statement cannot be a fake claim is able to be false. Don Grieve who is an anatomist specializing in human gait has concluded that the alleged Bigfoot gait that was claimed couldn’t have been made by a human, in fact, could have. Radford 2002) “The existence of a large primate such as Bigfoot especially in North America is almost impossibility speaking because the discovery of a new mouse is big news these days. ” stated by Dr. Richard W. Thorington, Jr. who in 1980 was the head primatologist in the Department of Vertebrate Zoology at the National Museum of Natural History in the Smithsonian Institution. Money: “Some are doubters some belief, the rest of us just know”, this was the slogan of the 2006 Bigfoot Rendezvous Conference. Ben Radford was a speaker at this event.
He stated “Enormous time money and energy have been spent trying to find Bigfoot. Today in 2006 we have more footprints than ever before. We have more photographs and videotapes and film footage than at any other time in history. The problem is not that we don’t have enough evidence; the problem is that that evidence is inconclusive at best. ” He also made it clear that skeptics do detailed research. Tom Biscardi is an explorer that travels looking for Bigfoot, he and his crew was a feature on our own KWII news searching the Paris, TX. rea for Bigfoot. He and his team get paid to explore for Bigfoot, one week of exploring can cost around $70,000. 00. Thomas Biscardi also had a webpage that you could subscribe to. Patterson made a profit off of his film and book as well as the organization he started. News about a Bigfoot encounter generates money. The Sci-Fi Investigates is a television series that claims to investigate mysterious phenomena. It is for entertainment purposes and to make profits, even the cast that has no scientific credentials has pointed out that eyewitness Bigfoot encounters are not explainable. A lot of the episodes aired are based on anecdotes, as previously stated anecdotes are not scientifically testable. In one episode they try to make a convincing Bigfoot film, by making this what did they prove about Bigfoot, nothing. The show lacks skeptical investigators for a reason if it wanted them the producers would have hired them, the bottom line is profits.
Conclusion: Science isn’t based on our beliefs it is based on investigation and repetition of results, pseudoscience is based on belief without data or results that can be repeated or explained. Often times pseudoscience is favored by our religious beliefs or cultural beliefs, religion and cultural beliefs are not testable in the realm of science they do not follow natural law. Cryptozoology is based mostly on anecdotal evidence which is evidence that cannot be tested, or proven falsifiable, which is why it is pseudoscience. Radford 2002) The monstrous amount of bad quality evidence has not lessened the popularity of the existence of Bigfoot. The search for Bigfoot for some people is what they pass their time doing it brings together people with a common interest. Bigfoot hobbyists enjoy the outdoors and the adventure of the possibility of seeing, hearing, or finding something to prove the existence.
Reference
- http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuakeryRelatedTopics/pseudo.html Dennett, Michael. 2006.
- Available from: http://www. csicop. org/sb/show/exeperiments_cast_doubt_on_bigfoot_evidence Dennett, Michael. 2006.
- http://www. csicop. org/sb/show/the_bigfoot_legend_lives Gotera, Daniel. 2007, The Hunt for Bigfoot [Internet]. cited 2011 March 22].
- http://www.kxii.com/home/headlines/11090741.html Radford, Ben. 2002, Bigfoot at 50 Evaluating a Half Century of Bigfoot Evidence [Internet]. [cited 2011 March 22] 26.
- http://www.csicop.org/sb/show/bigfoot_at_50_evaluating_a_half_century_of_bigfoot_evidence Radford, Ben. 2007, Sci-Fi Investigates, Finds Only Pseudoscience [Internet] [cited 2011 March 10] 31.
- http://www.csicop.org/sb/show/sci_fi_investigates_finds_only_pseudoscience Radford, Ben. 2006, Among the Bigfooters [Internet] [cited 2011 March 10].
- http://www.csicop. org/sb/show/among_the_bigfooters Radford, Ben. 2000, The flawed Guide to Bigfoot [Internet] [cited 2011 March 22]; 24.
- http://www.csicop.org/sb/show/flawed_guide _to_bigfoot/ Stewart, Bruce. Notes on the Web-Unit One-Part
- http://www.sciencethinking.org/zoology/pseudoscience.htm The Committee of Skeptical Inquiry Website [Internet] [cited 2011 March 20]
- http://www. cisco. org/ Wylie, Kenneth. 1980, Bigfoot, New York (NY) The Viking Press; pages 150-153.
