Cryptids, what do you believe in?

[GrimTuesday]

All throughout the world, there are stories of strange beasts and monsters that inhabit our world. Some are well known, the Yeti, Sasquatch and The Loch Ness monster likely spring to mind immediately. Having read through the Mermaids thread, it got me wondering what types of cryptids the Escapist believes in.

I personally believe in Sasquatch, although I think it only lives in the western US and Canada due to the abundance of wilderness and variety of food sources for what in all likelihood would be an omnivorous animal, as well as the mild climate that would be well suited for a large hairy ape. In addition, knowing that we didn't find the mountain gorilla up until some time in the late 1800's or early 1900's as well as the possibility that we just recently found a new ape species (or subspecies of chimp), the Bili Ape, it wouldn't be entirely surprising to me to find a large, semi intelligent ape in the Pacific Northwest.

Other than that, I don't believe in Nessie or anything like that, no wolfmen or mermaids for this guy.

So what do you guys believe in, and why?

 

[shrekfan246]

I maintain an air of skepticism about most of them.

I like to think the world is more fantastic than it appears to be, especially in places like the deep ocean, but I acknowledge that it'd be pretty far-fetched for something like a plesiosaur or descendant to still be around, especially in a loch of all places.

It just seems so boring to me to say "No, supernatural creatures don't exist, because SCIENCE!" I mean, how many giant or colossal squid have we actually observed in their natural habitats?

 

[Silvanus]

I tend not to believe in much, except for a period of about 2-4 hours after watching an episode of the X Files.



Most of the time, though, I'm open to Aliens, and that's about it. Not the "visiting earth in saucers" type.

 

[Realitycrash]

Open to the likelihood of aliens, though I doubt they are anywhere near us to even know we exist. The rest...Eh. Would be cool if we found Dinosaurs in Congo, though.

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

I believe in the Mothman...well, I believe there is /something/ out in those woods, and hey, it could be Mothman. It would be cool. I do believe in aliens too, but I don't think those are considered cryptids...

 

[Korolev]

Are Aliens cryptids? If they are, then sure, I believe aliens EXIST. I don't believe they've ever come into contact with Earth and almost certainly never will (there are billions of galaxies each containing billions of stars, with who-knows how many planets around each one. All evidence suggests the universe isn't teeming with life, and most of those planets will be dead planets. The odds of intelligent species EVER coming into contact with each other, given the vast, vast, vast, vast, vast, vast, vast, vast, vast, vast, vast interstellar spaces between even the nearest stars, are quite low).

 

[Kolby Jack]

I don't believe in any cryptids, and I think it's kind of foolish for otherwise rational people to do so. That being said, I don't have any particular disdain for those who do. There are much worse things to believe in, and I have plenty of my own foolishness to contend with already.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

If you have to 'believe' in something then it usually isn't real. I don't take leaps of faith regarding things like that. While I might find some of them interesting, without solid evidence I won't take a random leap of logic to assume they exist without it. Unexplained sightings and grainy pictures do not equal proof. I am a skeptic at heart, but believe me, I would love for someone to provide unequivocal proof for some of the cryptids out there, I think they can be very interesting.
I remember when giant squid were a cryptid for the longest time and now we have giant squid AND colossal squid. The oceans especially I think are ripe for those kind of things.
Anyway, long story short, I don't "believe" in any of them. However, I still find some of the stories and sightings interesting, but I don't think you should take much out of it until there is some scientific evidence.

 

[FreakofNatur]

Are ethereal beings(aka Ghosts) counted? I want to believe in them, despite evidence. It's more of a interest thing rather than logical reason. I just want to imagine we are truly not alone despite dying.

 

[SinisterGehe]

I don't believe they exist. Terra fauna is very stable due to the competition and resources available. One species will dominate the eco-slot available to them in the local sphere and if it drops out other will rapidly replace it.
So if there indeed is some mythical ape like being that moves with 2 legs, you would think it's dominance would be more noticeable. It is simple Darwinism and ecology.
That silver/blue skinned blue blooded whatmajig, yeah what part of evolutionary branch of the animal terrestre would it have come from?
Sorry if it doesn't make evolutionary sense and obey the rules of ecology, it doesn't exist. Also absence of evidence is not evidence and we have no hard evidence of these things.

And UFO's and aliens. I think they do exist, it is mathematically stupid to say we are only living beings in the world, if I recall the SCIENCE magazine article there should be about 50.000 intelligent species in our galaxy. Tho distances are stupidly huge so they most likely will never meet.
Also the whole flying saucer things. I don't buy it... It seem physically way too inconvenient to get such thing moving and stable. And if they use "anti-gravity" engines then it doesn't matter what shape the things would be.

 

[Saladfork]

Well, I don't believe in any form of supernatural occurrence or being, I don't believe in any cryptozoological myth like the loch ness monster or the sasquatch and I never will unless someone can present compelling evidence.

I do believe that alien life probably exists in some form somewhere in the universe, but I very much doubt any of it has ever been to earth.

 

[Rainforce]

rule of thumb: if you think about something people don't know much about, and the whole secrecy thing as well as the object described intrigue and excite you, then it probably doesn't exist.

unless you're a chemist or physicist of course : D! or stuck in a valve ARG.

 

[zefiris]

Alien life likely exists.

Cryptids likely don't.

With cryptids I mean animals in developed areas - such as the Sasquatch or the Loch Ness Monster. Those are pretty obviously nonsense. What does exist is animals in zones that aren't well explored. The deep sea likely has creatures we can't even imagine.

 

[NightmareExpress]

Aliens? Definitely.
We're aliens to somebody out there, even if they happen to be bacteria or amoeba.
The law of big numbers would suggest that another planet capable of supporting life and subsequent evolution is indeed very much a possibility if not a definite thing. Contact with them is something else and exponentially more frightening than their mere existence.

On this planet, we're still discovering new species lurking about in the corners we've managed to leave unexplored or floating up from depths that prove to be unable to be presently explored. As a skeptic, I'd like to imagine that the possibility exists that some cryptids are sightings of said elusive species. Though with that said, why hasn't a creature such as Sasquatch ever left a complete body behind? Are they such an intelligent species of primate that they've managed to completely pulverize the bones of their fallen into dust, or completely cremate them before sprinkling them into water? Or perhaps it's true that they don't exist and bears have simply gotten some nasty diseases these days.

Speculation and possibilities are fun, the lack of tangible evidence is frustrating.
Don't believe in the other ones, though I will admit that they make cool stories.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Cryptids?

Well, apex predator land dwelling cryptids...no. Those sorts of things you'd expect to find. Possibly some could exist in seriously out of the way places, but not in developed nations.

Seriously big deep sea cryptids...I could accept that. We know giant and colossal squids exist, but hardly ever see one, the colossal was just known fairly recently.

Small cryptids, also fair enough. Nobody seems to care about them unless they are really big and/or apex predators, mind, but strange insects, frogs or whatnot as yet undiscovered, fair enough.

 

[kypsilon]

Read a book called Alien Dawn by Colin Wilson and then get back to me. Lots of weird stuff in there, but all of it very well done. He covers damned near everything with a fairly hefty amount of actual science involved. A good read, even if you don't believe in any of it.

As for me, I can't discount anything as I don't have all the facts.

 

[bug_of_war]

If you can't prove or disprove something's existence then it is entirely possible for it to be real, however it's irrational to say as a fact that something is or is not existent. Personally I think it's highly unlikely for cryptids to be real, but that doesn't mean it's impossible for them to exist. Bigfoot for example, something that has semi human intelligence, stands uprights and is supposedly taller than humans, however evolution dictates features such as these make a species much more likely to be the dominant species of the area it lives in. However, new species of all shapes, sizes, bodies and intelligence are found frequently, so while it would be odd, it's plausible that bigfoot could exist.

In the end, we wont know if they're real or unreal until we find one, or mow down the entire planet and remove all possible hiding places.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Mostly none of them, to be honest. The Montauk Monster feels like a badly decomposed pig, the occasional "chupacabra" sighting feels like they're describing particularly mangy dogs or other canines; and most Lovecraftian lumps of jelly that wash up on our shores aren't much more than fat deposits from dead whales.

I'm saying that, mind you, knowing that we're developing the tech to peer deeper into the ocean's depths than ever before and that we've found environments that are teeming with life where most biologists of a few decades past would have sworn nothing could possibly exist. We've seen squids big enough to qualify as pseudo-kraken to overly excited minds from the colonial days who might've seen little skiffs or lifeboats getting crushed. Shit, the average Joe or Jane didn't know about siphonophorae - colonies of small jellyfish-like organisms operating as a single organism - a few years back. Strolling around YouTube, I've seen entirely natural occurrences that would've made someone from 1912 go and shout that "Weird Tales" needs to become a new holy book for some sort of freakish new cult.

In other words, any animal we don't entirely understand as of now qualifies as cryptid material, in my opinion. As soon as clarity's obtained, however, that label should be removed.

 

[Yopaz]

Honestly, sasquatch is quite unlikely. Evidence suggests that the origin of primates is in North America (insert jokes about Americans here), but the humanoid primates have their origin in Africa. Evolution depends on several historical events so it's extremely unlikely that a humanoid primate were to originate twice with no connection in either lineage or historical events. Sasquatch is unimaginative, it's basically a giant feral hairy human. When creating a monster what's known is used.

I'm sceptical about most cryptids. People who don't fully understand evolution are quite found of saying "Anything is possible", but that's really as far from the truth as you can get. Evolution is severely limited just like the other sciences. There are undiscovered creatures out there and some of them will baffle us when discovered, but often the truth is quite boring compared to the mythology.