Believe or not to believe

[danbell06]

How many people on UM have been turned to skeptics, regarding, not just bigfoot, but all mythical creatures since signing up?

Before i joined I was 100% certain that bigfoot could in fact co-habituate with us.

Ever since then I've became evermore skeptical with each apparent new piece of evidence.

I am disappointed, but it's not the end of the world.

My personal view is that maybe years ago bigfoot did used to walk around, chase deer, kidnap old people (like ostman), have they're wicked way with people (like Ketchum). But the evidence is getting worse. Actually no. I'll rephrase. The evidence just isn't there.

So, has joining made you more skeptical or has signing up solidified your belief?

Edited April 16, 2013 by danbell06

[Ashotep]

It really hasn't changed my mind about Bigfoot. I still think that maybe its possible because new creatures or ones that are thought to be extinct are still being found.

[evancj]

I use to believe up until my late teens (long before the internet). I thought it would only be a matter of time before nessy or bigfoot was caught or killed. But that time never came, so I had no choice but to conclude it was all a bunch of BS.

[keninsc]

My opinions haven't changed either, I'm open to the possibility but, much like evancj, nothing has ever really come of it. I remember being a total skeptic about it up until the early nineties, that's when one friend confided in me about seeing one, then some five or six years later another friend did the same thing. Both lived in different areas of the southeast. Mind you, after the second guy told me about what he saw I started doing some serious research on the web, of course the web was pretty new then. As time progressed there were a number of things I could rationalize.

1. No bodies

2. No evidence in the Geological record (fossils)

3. No accidental capture or kills.

4. No skeletons.

5. Evidence we do have, footprints etc. could easily be faked and often are.

6. No good pictures of video, other than the PGF.

After all this time there should have been something.

Granted, there are accounts that go back to the 1800's that allude to Bigfoots being encountered, but when you take into consideration that humans have sprawled out all over the country now creating lost of habitat and such; how come we don't have more evidence?

.....and yet, I can't discount the stories told to me by my two friends.

[dannyboy52]

I am always an eternal optimist, but not a follower of blind faith. I honestly havent changed my "maybe" opinion since I grew up in the 60's.

[Q-C]

My very own personal opinion, no matter how arguable it is, is:

My time on UM has just continued to solidify for me that this creature is a myth. What people are seeing I don't know. But I do know it is not a Bigfoot.

I can't ignore, what to me, is an obvious rich history and background of how this myth came to unfold. Full of characters, story-tellers, pseudoscience, conmen, and twisted historical accounts and that's just for starters.

I've heard just about all the arguments against my personal opinion, as well. I'm still not swayed. However I once was a believer, briefly.

That said, I do not think all believers are "delusional" or would I call all those who claim to have evidence "conmen" or those who search "foolish" or those who claim encounters "liars". Obviously to them, this is not a myth and that is their opinion and they have every right to it. And I can certainly relate to their interest enjoyment in the subject.

Edited April 17, 2013 by QuiteContrary

[fawkes2]

It has changed me to be a bit more skeptical then before but my views on bigfoot has not changed, i'm a believer on them. I have never seen them but I have found bigfoot prints on my grandparents farm.

[Esoteric Toad]

The internet changed everything for me. I approached the net as a potential world of hidden knowledge. Sort of like a lost library of eldritch information locked away.

In the end I have learned so much and still am. Critical thinking has dispelled so many of the mythological cryptids. It has opened my eyes to how unlikely almost all paranormal/supernatural things are.

To me this is not a bad thing. With critical thinking I believe that if something supernatural does happen it will be less likely to be dismissed. Furthermore I find trying to work out what it is that makes people believe so easily fascinating.

Edited for a typo.

Edited April 17, 2013 by Esoteric Toad

[S2F]

My very own personal opinion, no matter how arguable it is, is:

My time on UM has just continued to solidify for me that this creature is a myth. What people are seeing I don't know. But I do know it is not a Bigfoot.

I can't ignore, what to me, is an obvious rich history and background of how this myth came to unfold. Full of characters, story-tellers, pseudoscience, conmen, and twisted historical accounts and that's just for starters.

I've heard just about all the arguments against my personal opinion, as well. I'm still not swayed. However I once was a believer, briefly.

That said, I do not think all believers are "delusional" or would I call all those who claim to have evidence "conmen" or those who search "foolish" or those who claim encounters "liars". Obviously to them, this is not a myth and that is their opinion and they have every right to it. And I can certainly relate to their interest enjoyment in the subject.

^ This.

I joined UM to find out more about Bigfoot initially. It was out of mere curiosity to begin with. I had heard the stories however I had only associated them with a myth like fairies or werewolves. Having spent a few years poring over all of the evidence for and against their existence I'd have to say that the possibility of Bigfoot being real is near zero. No amount of eyewitness testimony or inconclusive DNA is going to change that, you could stack the anecdotes a mile high and they won't have the evidentiary weight of a single fact. If they exist and if they possess the traits attributed to them (that's two enormous if's) then they are like no other creature ever to grace this planet, which actually speaks against their existence as well.

[Zeta Reticulum]

Well, this forum is miss named..... It should be called Explained Mysteries..... because everyman and his dog can explain EVERYTHING ever posted here.... (mostly swamp gas)

Edited April 17, 2013 by Zeta Reticulum

[Q-C]

Well, this forum is miss named..... It should be called Explained Mysteries..... because everyman and his dog can explain EVERYTHING ever poster here.... (mostly swamp gas)

Why? There are science topics and news topics and nature topics and fun and games topics and television and computers and gaming and photography and book and art and music topics and...are we limited to only the unexplained here? I don't see that.

This very thread is under a section that includes "myths" in the title.

Edited April 17, 2013 by QuiteContrary

[Zeta Reticulum]

Why? There are science topics and news topics and nature topics and fun and games topics and television and book and art and music topics and...are we limited to only the unexplained here?

Well that's what the forum is called .... Unexplained Mysteries ..... go figure

[S2F]

Well, this forum is miss named..... It should be called Explained Mysteries..... because everyman and his dog can explain EVERYTHING ever posted here.... (mostly swamp gas)

You may as well try to hold back the tides, it may be more productive than complaining about human nature. You've stumbled across the very essence of the drive that gave us things like automobiles, TV's, cell phones and even what helped us put man on the moon. The desire to understand the world around us and find answers gives us a sense of control and safety, even if they are illusory. Granted not every explanation is true, on either side, however if you can back up an explanation with factual data then you have given yourself a pretty good head start in that direction.

[scowl]

I use to believe up until my late teens (long before the internet). I thought it would only be a matter of time before nessy or bigfoot was caught or killed. But that time never came, so I had no choice but to conclude it was all a bunch of BS.

Ditto for me. In the 70's only idiots and old closed-minded fools didn't believe that Bigfoot was wandering around our forests. We even got the creature on motion picture film!!! What more do you need??? It was only a matter of time before more Bigfoot was captured on more footage and we would find more of them and learned about how they lived. That would completely change everything we knew about biology.

We are now in the futuristic year of 2013. We have not sent men to Mars. We do not have hotels in space. And despite that millions of video recorders have been taken into the forests, we're still looking at the same 16mm film that supposedly was Bigfoot but now looks a lot more like a guy in a suit.

[danbell06]

Ditto for me. In the 70's only idiots and old closed-minded fools didn't believe that Bigfoot was wandering around our forests. We even got the creature on motion picture film!!! What more do you need??? It was only a matter of time before more Bigfoot was captured on more footage and we would find more of them and learned about how they lived. That would completely change everything we knew about biology.

We are now in the futuristic year of 2013. We have not sent men to Mars. We do not have hotels in space. And despite that millions of video recorders have been taken into the forests, we're still looking at the same 16mm film that supposedly was Bigfoot but now looks a lot more like a guy in a suit.

As much as it pains me to admit, the Patterson Gimlin Film WAS a hoax.

How do I know?

They both lied on numerous occasions about being the only 2 there that day. They werent. There is a video that shows a cut in the film and another man is seen there with them.

Bit gutted, but so what. Life goes on!

[Purplos]

I think you can be both a skeptic and a believer at the same time.

I have doubts and search for explanations for things, but still believe in the possibility of anything being real in this infinite Universe of ours.

That hasn't changed much in the past 6-7 years I've been here, and is unlikely to change in the future.

Bigfoot? I can accept the possibility of Bigfoot as 'something,' but that doesn't mean I believe every person running in from the woods claiming to have seen one.

[J. K.]

My question would be: why do so many of the sightings tend to clump together in areas which are, more or less, wild or remote?

I asked once why so many people would report sightings, even though it draws derision. The reply was that they wanted their 15 minutes of fame. If that were the case, wouldn't the reports be distributed a bit more evenly across the map?

[Wyverna]

I used to be a believer of ghosts. As time passed, I eventually started believing in them less until I was on the fence about them. Ghosts are so widespread in the world and time; people see them around the world and have been seeing them for so long. It makes me think of what, if they're all fake, could people have been seeing this whole time. On the other hand, how have we not completely proven ghosts exist if they are around us and have been around us for so long? So I'm half-half.

As for Bigfoot, I used to think it was a really interesting creature. There was a time where I almost believed it could actually be real. However, just seeing the lack of evidence and thinking about the amount it would leave behind, and especially if there was more of them, made me lose interest in Bigfoot and any thoughts of him being real just went out the window.

I think some people start out believers because it just seems so real and so many people report it, but then they actually see what goes on and the lack of evidence so they become skeptics.