January 14, 2015

Today in Bigfoot History | 2009 | Hopeful Skeptic Says Both Bigfoot Camps Need Help

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Eugenie Scott, a skeptic who would like Bigfoot to exist

“I would like [Bigfoot] to be real” — Dr. Eugenie Scott

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.

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 description of the event is below.

Tuesday, January 13, 7:00 PM
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

Although we don’t know exactly what happened at the Ask a Scientist event, we can get a pretty good idea based on a video of her presentation for The Bay Area Skeptics. You can watch the video at Bigfoot Lunch Club.

Guy Edwards About Guy Edwards
Psychology reduces to biology, all biology to chemistry, chemistry to physics, and finally physics to mathematical logic. Guy Edwards is host of the Portland, OR event HopsSquatch.com.

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