ChrisBFRPKY said:
If you take nothing else from my comments remember this: If you stick with the argument of "It's 2014 and we have discovered everything there is to discover" be ready for a let down.
I've discovered new organisms. So this strawman is pretty much nonsense.
The issue is the quality of the evidence. Your data simply are not sufficient to justify the conclusions you are drawing. There's no shame in that, really; I fully acknowledge that I tend to be ready to accept a tentative working hypothesis based on less data than I probably should (though I tend to adopt multiple working hypotheses to compensate). Where you devolve into crackpottery is in refusing to acknowledge the criticisms of your data and in refusing to systematically gather higher-quality data. When I describe new species there is NO question of what the photographs show--they are high resolution, taken in a professional set-up, and if someone wanted they could always ask to see the original specimens or casts thereof. The fact that people can't identify your pictures means that they ARE NOT of sufficient quality to be used to justify naming a new species, or to use as proof of a new species. Again, no shame there; all research starts somewhere. But you're stalling out at the start, and that IS a problem.
ot really, you say the burden of proof is on me, I provided some pics of what I saw.
That does not discharge the burden of proof. It's sufficient to say that you're not actually being dishonest--and sorry, but with as many frauds as are in the bigfoot community that IS a legitimate first step in these discussions for your side--but it's hardly sufficient to justify saying it's bigfoot. Your job, if you choose to play the role of a researcher, is to provide enough evidence that it is perverse for us to reject your conclusions. In science, you start off wrong by default. A picture that is not clearly of the organism in question is insufficient to demonstrate said organism's existence.
You know, you want me to explain to you how they could exist and how is it possible they could go undetected by science for so long. I get it. The answer is I don't know. But because I don't know the answers to these questions does not mean they do not exist, it means I don't know.
See, here's where you just get lazy. You want to talk about this creature? Fine. DO YOUR HOMEWORK. If you don't know how your hypothesis could work, it is incumbant upon you to LEARN how your hypothesis could work. Because right now, you have openly stated that you do not know enough to be considered minimally competant in this subject matter. You have openly stated that you do not know enough to provide an informed opinion. And you wish to overthrow several hundred years' worth of scientific research via that ignorance.
I'm of the opinion we may find Bigfoot to be a similar case. Why? Because they look alot like Giganto.
Please provide specific similarities. In particular, I'm most interested in the post-craneal osteological similarities; however, I'll admit dental similarities would be far more useful (this being a mammal, allegedly).
I'm not interested in a comparison of two species....
Than you're not interested in actually finding new species. Because that's exactly what REAL researchers who find new species do.
Pics and video aren't really scientific evidence , so why the eagerness to see them?
I beg your pardon, but photographs ARE scientific evidence. I have done innumerable photographic surveys for various projects, and have used photographs to document everything from existing site conditions to excavation methods to type specimens. There are requirements and considerations to be taken into account--one must prove that the photos were not altered, or at least were not altered malliciously (I frequently put site IDs in my iPad photos, but keep the original files untouched as well, for example)--but that's nothing more than standard procedure.
Plus, if you could provide a type specimen we'd shut up about photos and videos. A type specimen would trump every other type of evidence or argument, no exceptions. But since you are incapable of providing one (if someone could, they would have by now), we are left with other data to explore. Basically, our desire to see photos or video is due to your side's failure to provide any better evidence. We're asking for the lowest quality evidence that would still allow you to draw your conclusions.
We are doing you a favor here, one that would NEVER be extended to real scientists.
dmaker said:
I am saying that large, undiscovered megafauna, such as the alleged bigfoot, are extremely unlikely to exist in the reported range and frequency of bigfoot. And by extremely unlikely I believe there is a better chance of it raining skittles tomorrow than a bigfoot being discovered anywhere in North America.
I'll go further: I will say it's not just unlikely, but that it's impossible. It's not impossible that some hominin migrated from Asia; obviously at least one did. However, Giganto did not. It is also impossible that a large hominin could exist undiscovered by science in the United States of America, for various historical, cultural, and scientific reasons. For example, multiple expiditions were sent out in order to find exactly this sort of creature (large mammalian megafauna that did not exist elsewhere) in order to refute or establish various biological theories of the 19th century. When repeated testing results in constant failures, the hypothesis can be rejected. Bigfoot has been proven to not exist with as much scientific accuracy as dragons, unicorns, and the fae (actually more, in the first two cases, but that's a separate issue).