Abominable Science

by Daniel Loxton

  16 Ibid., 90–91; Don Hunter, with René Dahinden, Sasquatch (New York: Signet, 1975), 119–122.

  17 Hunter and Dahinden, Sasquatch, 134.

  18 Quoted in Regal, Searching for Sasquatch, 115–117.

  19 Napier, Bigfoot, 107.

  20 Quoted in Linda Witt, “Monster Hunter Roy Mackal Treks to Africa in Search of the Last of the Dinosaurs,” People, December 7, 1981, http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20080868,00.html (accessed November 25, 2011).

  21 Roy P. Mackal, A Living Dinosaur? In Search of Mokele-Mbembe (Leiden: Brill, 1987), 18.

  22 Roy P. Mackal, The Monsters of Loch Ness (Chicago: Swallow Press, 1976).

  23 Mackal, Living Dinosaur? 18.

  24 Bernard Heuvelmans, review of The Monsters of Loch Ness, by Roy P. Mackal, Skeptical Inquirer 2, no. 1 (1977): 110–120.

  25 Darren Naish, “Aquatic Proto-People and the Theory Hypothesis of Initial Bipedalism,” March 17, 2008, Tetrapod Zoology, http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2008/03/initial-bipedalism/ (accessed November 25, 2011).

  26 Ivan T. Sanderson, “There Could Be Dinosaurs,” Saturday Evening Post, January 3, 1948.

  27 Bernard Heuvelmans, Sur la piste des bêtes ignorées (Paris: Librarie Plon, 1955); On the Track of Unknown Animals.

  28 See, for example, Ivan T. Sanderson, Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life: The Story of Sub-Humans on Five Continents from the Early Ice Age Until Today (Philadelphia: Chilton, 1961); Uninvited Visitors: A Biologist Looks at UFOs (New York: Cowles, 1967); Invisible Residents: A Disquisition upon Certain Matters Maritime, and the Possibility of Intelligent Life Under the Waters of This Earth (New York: World, 1970); “The Twelve Devil’s Graveyards Around the World,” Saga, 1972; and “Things” and More “Things”: Myths, Mysteries, and Marvels! (Kempton, Ill.: Adventures Unlimited Press, 2007).

  29 Regal, Searching for Sasquatch.

  30 Buhs, Bigfoot, 227–228.

  31 Ibid.; Regal, Searching for Sasquatch.

  32 Krantz was an enthusiastic early proponent of “dermatoglyphic” evidence for Big-foot—the claim that some plaster casts of alleged Bigfoot footprints accurately record fine, fingerprint-like “dermal ridges” and even sweat pores. “When I first realized the potential significance of dermal ridges showing in sasquatch footprints,” Krantz wrote, “it seemed that scientific acceptance of the existence of this species might be achieved without having to bring in a specimen of the animal itself. It was this hope that drove me to expend so much of my resources on it, and of my scientific reputation as well” (Bigfoot Sasquatch Evidence [Surrey, B.C.: Hancock House, 1999], 86). Dermal-ridge evidence still enjoys support from proponents of Bigfoot, including Jeff Meldrum and Texas forensics investigator Jimmy Chilcutt. However, skeptical investigator Matt Crowley has shown the argument for dermal ridges to be critically flawed, demonstrating through a series of experiments that ridged, fingerprint-like textures exactly replicating the patterns promoted by Bigfoot proponents are a predictable and common artifact of the footprint-casting process itself. Crowley explains that these ridges form spontaneously and frequently in “test casts in multiple substrates, with multiple casting cements, and at multiple slurry temperatures and thicknesses.” So crushing is Crowley’s analysis that we did not bother to discuss dermal-ridge evidence further in this book. Those who wish to learn more are referred to the dozens of relevant articles on Crowley’s Web site, including “Dermal Ridges and Casting Artifacts,” October 19, 2009, Orgone Research, http://orgoneresearch.com/2009/10/19/dermal-ridges-and-casting-artifacts/; “Ridges and Furrows,” October 19, 2009, Orgone Research, http://orgoneresearch.com/2009/10/19/ridges-and-furrows-2/; “Arched Furrows,” October 19, 2009, Orgone Research, http://orgoneresearch.com/2009/10/19/arched-furrows/; “Ridge Flow Pattern,” October 19, 2009, Orgone Research, http://orgoneresearch.com/2009/10/19/ridge-flow-pattern/; and “Conclusion,” October 19, 2009, Orgone Research, http://orgoneresearch.com/2009/10/19/conclusion/ (all accessed April 2, 2013).

  33 Regal, Searching for Sasquatch.

  34 Paul McCarthy, “Cryptozoologists: An Endangered Species,” January 11, 1993, Bigfoot Encounters, http://www.bigfootencounters.com/articles/cryptozoologists.htm (accessed November 25, 2011).

  35 CryptoMundo, http://www.cryptomundo.com/ (accessed November 25, 2011).

  36 Buhs, Bigfoot; Regal, Searching for Sasquatch.

  37 Both Mayor and Naish are on the peer-review panel of a recently announced new cryptozoology journal to be published by the Center for Fortean Zoology. See Karl Shuker, “Welcome to the Journal of Cryptozoology—A New, Peer-Reviewed Scientific Journal Devoted to Mystery Animals,” February 27, 2012, ShukerNature, http://karlshuker.blogspot.com/2012/02/welcome-to-journal-of-cryptozoology-new.html (accessed February 27, 2012).

  38 David Orr, “Scaphognathus crassirostris: A Pterosaur in the Historical Record?” June 14, 2011, Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs, http://chasmosaurs.blogspot.com/2011/06/scaphognathus-crassirostris-pterosaur.html (accessed November 25, 2011).

  39 Cryptozoology Biographies, Cryptozoological Realms, http://www.cryptozoology.net/english/biographies/bios_a.html (accessed November 25, 2011).

  40 William J. Gibbons, Mokele-Mbembe: Mystery Beast of the Congo Basin (Landisville, Pa.: Coachwhip, 2010), 9.

  41 Niles Eldredge and Steven M. Stanley, eds., Living Fossils (Berlin: Springer, 1984).

  42 Donald R. Prothero, Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007), 24–49.

  43 According to Patriot Bible University’s “Accreditation” page, the school is “authorized by the State of Colorado Commission for Higher Education to grant religious degrees…. As we do not exist to train secular career professionals, grant secular degrees, or educate those who see ministry as a profession … we have chosen not to spend our student’s [sic] money on secular regional accreditation that costs tens of thousands of dollars—annually [emphasis in original],” Patriot Bible University, http://www.patriotuniversity.org/index.php?mod=Articles&menuid=67 (accessed February 26, 2012). They further specify, 1. Patriot Bible University is not eligible to participate in the Federal Student Loan/Financial Aid program.

  2. Patriot Bible University is not authorized to accept the GI Bill.

  3. Patriot Bible University is unable to guarantee acceptance of its degrees in other postsecondary institutions….

  4. Corporations are not required to recognize degrees from Patriot Bible University. (“Who Accredits Patriot Bible University?” Patriot Bible University, http://www.patriotuniversity.com/Secure/infoAccreditation.htm [accessed February 26, 2012])

  44 Karen Bartelt, “The Dissertation Kent Hovind Doesn’t Want You to Read,” http://www.noanswersingenesis.org.au/bartelt_dissertation_on_hovind_thesis.htm (accessed January 26, 2012).

  45 Michael Stewart, “A Decade for ‘Dr. Dino,’” Pensacola [Fla.] News Journal, January 20, 2007, A1.

  46 Bader, Mencken, and Baker, Paranormal America, 24, 218nn.9–11.

  47 Susan A. Clancy, Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2005).

  48 David W. Moore, “Three in Four Americans Believe in Paranormal,” June 16, 2005, Gallup News Service, http://www.gallup.com/poll/16915/Three-Four-AmericansBelieve-Paranormal.aspx (accessed March 1, 2012).

  49 Bader, Mencken, and Baker, Paranormal America, 129.

  50 Ibid., 94, fig. 4.3.

  51 Ibid., 147–148, figs. 6.2 and 6.3.

  52 Ibid., 56–57.

  53 Quoted in David Briggs, “Paranormal Is the New Normal in America,” January 31, 2011, Association of Religion Data Archives, http://thearda.com/trend/featured/paranormal-is-the-new-normal-in-america/ (accessed January 26, 2012).

  54 Bader, Mencken, and Baker, Paranormal America, 147–148, figs. 6.2 and 6.3.

  55 David Briggs, “Paranormal Is the New Normal in America.”

  56 Bader, Mencken, and Baker, Paranormal America, 155–156.r />
  57 Quoted in John W. Morehead, “Paranormal America,” January 19, 2011, Sacred Tribes Journal, http://www.sacredtribesjournal.org/stj/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=67:paranormal-america&catid=1:latest-news (accessed January 26, 2012).

  58 Bader, Mencken, and Baker, Paranormal America, 141–156.

  59 Ibid., 97–99, figure 4.6.

  60 Ibid., 120.

  61 Ibid., 130; Moore, “Three in Four Americans Believe in Paranormal.”

  62 Christopher D. Bader, “Supernatural Support Groups: Who Are the UFO Abductees and Ritual-Abuse Survivors?” Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 42, no. 4 (2003): 669–678.

  63 Bader, Mencken, and Baker, Paranormal America, 69–70.

  64 Clancy, Abducted, 129.

  65 Ibid., 129–136.

  66 Question 76F: Have you ever read a book, consulted a Web site, or researched the following topics: Mysterious animals, such as Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster? Baylor Religion Survey, 2005, Association of Religion Data Archives, http://www.thearda.com/Archive/Files/Analysis/BRS2005/BRS2005_VAR390_1.asp (accessed March 1, 2012).

  67 Matthew J. Sharps, Justin Matthews, and Janet Asten, “Cognition and Belief in Paranormal Phenomena: Gestalt/Feature-Intensive Processing Theory and Tendencies Toward ADHD, Depression, and Dissociation,” Journal of Psychology 140, no. 6 (2006): 579–590.

  68 Question 74K: To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements: Creatures such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster will one day be discovered by science; Baylor Religion Survey, 2005, Association of Religion Data Archives, http://www.thearda.com/Archive/Files/Analysis/BRS2005/BRS2005_Var377_1.asp (accessed January 26, 2012).

  69 “Belief in Bigfoot: In your opinion, does each of the following exist? Bigfoot (Baylor Religion Survey, Wave 2, 2007),” Association of Religion Data Archives, http://www.thearda.com/quickstats/qs_43.asp (accessed February 27, 2012).

  70 “Americans More Likely to Believe in Bigfoot than Canadians,” March 4, 2012, Angus Reid Public Opinion, http://www.angus-reid.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/2012.03.04_Myths.pdf (accessed March 4, 2012).

  71 “TBRC Investigators Hear a Number of Close Knocks and Discover Fresh Tracks the Next Day,” January 5, 2008, Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy, http://www.texasbigfoot.com/reports/report/detail/455 (accessed March 1, 2012); Bader, Mencken, and Baker, Paranormal America, 122–126.

  72 Bader, Mencken, and Baker, Paranormal America, 121.

  73 Christopher Bader, F. Carson Mencken, and Joseph O. Baker, “Survey of Attenders: Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy Annual Meeting 2009,” Waco, Tex.: Baylor University, Department of Sociology, http://www.thearda.com/Archive/Files/Descriptions/BIGFOOT.asp (accessed March 1, 2012).

  74 Bader, Mencken, and Baker, Paranormal America, 113–121.

  75 Ibid.; “Survey of Attenders: Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy Annual Meeting 2009: Gender,” Association of Religion Data Archives, http://www.thearda.com/Archive/Files/Analysis/BIGFOOT/BIGFOOT_Var45_1.asp (accessed March 1, 2012).

  76 Bader, Mencken, and Baker, Paranormal America, 120; “Survey of Attenders: Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy Annual Meeting 2009: Education,” Association of Religion Data Archives, http://www.thearda.com/Archive/Files/Analysis/BIGFOOT/BIGFOOT_Var105_1.asp (accessed March 1, 2012).

  77 Mike Leggett, “Texas Bigfoot Conference More Boring Than You Would Think,” Austin American-Statesman, October 4, 2009, http://www.mcclean.org/bigfoottimes/blog/2009_10_01_archives.html (accessed November 25, 2011).

  78 Bader, Mencken, and Baker, Paranormal America, 120.

  79 Chad Arment, Cryptozoology: Science and Speculation (Landisville, Pa.: Coachwhip, 2004), 11.

  80 Loren Coleman, Mothman and Other Curious Encounters (New York: Paraview Press, 2002), 112.

  81 Janet Bord and Colin Bord, Bigfoot Casebook Updated: Sightings and Encounters from 1818 to 2004 (Enumclaw, Wash.: Pine Winds Press, 2006), 130–132.

  82 Bader, Mencken, and Baker, Paranormal America, 137–138.

  83 Bord and Bord, Bigfoot Casebook Updated, 137.

  84 Ibid., 146–147.

  85 Bader, Mencken, and Baker, Paranormal America, 138–139.

  86 Bord and Bord, Bigfoot Casebook Updated, 136–137.

  87 Michael McLeod, Anatomy of a Beast: Obsession and Myth on the Trail of Bigfoot (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009), 145.

  88 Jon-Erik Beckjord, “A Real Life Daily Application for Wormholes in Space-Time,” February 2007, http://web.archive.org/web/20080414223831/; http://www.beckjord.com/wormholesinuse/ (accessed November 25, 2011).

  89 Daniel Loxton, “New Video from Loch Ness,” eSkeptic, June 13, 2007, Skeptic, http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/07-06-13/ (accessed March 3, 2012).

  90 Tony Shiels, Monstrum! A Wizard’s Tale (London: Fortean Times, 1990), 69.

  91 Rikki Razdan and Alan Kielar, “Sonar and Photographic Searches for the Loch Ness Monster: A Reassessment,” Skeptical Inquirer 9, no. 2 (1984–1985): 153–154.

  92 Daniel Loxton, “An Argument that Should Never Be Made Again,” February 2, 2010, Skepticblog, http://www.skepticblog.org/2010/02/02/an-argument-that-should-neverbe-made-again/ (accessed March 3, 2012).

  93 Michel Meurger, with Claude Gagnon, Lake Monster Traditions: A Cross-Cultural Analysis (London: Fortean Times, 1988), 23–24.

  94 British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, “About,” http://bcscc.ca/blog/About (accessed March 3, 2012).

  95 Aaron M. Bauer and Anthony P. Russell, “A Living Plesiosaur? A Critical Assessment of the Description of Cadborosaurus willsi,” Cryptozoology 12 (1996): 1–18.

  96 John Kirk, “What on Earth Is Going On in the World of Cryptozoology?” British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club Quarterly, January 2012, 1.

  97 Benjamin Radford and Joe Nickell, Lake Monster Mysteries: Investigating the World’s Most Elusive Creatures (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2006), 50.

  98 Richard J. Greenwell, “The Big Black Cat of Puerto Penasco,” Cryptozoology 13 (1998): 38–46.

  99 Richard J. Greenwell, “A Classificatory System for Cryptozoology,” Cryptozoology 4 (1985): 1–14.

  100 Elizabeth F. Loftus, Memory: Surprising New Insights into How We Remember and Why We Forget (New York: Addison-Wesley, 1980).

  101 Sharon Hill, “Want to Shed the Pseudoscience Label? Try Harder,” May 23, 2011, Doubtful, http://idoubtit.wordpress.com/2011/05/23/want-to-shed-the-pseudoscience-labeltry-harder/ (accessed January 26, 2012).

  102 Marcello Truzzi, “On the Extraordinary: An Attempt at Clarification,” Zetetic Scholar 1 (1978): 11; “Carl Sagan on Alien Abduction,” Nova, February 27, 1996, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/space/sagan-alien-abduction.html (accessed December 22, 2011).

  103 Benjamin Radford, Tracking the Chupacabra: The Vampire Beast in Fact, Fiction, and Folklore (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2011); Radford and Nickell, Lake Monster Mysteries.

  104 Michael Shermer, The Believing Brain: From Ghosts and Gods to Politics and Conspiracies: How We Construct Beliefs and Reinforce Them as Truths (New York: Holt, 2011).

  105 Daniel Cohen, Myths of the Space Age (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1967), 5.

  106 Ray Hyman, The Elusive Quarry: A Scientific Appraisal of Psychical Research (New York: Prometheus Books, 1989), 446–447. A well-known critic of research into psychic phenomena, Hyman was a co-founder of CSICOP, the first major skeptical organization in the United States, in 1976.

  107 Ibid.

  108 Daniel Loxton, “Skeptics as Model Train Lovers,” September 17, 2010, Skepticblog, http://www.skepticblog.org/2010/09/17/skeptics-as-model-train-lovers/ (accessed February 20, 2012).

  109 Daniel Loxton, “LogiCon 2011 Keynote Available Now,” July 1, 2011, Skepticblog, http://www.skepticblog.org/2011/07/01/logicon-2011-keynote-available-now/ (accessed February 20, 2012).

  110 Durrell, introduction to Heuvelmans, On the Track of Unknown Animals, 20.

  111 Celia Dugger, “Study Cites To
ll of AIDS Policy in South Africa,” New York Times, November 25, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/world/africa/26aids.html (accessed February 21, 2012).

  112 Prothero, Evolution, 24–49.

  113 California Academy of Sciences, “American Adults Flunk Basic Science: National Survey Shows Only One-in-Five Adults Can Answer Three Science Questions Correctly” [press release], February 25, 2009, http://www.calacademy.org/newsroom/releases/2009/scientific_literacy.php (accessed February 23, 2012).

  114 National Science Foundation, Science and Engineering Indicators 2012, Appendix table 7-9: Correct Answers to Factual Knowledge Questions in Physical and Biological Sciences, 1985–2010,” http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind12/append/c7/at07-09.pdf (accessed February 23, 2012).

  115 Jon D. Miller, Eugenie C. Scott, and Shinji Okamoto, “Public Acceptance of Evolution,” Science 313 (2006): 765–766.

  116 National Science Foundation, Science and Engineering Indicators 2012, Appendix table 7-9.

  117 “Galileo Was Wrong; the Church Was Right,” www.galileowaswrong.blogspot.com/p/summary.html (accessed January 26, 2012).

  118 Steve Crabtree, “New Poll Gauges Americans’ General Knowledge Levels,” July 6, 1999, Gallup News Service, http://www.gallup.com/poll/3742/New-Poll-Gauges-Americans-General-Knowledge-Levels.aspx (accessed February 23, 2012).

  119 Eugenie Scott, “The Creation/Evolution Continuum” December 7, 2000, National Center for Science Education, http://ncse.com/creationism/general/creationevolution-continuum (accessed February 27, 2012).

  120 Miller, Scott, and Okamoto, “Public Acceptance of Evolution.”

  121 “Canadians Believe Human Beings Evolved over Millions of Years,” August 5, 2008, Angus Reid Public Opinion, http://www.angus-reid.com/wp-content/uploads/archived-pdf/2008.08.05_Origin.pdf (accessed February 22, 2012); Brian Alters, Anila Asghar, and Jason R. Wiles, “Evolution Education Research Centre,” in “Darwin and the Evangelicals,” Humanist Perspectives, no. 154 (2005), http://www.humanistperspectives.org/issue154/EERC.html (accessed January 26, 2012).

  122 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, “What Students Know and Can Do: Student Performance in Reading, Mathematics and Science,” PISA 2009 Results: Executive Summary, http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/54/12/46643496.pdf (accessed February 22, 2012).