Today I learned that my boss believes in "the chupacabra," a creature that ranks right up there with the Loch Ness monster, Bigfoot, the abominable snowman, unicorns, dragons, fairies and women who Look That Good when they roll out of bed in the morning.
I even did a little search and pointed out real quick-like an article debunking this bullshit but he instructed me to look some more, so I did. And sent him
this article. Fat lot of good it will do because lately it seems I'm surrounded by people who don't care much for evidence of any kind.
Recently some friends who I used to respect a great deal came to visit - a couple. The man started talking to me about a documentary on bigfoot and naturally I started to laugh. I wasn't being snarky. I sincerely thought he was making a joke. Not so, though. He proceeded to tell me about this film he saw, including what the makers had to say about the smell, the footprints, and so on. I let him talk, but went to search the next day and sure enough that particular film had been debunked. Evidently it's sport in "bigfoot country" for locals to make fake footprints. All fur linked to this creature has turned out to be run-of-the-mill animal fur or completely fake fur planted for bigfoot hunters. Very silly, really. This gigantic creature spotted around the world is so elusive that even when he's gravely ill he manages to sneak off to a vat of acid or some such thing that completely disolves him so that there's nothing left to study -- no body. No bones. No evidence. That's one crafty species.
Sure, new species are discovered from time to time, so it's possible that some bizarre creatures exist that we simply haven't found yet. And isn't it interesting when we do? But to steal a line from Carl Sagan: extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. And none of these 'mythical creature believers' have provided any that isn't easily debunked and dismissed and when mundane evidence to the contrary is presented they simply refuse to look. This is the part I don't understand.
I understand what it's like to be deluded, or hoodwinked, or ignorant, but when someone can say, "here look - read this" and you choose to plug your ears while saying, "la la la la la" then that I just don't get.
I'm no one important. I'm not a scholar. I'm not some wise sage, or an expert in any field, but I have the capacity to search for the truth. If something doesn't sound right to me (and even if it does) then I do what research I can. The internet is a beautiful thing. Oh, sure, it's full of fanciful bullshit, but it's really not that terribly difficult to pull the facts from the fiction for a person of average intelligence and one thing the internet has done is offer facts from scientists and scholars and experts to us unwashed masses who would otherwise not have access to said revelations. Again, there's plenty of 'litter' but it's really not that hard to pluck it out. Really.
Another friend tells me she won't read a site that chronicles cult activities because in her experience it's just Catholics trying to debunk other peoples' religions. What the hell?? How many people other than Catholics really care what Catholics have to say?
This could run on into hot towel zone, so I'll leave off. Just please, if you believe in something truly fantastical, do some REAL research. Read some things some critics of your beliefs have written, and study just a teeny bit. It really isn't that hard.
