Nothing wrong with being skeptical. Refusing to acknowledge even the possibility of something is not skepticism though, it's denialism.
I acknowledge the possibility for bigfoot to exist (always have). I begin with the premise that there is an extant, continent-wide population of giant, bipedal, intelligent hominins in North America, with additional populations in Asia, Europe, and perhaps even Australia. My premise includes an evolutionary history in which bigfoots and modern humans shared common ancestry more recent than that we share with the extant great apes. Given this starting premise about what bigfoots would most likely be and from whence they came . . .
1)Bigfoot fossils should appear in at least Pleistocene deposits of North America, Asia, Europe, and Australia.
Other than speculation that
Gigantopithecus is bigfoot and that its fossils have already been collected and described, #1 = bigfoot fail. Such speculation fails too because no
Giganto fossils have been found anywhere but India and Southeast Asia, and not more recent than mid-late-Pleistocene.
2)Unlike other Pleistocene megafauna, bigfoot is supposed to be alive and well right now, in 2015. Thus its remains should appear in Quaternary and even more recent deposits, including to the present day.
No such remains have been found, therefore #2 = bigfoot fail.
3)Bigfoots should have been known to ancient peoples on multiple continents and their parts should have played important roles in religion and mysticism, as other animals did/do.
Not only is there not a single piece of a bigfoot among cultural items of native North Americans, there are no such artifacts among ancient Asians, Europeans, or Australians. The simple fact that Tibetans saw fit to make a shrine to their "yeti" but forge an artifact of it from a takin skin illustrates two important things from the land where bigfoot mythology really got going in the 1950s: a) the ancient cultures would have worshiped such creatures and collected their body parts, and b) there were no such body parts for them to collect. We're now 3 for 3 on bigfoot fails.
4)From the European Colonial Period 'til today (and on three continents), the history of the last several centuries has been one of exploitation of wildlife (and people) at every turn. Bigfoots, yetis, yowies, yeren - all would have been mercilessly hunted for their skins, for sport, or to eradicate something big and scary.
One need look no further than the records of the Hudson's Bay Company to be convinced that there was nothing remotely bigfooty in Canada during this period, and that is just one example. Bigfoot fail #4. No bigfoot has even ever been caught in the crossfire during a war.
5)Human settlement and land use change associated with cutting railroads, logging, mining, agricultural development, etc., was so great during the 19th and 20th centuries, that there was a total flip of forest/open cover in the eastern US from about 70–80% forest to about 20–30%.
Bigfoot fail #5 comes from the fact that habitat changes were so drastic, even deer couldn't survive in the new tamed landscapes. We had to import them from the frontier out West to White-tailed Deer re-established in places like Pennsylvania. Deer couldn't survive this, but bigfoots could?
6)I'm getting tired . . . Scientific collecting - bigfoot fail.
7)Millions of cars, trucks, and railroads but no dead bigfoot - fail.
8)Photography - bigfoot fail.
9)Game camera photography - bigfoot fail.
10) Genomic analysis - bigfoot fail.
Wait wait - hold the phone! Some guy named Chris saw some bigfoots in Kentucky, so 1–10 above are null and void.
Yeah, I know, he claims to see all sorts of crap in some photos that are just pareidolia-infused delusions so he can't provide anything to back up his claims, but he really did super-duper see some bigfoots, mmkay?
