My household has seen an interest in cryptozoology lately, so I was curious what views are held here. Do any of you believe in Sasquatch or the Loch Ness Monster, or something else? Have you ever had a “sighting” or known someone who did? I would consider myself skeptical but try to be open-minded when the process of hunting for cryptids is approached scientifically (which it often is not).
Lately I’ve noticed a connection to origins in the way that prior beliefs can influence beliefs in cryptids. When I was a YEC teenager, I totally believed in the Loch Ness Monster. One major reason was because I believed that dinosaurs had only “died out” a few hundred, possibly thousand years ago, and so in that view it made perfect sense that a few minor populations had managed to survive in remote places. Kent Hovind was a big proponent of the idea, and shared all kinds of stories of Nessie sightings and other supposed “lake monsters” in his seminars, and appeared to take the idea very seriously, which was all a sheltered kid like me needed to conclude they were real.
I recently watched an episode of “Drain the Oceans” about Loch Ness, in which they speculated that currents below the surface (due to the unusual size and shape of the lake and surrounding geography) might be responsible for Nessie sightings because they can make something look like it’s “swimming” even on a calm day. It was fascinating, but it was also a bit of a blow to my childhood beliefs, even though I no longer held them.
Bigfoot belief, however, was not encouraged in those circles. But I see now that it had nothing to do with quality of evidence. If anything, Bigfoot/Sasquatch has had a lot more sightings and supposed evidence, such as footprints, which Nessie can’t produce. The difference was that Sasquatch is generally viewed as some kind of hominid or human relative, and encouraging its existence does not help YEC beliefs.
Nowadays, I find it fun to speculate about Sasquatch, even though evidence is scant. How cool would it be if there was truly another population of hominids still out there somewhere? I just read a book (for kids) called “The Search for Sasquatch” by Laura Krantz, and she suggests that we like to keep a bit of mystery about the world. It can drive us to keep discovering and not feel like we’ve plumbed the depths of everything out there. I like that idea, and in that sense I think cryptozoology can be fascinating as long as it doesn’t go off the deep end.
ETA: Just to be clear, belief in Nessie and still-living dinosaurs is not something all YEC people and organizations hold – it’s still fairly fringe as far as I know.
Ah, I thought I had mentioned it here somewhere before:
