Monday, November 16, 2009

Bigfoot, Nessie, & Scifi

An article I just read about Loren Coleman's new Cryptozoology museum has got me thinking. Often in articles about Cryptozoology, including this one, the authors use both Bigfoot & The Loch Ness Monster(Nessie) to help explain what Cryptozoology is to those who don't already know. Since Nessie has been all but debunked due to a thorough sonar scan of the lake that found nothing and then a study of the amount of aquatic life in the lake that concluded there isn't enough aquatic life in the lake to support a viable breeding population of Nessie type creatures, I'm not at all sure it's good for Bigfoot research to have Bigfoot and Nessie mentioned together. A skeptic might know of the lake scans I mentioned above and conclude that Nessie doesn't exist & assume the same thing about Bigfoot if it's mentioned in the same breath in an article or documentary. Maybe it's time we all start referring to Bigfoot research as Crypto-Anthropology like I've heard Robert W. Morgan do. Another thing that the article about Loren Coleman's museum has reminded me about that really bothers me is how Bigfoot is often classed as "Scifi" Technically it may still fit that category, but I can't help thinking some people form biases against the possibility of Bigfoot, based solely on the "Scifi" classification. It seems Mr. Coleman's museum shares space with a book store featuring Scifi books. While this may be good for the town the museum & book store are in, it may not be good for getting people to take the subject of Bigfoot seriously