Instigator / Pro
14
1922
rating
117
debates
97.44%
won
Topic
#1582

Bigfoots are Bullshit

Status
Finished

The debate is finished. The distribution of the voting points and the winner are presented below.

Winner & statistics
Better arguments
6
0
Better sources
4
2
Better legibility
2
1
Better conduct
2
0

After 2 votes and with 11 points ahead, the winner is...

oromagi
Parameters
Publication date
Last updated date
Type
Standard
Number of rounds
3
Time for argument
Three days
Max argument characters
10,000
Voting period
One week
Point system
Multiple criterions
Voting system
Open
Contender / Con
3
1337
rating
26
debates
9.62%
won
Description

THBT: No credible evidence supports the existence of a large yet undiscovered primate species extant in North America.

Bigfoot sightings are regularly reported in North America.

Here's one report from last summer in my region:https://www.bfro.net/GDB/show_report.asp?id=63153

DEFINITIONS:

BIGFOOTS (or BIGFEET) are "said to be hairy, upright-walking, ape-like creatures that dwell in the wilderness and leave footprints. Depictions often portray them as a missing link between humans and human ancestors or other great apes."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bigfoot

BULLSHIT (also BULLCRAP) is "a common English expletive which may be shortened to the euphemism bull or the initialism B.S. In British English, "bollocks" is a comparable expletive. It is mostly a slang term and a profanity which means "nonsense", especially as a rebuke in response to communication or actions viewed as deceptive, misleading, disingenuous, unfair or false.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit

BURDEN of PROOF

Burden of Proof is shared. However, any extraordinary claims should be supported by evidence of extraordinary quality and quantity.

PRO will argue the consensus of science. CON must provide substantive, testable (not mere anecdote and conjecture) evidence that a species of North American primate presently exists unacknowledged by the scientific community.

PRO is requesting sincere and friendly engagement on this subject.
No trolls or kritiks, please.

- RULES --
1. Forfeit=auto loss
2. Sources may be merely linked in debate as long as citations are listed in comments
3. No new args in R3
4. For all relevant terms, individuals should use commonplace understandings that fit within the rational context of this resolution and debate

Round 1
Pro
#1
RESOLVED: NO CREDIBLE EVIDENCE SUPPORTS the EXISTENCE of a LARGE YET UNDISCOVERED PRIIMATE SPECIES EXTANT in NORTH AMERICA

I.  Footprint


  • Large, charismatic,mammalian fauna leave behind large amounts of their existence, even species that went extinct tens of thousands of years ago.
    • fossil record
    • remains trapped in tar pits, peat bogs, glacial ice.
    • tufts of hair 
    • hunting, scavenging, and food remnants
    • scat
    • footprints
  • Although thousands of bits of evidence have been tested purporting to be one of the above, no evidence of a North American primate or unique primate DNA has ever been supported.
II.  Pictures

  • We live in a time of exponentially increasing surveillance, satellite imagery, concealed wildlife cameras everywhere, weather watch and fire watch cameras, infra-red cameras and binoculars scanning the forests for migration data, drones, smart phones, etc. 

  • Although the average maximum number of pixels used in digital images doubles every couple of years the quality and definition of bigfoot pictures never increases:  pictures of bigfoot are always blurry, distant, and indistinct.

III.  It's not just something the size of Bigfoot, there is no scientific evidence or fossil evidence for any primate of any size ever in North America.  Great apes evolve from smaller primates but there is no evidence that were even primate ancestors in North America later than 55 million years ago. [4]

IV.  University of Buffalo cultural anthropologist Phillip Stevens summarizes the scientific consensus regarding Bigfoots as:

It defies all logic that there is a population of these things sufficient to keep them going. What it takes to maintain any species, especially a long-lived species, is you gotta have a breeding population. That requires a substantial number, spread out over a fairly wide area where they can find sufficient food and shelter to keep hidden from all the investigators. [5]
Perhaps as recently as 100 years ago, the absence of evidence for a large charismatic mega-fauna like Sasquatch could be considered inconclusive because there were still a small number of remote places unobserved by biologists.  But today, there are no places left in North America where thousands of large primates could plausibly hide from human technology.

PRO concludes that the existence of Bigfoots is not just unproven but impossible in the present age.

PRO looks forward to CON's R1 argument.

Con
#2
There is actually more evidence of big foot than there is for the Christian god are you willing to state here that Jesus is just another Santa Claus ?

"Most researchers who study the bigfoot subject will point to the abundance of witnesses as the factor they found most compelling about the mystery when first becoming acquainted with it. Over the course of time, bigfoot researchers meet enough eyewitnesses to realize there are indeed many, many eyewitness across the continent who are indeed very credible. Often there are multiple witnesses to a given sighting or encounter.

"There are, in fact, way too many eyewitnesses for this phenomenon to be purely imaginary, as skeptics assert. With such an abundance of eyewitnesses, who are so dispersed across the continent, and dispersed across the decades, the alternate skeptical explanation that the sightings are the result of hoaxers, in whole or even in large part, becomes much less likely.

"Researchers eventually come to realize that if there are indeed so many credible eyewitnesses across the land, then the species they so consistently and emphatically describe probably exists also."

http://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/finding-bigfoot/lists/bigfoot-evidence/  "The mystery behind the sightings of sasquatches (a term used interchangeably with bigfoot) took on a new dimension in the 1960's when Dr. Grover Krantz of Washington State University began examining casts and photos of footprints from various parts of Washington. One of the sets of casts showed anatomical features of an injured foot that were either made by a real upright-walking primate, or an artist with an expert understanding of primate foot anatomy."
Content courtesy of the BFRO.

Round 2
Pro
#3
thx, billbatard.

RESOLVED: NO CREDIBLE EVIDENCE SUPPORTS the EXISTENCE of a LARGE YET UNDISCOVERED PRIMATE SPECIES EXTANT in NORTH AMERICA


OBJECTION:  All of CON's R1 is a cut & paste from an advertisement for a TV show except for the first sentence.  PRO will not treat any of the cut & paste material as an argument but will only counter the opening sentence which PRO hopes is original content.


CON states: "There is actually more evidence of big foot than there is for the Christian god..."

What evidence supports this assertion?

CON asks: "...are you willing to state here that Jesus is just another Santa Claus ?"

Irrelevant to topic.


CON offered no credible evidence supporting the existence of bigfoot.  Indeed, CON made little effort to even be understood.


PRO extends all arguments.


Con
#4
To mock big foot is to mock jesus because there is equal evidence for the existence of  both
Round 3
Pro
#5
thx, billbatard.

RESOLVED: NO CREDIBLE EVIDENCE SUPPORTS the EXISTENCE of a LARGE YET UNDISCOVERED PRIMATE SPECIES EXTANT in NORTH AMERICA


To win this debate, CON needed to present at least one credible, verifiable, testable proof that establishes the existence of a North American primate.  Instead, PRO authored two jokey sentences and cut and paste an ad for a tv show.

PRO finds no engagement on CON's part and so simply extends R1 arguments.

If VOTERS agree that no credible evidence has been offered, then VOTERS should find arguments for PRO.

Furthermore, VOTERS should note that PRO specifically requested:

" sincere and friendly engagement on this subject.
No trolls or kritiks, please."

PRO argues that CON has violated the terms of this debate as agreed to by CON upon acceptance.  PRO requests that VOTERS award CONDUCT to PRO in light of this violation.

Thanks to VOTERS in advance for their kind consideration.

Please vote PRO!



Con
#6
i dont know it jus there have been so many sighting and i think where there is smoke there is fire, people build huge churches to this jesus guy and there really isnt a whole lot of ecidence he existed, does that mean he did not? https://www.ancient-origins.net/unexplained-phenomena/there-archaeological-evidence-bigfoot-part-i-005350