THE BLUE TEAPOT

Many people scoff at cryptids and say simply that they don't exist.  If you point out to them that they cannot prove they don't exist and that they are therefore a possibility, they will sometimes reply by using Bertrand Russell's Blue Teapot argument.

This is to the effect that there might be a blue teapot floating about in space.  You can't prove it's not there, but no reasonable person would believe that it is.

The truth is that we all have a Threshold of Belief, beyond which we feel anything is impossible.  Some people have this threshold with regard to cryptids.

However, thresholds have had to change.  An example was cited by Arthur C. Clarke.  When a child, his mother told him that there were sheep in a nearby field with four horns apiece.  He snorted with disbelief.  Such a thing was beyond the Threshold of Belief for the young Clarke.  Then he saw the said sheep and had to change his Threshold mighty fast.

Had you told a primitive man that the earth was round, he would have raised his eyebrows in disbelief.  You could see it was flat and lumpy.  His Threshold of Belief was quite erroneous.

There is the story of the tropical native who asked a European what ice was.  The European explained.  The native shook his head in disbelief.  Solid water was beyond his Threshold of the credible.

A Threshold of Belief is not a valid instrument in an argument.  Look at the mind-boggling ideas you find in modern Physics.  Therefore you can'tr say of cryptids that they just can't be, just because they seem unbelievable.