I don't think most religious people desperately need a miracle to prove to everyone how correct they are. I believe most religious folks just live every day with their beliefs as a matter of fact. They do the rituals and meditate on the lessons because there's comfort in going through the motions they've been taught since birth, that are socially acceptable to the community they identify with.
On the other hand, it appears that these bigfooters, like the flying saucerers, are in the unenviable position of having an irrational belief in this wacky pop-culture thing that most people find laughable. So they catch a lot of crap about it from family, friends, associates, and anyone else not similarly obsessed. Seems like it would be a constant source of doubt, causing a lot of internal struggle. Quite a different situation from the average religioid.
While religion may be irrational, most of its adherents don't appear crazy, whereas most bigfooters certainly do. Bigfootery is more like an obsessive doomsday cult: desperately anticipating, right on the cusp of the Earth-shattering event that will prove them right in their beliefs, and everybody else wrong.
No wonder they consistently fall prey to con-men, hucksters and charlatans.
