# Could Bigfoot be real? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [May 31, 2014, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680 "2014-05-31T02:52:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2014, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/101 "2014-06-15T11:08:55Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Unless they’re just having a laugh, no doubt they did see – something. But it wasn’t a friggin’ Bigfoot, which does not exist. I know that. You know that. However I wonder what would happen if say you or I were in a situation where we witnessed something which shouldn’t be, but there it is. What would we do? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2014, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/102 "2014-06-15T15:14:53Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > I know that. You know that. > > However I wonder what would happen if say you or I were in a situation where we witnessed something which shouldn’t be, but there it is. What would we do? I would not put it down to imaginary mythological creatures, that’s for sure. And if you know they’re not real like you claim, then you wouldn’t either. And anyway, that’s like saying imagine what if we saw a man leap over the Empire State Building like Superman. Well, so what? Playing “let’s imagine what if” doesn’t prove diddly-squat and is not taken seriously by sane people. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2014, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/103 "2014-06-15T15:50:10Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > I know that. You know that. > > However I wonder what would happen if say you or I were in a situation where we witnessed something which shouldn’t be, but there it is. What would we do? Take pictures or video with your phone. Or investigate a little since chances are many out there already have more prosaic explanations of what you saw. One issue that for me was very scary thing for weeks years ago was that I saw huge spiders or crazy insects some times in the morning. Well, no pictures, so what the best explanation? [http://www.nosleeplessnights.com/hypnagogic-hallucinations/](http://www.nosleeplessnights.com/hypnagogic-hallucinations/) > [@](#): > > A simple hypnagogic hallucinations definition is imagining something while you are falling asleep. > > It can be an auditory, sensory, tactile or any other sensory experience. Whatever it is though, it’s not real and your brain is creating it. > > Hypnopompic hallucinations are exactly the same thing, except that they occur while you are waking from sleep. > > Both hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations are usually quite vivid. Because they are so realistic, they can be overwhelmingly disturbing. Fine, but there was something else, the “spiders” or insects moved, it seemed that there was something physical to it. Further investigation showed that it is likely eye floaters, they can trick your mind; your brain always tries to fill up information that misses many times (one of the big reasons why witnesses are in reality very unreliable) so the brain is looking for a logical explanation of what it is seeing in your sleepy stupor. As it turns out, even with the typical sleep paralysis one can have there was a simple experiment to try, if the spiders were floaters then it should follow that the spiders would behave like floaters if one looked to other places in a room. So then instead of being scared I began to move my eyes, and sure enough the insects began to do nonsensical things, it was like seeing “The Matrix” having glitches all around with the insects looking as if they were the scared ones as they had no control of where they “tele-ported” or crashed around. I began to enjoy trashing them around like a Jedi master. Of course the brain being the A-hole it usually is began to stop the hallucinations as soon an owner finds a way to enjoy a flaw. And that would be it, except that then we can see one big difference with science and superstition, reading other sources pointed that some eye conditions may be related so going to ophthalmologist was a good idea, for anyone that would just had choose to believe those spiders were “demons” I can see that it would lead to madness or blindness. I choose science, and the most likely explanation for Big Foot sightings is that the so called reliable witnesses can be mistaken, and one has to remember that there is research that shows how unreliable human sight and memory can be. [http://www.theinvisiblegorilla.com/overview.html](http://www.theinvisiblegorilla.com/overview.html) ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2014, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/104 "2014-06-15T18:20:14Z")
**Unbanredneck** , your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, **Urbanredneck** , whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge. Yes, **Ubanredneck** , there is a Bigfoot. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Bigfoot, It would be as dreary as if there were no **Urbanrednecks**. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished. Not believe in Bigfoot! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the forests to catch Bigfoot, but even if they did not see Bigfoot coming around, what would that prove? Nobody sees Bigfoot, but that is no sign that there is no Bigfoot. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world. You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, **Urbanredneck** in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Bigfoot! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, **Urbanredneck** , nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2014, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/105 "2014-06-15T19:02:50Z")
Actually, I do have more faith in Santa, (and Cecil), than I do in Bigfoot. = = = Remember how Bigfoot started out as a phenomenon of the Pacific Northwest–and stayed there from whenever the reports started until the 1970s? Well, look where they are, now: [http://www.bfro.net/gdb/](http://www.bfro.net/gdb/) Heck, Ohio has over 250 sightings and my county has nine. (One set of multiple sightings is about a mile and a half from my house.) For a creature that is so elusive that it cannot be found in its native habitat, it sure seems capable of moving around. (Maybe it is hitchhiking, disguised as a hippie or WWF wrestler?) ---
**Author:** ![nonferrous\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea666f/32.png) [@nonferrous\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonferrous_guy)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2014, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/106 "2014-06-15T19:42:44Z")
Would you believe if you saw bigfoot with your own eyes. Then what would you say? Nothing, because no one would believe you.Does that change the fact that saw one? No it dosen’t. Time will tell. If it takes a body to prove they exist it better not come from a hunter.If one is killed by someone with a gun they should be arrested for murder ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2014, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/107 "2014-06-15T19:46:50Z")
> [@nonferrous\_guy](#): > > Would you believe if you saw bigfoot with your own eyes. Not out in the wild, I wouldn’t. It would more likely be a hoax. > [@](#): > > Then what would you say? Nothing, because no one would believe you.Does that change the fact that saw one? No it dosen’t. Time will tell. If it takes a body to prove they exist it better not come from a hunter.If one is killed by someone with a gun they should be arrested for murder I agree. Because they will have killed a human being in a gorilla outfit. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/108 "2014-06-16T04:48:42Z")
> [@tomndebb](#): > > Actually, I do have more faith in Santa, (and Cecil), than I do in Bigfoot. > > = = = > > Remember how Bigfoot started out as a phenomenon of the Pacific Northwest–and stayed there from whenever the reports started until the 1970s? > > Well, look where they are, now: > [BFRO Geographical Database of Bigfoot Sightings & Reports](http://www.bfro.net/gdb/) > Heck, Ohio has over 250 sightings and my county has nine. (One set of multiple sightings is about a mile and a half from my house.) For a creature that is so elusive that it cannot be found in its native habitat, it sure seems capable of moving around. (Maybe it is hitchhiking, disguised as a hippie or WWF wrestler?) The BFRO are the folks behind one of my favorite (for certain values of “favorite”) reality shows, [Finding Bigfoot](http://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/finding-bigfoot). If you’re into grainy night-vision footage of people making animal noises in the woods, this is the show for you. That map does highlight one of the main ironies that I find about the Bigfoot myth. The idea is just barely plausible if you suppose that we’re talking about a very small population of animals confined to a very isolated region. But the more you postulate a huge population living in just about every state in the union, as Finding Bigfoot does, the less plausible it becomes that no specimen has ever been captured, road-killed, filmed by an iPhone, caught on a trail cam, etc. That show has really done more to prove the impossibility of Bigfoot than any number of skeptical books ever could have. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/109 "2014-06-16T14:14:37Z")
I told Bigfoot not to come, Yeti showed up anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2014, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/110 "2014-06-16T21:03:07Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > This is kind of where I am on this. The scientist in me says “no, it can’t be”, but then I keep reading credible sources who saw - something. Hence the phrase “science is the fight against common sense”. The human brain really fucking sucks at objective thought. We are wired to believe things on very flimsy evidence. This makes sense as a survival strategy - if someone tells you there’s a tiger over that hill, we stay the hell away from that hill. It doesn’t really matter if they were lying or not. The credible are more likely to survive. But in attempting to figure out objective reality, that kind of evidence just doesn’t cut it. Science is our best method to divorce our idiotic subjective brains from the process and only rely on objective, credible, realistic evidence to guide our understanding. ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/111 "2014-06-17T14:05:46Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > What would they eat? Eye witnesses. that’s why there’s no good evidence. QED. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/112 "2014-06-17T14:19:15Z")
> [@nonferrous\_guy](#): > > Would you believe if you saw bigfoot with your own eyes. What does this even prove? If I saw a leprechaun doing cartwheels in my office, I should be seeking medical help, not posting grainy photos on the internet. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/113 "2014-06-17T15:26:17Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > What does this even prove? > > If I saw a leprechaun doing cartwheels in my office, I should be seeking medical help, not posting grainy photos on the internet. Or else inspecting this “leprechaun” to make sure it’s not a dwarf dressed up as a prank. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/114 "2014-06-17T16:29:29Z")
> [@nonferrous\_guy](#): > > If one is killed by someone with a gun they should be arrested for murder > [@John\_Mace](#): > > I agree. Because they will have killed a human being in a gorilla outfit. This brings up an interesting question (probably better for another thread, but…) If some guy is running around in the woods during hunting season wearing a furry costume and gets shot and killed by a hunter, would the hunter get charged with murder? ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/115 "2014-06-17T16:45:50Z")
> [@Accidental\_Martyr](#): > > This brings up an interesting question (probably better for another thread, but…) If some guy is running around in the woods during hunting season wearing a furry costume and gets shot and killed by a hunter, would the hunter get charged with murder? “Hey guys, watch this…!” ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/116 "2014-06-17T17:26:09Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > “Hey guys, watch this…!” “Hold my beer!” ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/117 "2014-06-17T19:56:54Z")
> [@Accidental\_Martyr](#): > > This brings up an interesting question (probably better for another thread, but…) If some guy is running around in the woods during hunting season wearing a furry costume and gets shot and killed by a hunter, would the hunter get charged with murder? Probably not murder, and maybe not even manslaughter. I think it would depend on lot on the circumstances. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/118 "2014-06-17T20:29:49Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Probably not murder, and maybe not even manslaughter. I think it would depend on lot on the circumstances. That’s also my thought. If you see a furry shape moving in the forest, it seems your argument that it had to be an animal would be convincing. ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2014, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/119 "2014-06-17T20:47:58Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > Umm, a bear is an ursine. Are you talking about some theoretical non-bear relative of a bear? My bad. Probably the result of a bad edit, as my comment is definitely non-sequitur. > [@MrAtoz](#): > > The BFRO are the folks behind one of my favorite (for certain values of “favorite”) reality shows, [Finding Bigfoot](http://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/finding-bigfoot). If you’re into grainy night-vision footage of people making animal noises in the woods, this is the show for you. > > That show has really done more to prove the impossibility of Bigfoot than any number of skeptical books ever could have. Bingo! What we have here is a lack of evidence, and plenty evidence of no evidence. Take that where you will. That said, no doubt there are plenty of things we skeptics believe that will turn out to be false. Of course, since we’re good skeptics, we don’t hold many of our beliefs very strongly. We just say “I doubt that” and are always correct in that regard. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2014, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680/120 "2014-06-18T12:44:15Z")
New Bigfoot video! [http://cryptozoologynews.com/new-bigfoot-video-canada/](http://cryptozoologynews.com/new-bigfoot-video-canada/) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-bigfoot-be-real/689680.md?page=7)