Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence; until that evidence is presented, I take the side of skepticism. My reference to the use of stone tools was from a quote in the story by the amateur scientist, who claims to have evidence of bigfoot: "The Bigfoot found in these parts would be diametrically opposite to his counterparts in size, weight and eating habits. Stone tools that lie strewn around testify he used to prey on wild animals", said Krishnaswamy.
Footprints are not good enough to validate any such claims of bigfoot, although they may be interesting, they just aren't enough evidence to support the existence of a creature of folklore. Until a physical sample of fur, blood, or a corpse is found, the bigfoot will always remain in the realm of the fringe. I will submit that there could be a possibility of bigfoot, but until we find evidence, I will take the side of caution...
Yep, the stone tools are in my article, and are claimed to have been found by the amateur anthropologist. As far as other evidence goes: obviously it's all second hand info, as reporters were interviewing villagers, but one tourism group in India claims to have found hair samples which they plan to perform DNA testing on.
I don't necessarily believe they're out there either, but I like the idea that they could be.
N8theSk8 said:
Is that at one point in time it was common knowledge that the world was in fact FLAT. And if you thought otherwise, you were an insane person.
It must first be reiterated that with extraordinary few exceptions no educated person in the history of Western Civilization from the third century B.C. onward believed that the earth was flat. A round earth appears at least as early as the sixth century BC with Pythagoras, who was followed by Aristotle, Euclid, and Aristarchus, among others in observing that the earth was a sphere. Although there were a few dissenters--Leukippos and Demokritos for example--by the time of Eratosthenes (3 c. BC), followed by Crates(2 c. BC), Strabo (3 c. BC), and Ptolemy (first c. AD), the sphericity of the earth was accepted by all educated Greeks and Romans.
Nor did this situation change with the advent of Christianity. A few%u2014at least two and at most five--early Christian fathers denied the spherically of earth by mistakenly taking passages such as Ps. 104:2-3 as geographical rather than metaphorical statements. On the other side tens of thousands of Christian theologians, poets, artists, and scientists took the spherical view throughout the early, medieval, and modern church. The point is that no educated person believed otherwise.
Holy cow, I'm glad Cairo is around to correct all the popular misconceptions I've bought into!
mingol
Singapore
July 2005
JUN 12, 2007 05:08 AM