A graphic illustration of what mean ''poorly informed''...

[sarahtasher]

https://blogs.chapman.edu/wilkinson/...-america-2017/

35% people believing that Ancient Aliens is factual. For frack sake, some shows are worse than sniffing glue.

[Sunseeker]

Only ones I don’t believe are people moving objects with their mind and Bigfoot.

Really? I'm actually surprised Bigfoot numbers are so low. Back when I lived in NorCal it was pretty wide-spread.

[Cerilis]

Only ones I don’t believe are people moving objects with their mind and Bigfoot.

What an odd place to draw the line.

[Worvon]

A small vocal amount of Americans are dumb. Kinda obvious after the last election.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Only ones I don’t believe are people moving objects with their mind and Bigfoot.

Hey now I'd love to move things with my mind. >.>

[Ealyssa]

I'm pretty sure the first paranormal belief in the US is god.

But hey, touchy touchy subject right?

[Endus]

I mean, it depends on how the question's phrased. Like, the human species has been around for at least 200,000 years. Human civilization only sums up the last 10,000 or so. Even the earliest traces of domestication only take us back about 15,000 years of that 200k.

Sure, the burst of domestication appears to coincide with the start of the most recent interglacial period; newly warming temperatures (at way slower than modern rates; don't make this about climate change) brought a burst of new species into new regions and prompted humanity to seemingly stretch its limbs and expand. This happened uniquely in multiple regions, somewhat simultaneously, and without any demonstration of interconnection, which is what makes the climate a strong causative impetus (also that it wasn't the same species, which you'd expect if it were due to trade connections).

Now, if you look at the level of tech we had at the start of that, it wasn't that different from where we were at 200,000 years ago; we're talking a range from the middle paleolithic into the upper paleolithic.

Now, looking at the glacial cycle, there was an earlier interglacial period, about 125k years ago. If a more-advanced culture had emerged then (and this coincides roughly with the dispersal of Homo Sapiens from Africa, as far as we can tell), and their technology was based on anything relatively delicate or prone to long-term decay; fine stoneworking, leather/wood, even working surface iron deposits (iron would've rusted away to nothing millenia ago), then it's at least possible that such a culture emerged, expanded, and then collapsed, and was subsequently obliterated by the ravages of time and the crushing glacier sheets of the last glacial period, which would've scoured any construction off the map. We only find stone age art in the most protected spaces, like relatively dry caves or sheltered rock faces, and if this culture didn't do that, nothing would've survived.

There's no concrete trace of it, and I wouldn't argue they developed anything beyond possibly crude iron implements, but that such a culture could have existed, I'd say, is plausible. I wouldn't argue they did exist until we found some evidence, but the idea that they might have shouldn't be discarded out of hand.

Same kind of deal with Bigfoot and Yeti. We know there was at least one hominid that fit that description; gigantopithecus. As far as we know, it lived in Southeast Asia exclusively. If there were some previously-unknown cousin that survived to fairly recent times (by which I mean, recently enough to have been observed and recorded into mythology, thousands of years ago), that'd explain a lot. Remember; there were wooly mammoth still running around some 10,000 years ago. Gigantopithecus itself was around as recently as 100k years ago. In THAT sense, it's not THAT crazy. Not "aliens kidnapped my grandma" crazy, like some of that stuff.


All that said, there's a HUGE difference between "hey, that COULD be true, let's test that idea and look for evidence" and "it's TOTALLY true and even though there's no evidence I can produce, you should all believe me!" which is what this poll was getting into.

[Pyro1990]

I don't know about you, but I'm inclined to believe everything this man says.

[infinit]

bigfoot is as believable as God, Yahweh, Allah etc... so almost 85% of the worlds population is poorly informed.

[Mittens]

DAE people that have a religion are dumb? Spaghetti monster lololol XDDDD

[Aeula]

It’s on the history channel dude, it’s history. You can’t change history.

[Stop Pretending]

Seems as plausible as a God.

[OrcsRLame]

I don’t believe in the ancient advanced civilizations either - forgot that one.

You really believe aliens have visited Earth? I mean, belief that aliens exist is totally fine. Our planet is like a drop of water in the ocean that is the universe, so it's pretty likely that somewhere out there's life on other planets. Just the law of large numbers.

But to believe that aliens have been to Earth, really? I mean, REALLY? We're soooooooooo far away from anything that could have life on it that it would take till the end of fucking time and back, (hyperbole) just to do a one way trip to check! And if other beings had the technology to go faster than light, their colonies would have multiplied and populated the entire universe by now, unless we're just so lucky that life on Earth emerged at the same time as alien life on another planet, which would be really really unlikely. And if they had populated the entire universe, we'd be able to detect them by now. It's called the Fermi Paradox, it's totally fascinating. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox

For the record, I don't believe in ghosts, but I would dearly like to be haunted by one. Even if it ends up being the most terrifying experience of my life, like Evil Within 2 "I'm being chased by a 10 foot tall multi-faced lady with a buzz saw arm" levels of scary, I would still rather know for sure. If there's any ghosts reading this, feel free to haunt me any time! Just don't pussy out when I call the James Randi Foundation!

[Mad_Murdock]

Aliens came to earth, planned to hang out, caught the early version of the Spanish flu and earth has been quarantined since. That's the story I like to tell everyone

[Immitis]

I think bigfeets is usin hell hounds as huntin dogs cuz i done seens hell hounds and big feets runnin through my corn i tell ya hwat

[Deleted]

and reports her race as “other.”

What does it even mean? Is it just that their race was not included in the list (unlikely), or that they're some sort of batshit crazy transracial human beings?

[Themerlin]

https://blogs.chapman.edu/wilkinson/...-america-2017/

35% people believing that Ancient Aliens is factual. For frack sake, some shows are worse than sniffing glue.

Ancient astronaut theorists ...say YES!

[Stretchie]

Really? I'm actually surprised Bigfoot numbers are so low. Back when I lived in NorCal it was pretty wide-spread.

yeah I was thinking the same. The least believed one is probably the most likely one to possibly be true

[Draco-Onis]

I don't get why this is odd, you have the vast majority of the population believing that there is this magical guy in the sky that can see everything and will take care of them after they die if they are good.

[Deleted]

It means they likely only had white, Hispanic, black and other as options. Maybe continue reading?

Oh right, so you're saying that most people in the US are not White, Hispanic or Black.
I get it now, you're so smart.