• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Did mermen ever really exist?

Seventeen sailors below deck. Every one of them is likely drunk. Not a one of them wears glasses, but my guess would be that a good many of them were near-sighted. So . . .

Let's take a bunch of guys, put them out to sea for weeks at a time with all the trials and trepidations that entails, make them stand watch in the often foggy and murky gloom, let them be drunk or hungover a good bit of the time, and maybe have a third of them unable to see very well beyond about 50m.

It's a wonder sailor stories aren't even less fanciful.
 
Vixen said:
A beast of that ilk might well have existed. I don't know about 'breathing fire', though. Probably a metaphor for looking fierce.
Click to expand...

And everbody knows that "might wellness" is the hurdle that needs to be overcome to conclude something did exist. That, and a Youtube rant...
 
Vixen said:
A beast of that ilk might well have existed.
Click to expand...
No, dragons didn't exist. They're fictional. We've got bones of dinosaurs from hundreds of millions of years ago. Nobody from thousands of years ago saw dragons, let alone hundreds of years ago.
 
Babbylonian said:
No, dragons didn't exist. They're fictional. We've got bones of dinosaurs from hundreds of millions of years ago. Nobody from thousands of years ago saw dragons, let alone hundreds of years ago.
Click to expand...

They wouldn't have been called dragons.

there were giant reptiles that lived in the past that were an almost exact match to a dragon; minus the fire-breathing and wings BUT it did have the extremely toxic venom. They were known as the Megalania: the largest known terrestrial lizard to have existed. It is the ancestor of today’s Australian Goanna, Monitor Lizards and Komodo Dragon but also, according to some scientists, the beginning of the dragon theories. The Megalania inhabited southern Australia during the Pleistocene, and it is thought that the first aboriginal settlers of Australia were the first to encounter the giant creature. The Megalania was extinct 50,000 years ago: this being the youngest fossil we have found related to it.
Click to expand...
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-closest-animal-to-the-mythological-fire-breathing-dragon
 
Loss Leader said:
I don't know, but I'd say the admissible evidence we have for the existence of mermen is about as lacking as the evidence that Amanda Knox killed her roommate. And the joy it creates in some people to imagine mermen where none exist is about equal to the joy inspired in some people by imagining a foreign, college sex-murder.
Click to expand...

I see. You have no respect for a trial court or an appeal court with overwhelming evidence. As you know, have money will get off.

If there is even half as much evidence for mermen as there is as to who it was who killed her room mate, then we have a slam dunk positive sighting of a merman, folks.
 
Vixen said:
A beast of that ilk might well have existed. I don't know about 'breathing fire', though. Probably a metaphor for looking fierce.
Click to expand...
Babbylonian said:
No, dragons didn't exist. They're fictional. We've got bones of dinosaurs from hundreds of millions of years ago. Nobody from thousands of years ago saw dragons, let alone hundreds of years ago.
Click to expand...


"Dragons" existed in the imaginations of people from about 300 years ago back into ancient times. People had no idea how old the earth was or that something could be dated. They had no idea that a species could go extinct. Even if they knoew, "Wooly mammoths don't come around here anymore," they had no way to observe that the mammoths had disappeared entirely from the earth. Getting a message from Italy to China and getting a response 1,000 years ago could take years if not decades.

But we know that somethings are real: fossils. We've seen fossilized footprints, skin impressions and bones. So, what would ancient people think when uncovering giant rib bones or a 4 foot long femur? What would they think when hearing stories from travelers about their finds, mixed with other finds? What would they think of several different dinosaur species all mixed together? And what would they make of old, old stories of large lizards like the Megalania?

They would imagine dragons. That's the most parsimonious conclusion we can make given the evidence.

Of course, if you don't care about parsimony, you can imagine whatever you want. You could imagine a whole Italian college sex-murder if your demand for evidence is low enough.
 
Last edited:
Mermaids and Mermen absolutely do exist. I saw this documentary on Discovery that explained the whole thing. Some science team was looking into it, and they found all sorts of evidence. But of course, the powers that be covered it all up as usual.

But here's the kicker - they had a video of some kids finding one on the beach! The authorities got rid of it, of course, but the video got out!

You should watch it. You'd be convinced, it's really amazing. Discovery channel is aces, man.
 
abaddon said:
Even easier. There is a commonality amongst seafarers that transcends any national barriers. It is commonly troped in movies but it is a real thing right up to this very day. Persons of my own acquaintance have spent most of their lives at sea. Can they spin tall tales? You bet your sweet bippy they can. Do they swap such tall tales among themselves? You bet your sweet bippy they do.

And do they use those tall tales to impress the gullible "landlubbers" (which interestingly is not a term used by sailors)? Of course they do.

According to this thread, Vixen would have us believe otherwise, but we all know the very notion is utter garbage.

It's all a Poe.
Click to expand...

This is very true, more so in the past than today.

Google 'Lascars'

I have my dad's old Lascar Dictionary somewhere.
 
Vixen said:
I see. You have no respect for a trial court or an appeal court with overwhelming evidence. As you know, have money will get off.

If there is even half as much evidence for mermen as there is as to who it was who killed her room mate, then we have a slam dunk positive sighting of a merman, folks.
Click to expand...

Know what? credibility is not a boomerang.
 
Seismosaurus said:
Mermaids and Mermen absolutely do exist. I saw this documentary on Discovery that explained the whole thing. Some science team was looking into it, and they found all sorts of evidence. But of course, the powers that be covered it all up as usual.

But here's the kicker - they had a video of some kids finding one on the beach! The authorities got rid of it, of course, but the video got out!

You should watch it. You'd be convinced, it's really amazing. Discovery channel is aces, man.
Click to expand...

Have you been taking private lessons from Cain?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom