I Know It's Pointless, But . . .

I was lurking on the James Randi forum, where there are several new threads about Bigfoot. Maybe sometime I'll get around to linking to them all, or at the least, posting the titles, but I got bored with that at around number 37. Anyway, while surfing through the threads over there, noticed a discussion on a combined thread on Sylvia Browne and Bigfoot. That's weird enough, but what got my attention was the blatant "people who believe in Bigfoot are nuts" refrain. Nothing new there of course. One poster commented that many otherwise smart, sane people for some reason believe Bigfoot exists, and this is baffling.

The skeptics go on about no proof, and lousy evidence. But I always wonder about the fact that people say they've seen a Bigfoot. Forget about proof; and just go with the anecdotal evidence. Relax, and listen. When someone you know is "sane," and "smart," and who knows damn well what a bear looks like, etc. and tells you they saw a Bigfoot -- what then? You have little choice here: the person has suddenly gone insane, or is lying. I suppose a third option would be a hoax; the poor witness was a victim of a prankster walking around in a Bigfoot suit. But at a certain point, the so-called rational explanations become irrational.

I know several witnesses who are average people, sane, smart, know the area, know the woods, and they've seen a Bigfoot. They're not lying. I doubt they're mentally unstable. And I also doubt that, in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere, someone decided to lug a Bigfoot suit out there and put it on just to scare them.

At some point, you have to have the intelligence to at least say "I don't know" instead of calling Bigfoot witnesses fruitcakes and losers.