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| Eugenie Scott a skeptic who would like Bigfoot to exist |
Today in 2009 Eugenie Scott spoke at the Ask a Scientist event in San Francisco. The topic that night was Bigfoot. As an anthropologist and a skeptic Eugenie seems to have more patience for bigfooters than she has for creationist. You can read about the event below.
Tuesday, January 13, 7:00 PMAlthough we don't know exactly what happened at the Ask a Scientist event, we can get a pretty good idea watching the video below.
Ask a Scientist: Bigfoot and Other Wild Men of the Forest
Bigfoot, Yeti, and hordes of other cryptoid missing links have been igniting human imagination for ages. Even the most skeptical of us must wonder if it’s possible there really could be large, undiscovered primates on earth, still unknown to us humans. Can we be so sure we’ve found them all? And if some enticing evidence presented itself, how would we test it scientifically? Tonight physical anthropologist Eugenie Scott will help us answer the question of whether or not we might one day be able to welcome some long lost relatives to the family tree. This event is presented in collaboration with the Bay Area Skeptics.
Speaker: Eugenie Scott; Physical Anthropologist and Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education
In the video below Dr. Eugenie Scott represents the Bay Area Skeptics. She quickly identifies two camps of bigfooters. In the first camp, as she describes them, are the paranormal, mystical bigfooters that believe Bigfoot can shape shift, she quickly marginalizes them and says that is an argument for theologists. In the second camp are, as she defines them, cryptozoologist. She is critical of their lack of scientific process and ability to test their explanations. Dr. Scott does say Scientist like Dr. Jeff Meldrum are heading in the right direction.
The entire hour and half video is well worth watching, it gives us some insights into what our challenges our in seeking Bigfoot. The Table of Contents is below and you will have to click on the "Watch Full Program" in the embedded video to see the whole presentation.
Eugenie Scott: Bigfoot and Other Wild Men of the Forest from Ask a Scientist on FORA.tv
Video Table of Contents:
01. Introduction: 00 min 56 sec
02. Bay Area Skeptics: 02 min 33 sec
03. Two Types of Wildmen of the Woods: 06 min 15 sec
04. Scientific Investigation of Bigfoot: 04 min 06 sec
05. Cryptozoology: 03 min 43 sec
06. Likelihood of Undiscovered Bigfoot Species: 04 min 18 sec
07. Where Bigfoot Lives: 03 min 04 sec
08. Remnants of Giant Asian Ape?: 04 min 36 sec
09. Bigfoot Prints: 08 min 49 sec
10. Existence of Orangutan: 05 min 02 sec
11. Habitat Encroachment: 00 min 35 sec
12. History of Bigfoot Sightings: 02 min 13 sec
13. Strength of Belief in Bigfoot: 00 min 36 sec
14. Bigfoot Books: 02 min 48 sec
15. Explanations for Sightings: 03 min 54 sec
16. Unreliability of Eyewitness Reports: 04 min 38 sec
17. Yeti Movie: 02 min 27 sec
18. Bluff Creek Sighting Video: 08 min 46 sec
19. Snow Walker Yeti: 06 min 32 sec
20. Camera Traps Fail to Spot Bigfoot: 03 min 34 sec
21. Analysis of Hair Samples: 05 min 21 sec
I tried to watch....but she does this lip smacking noise after each time she pauses...kind of makes me want to shake kittens.
ReplyDeleteThe time spent by the Bigfoot paranormal camp to marginalize Dr. Eugenie Scott, is time especially well spent. She appears to have no field experience whatsoever, yet she is certain that she is qualified to speak publicly on the subject matter, and further discount actual observations by experience and well trained researchers. Nuff said about Dr. Scott who apparently has not yet come to realize that the limits of her own experiences, even more severely limit her ability to reason intelligently.
ReplyDeleteBeing a teacher and part time professor it is actually easy to quiet these types. When they giggle at me for talking about the topic I just ask them when the last time was they took a walk in the woods. You know, check things out for yourself, look at the ecosystems and wildlife. Heck just take in nature. They don't have an answer other than to cite a study they read by someone else. Then I tell them we can have an intelligent conversation about the topic when we are on the same level. Not a great idea for making friends but fun to see them squirm when you mention field work.
DeleteI wonder if Dr. Scott ever read Thom's The Locals? It got me very intrigued and looked at it differently now. UFO connection is crazy though. At least, it gives you something to go on. Before reading the book, I had no idea what the bigfoots are like, their patterns, why it's so impossible to track them, and so on. The book is very useful.
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ReplyDeleteThis is so cool I had no idea I could get travel information and booking links on a bigfoot site.
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