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March 2010_june_july_2009.qxd 29/03/2010 11:53 AM Page 29 Religious Struggle Over Cryptozoology 29 The Religious Struggle work and uncompleted doctoral work in both fundamentalists sought to reconcile religion and Over Cryptozoology social anthropology and sociology. He began science, by the 1920s, a movement had begun to doing field investigations in 1960. Since then, openly discredit evolution. This gave rise to From Joe Laycock, a doctoral he has published 30 books as well as countless several varieties of creationism and finally to candidate studying religion and articles and is one of the foremost experts on what has been called “creation science.” Both movements can be read as a cryptozoology in the world. society at Boston University Having written on the religious religious response to the cultural authority of dimension of a West Virginian cryptid known as science. Within this struggle, the search for “the the Mothman, I wanted to talk to Coleman unexplained” becomes a powerful asset. about the strange relationship between Because cryptozoology has positioned cryptozoology and religion. As it turns out, the itself on the periphery of the scientific search for hidden animals attracts two very establishment, it offers these groups hope of different religious elements: the New Age and undoing scientific paradigms and creating room creationism. Cryptozoology has long been for new sources of meaning and cultural associated in the public consciousness with authority. “Creation science” groups like UFOs, ghosts, and the paranormal. Meanwhile, Accelerated Christian Education and Answers some creationists see cryptozoology as a way to in Genesis seek scientific credibility despite the gain scientific support for their claims. For overwhelming opposition of the scientific example, textbooks created for private schools establishment. As such, they must rely heavily by the Accelerated Christian Education program on fringe theories, sometimes distorting them to claim that the Loch Ness Monster disproves suit their own ends. The claim that Nessie evolution. disproves evolution is a case in point. Coleman seemed mildly annoyed that The periphery of science may also be a his work has gained these associations. When source of religious meaning unto itself. the term “cryptozoology” was coined by Ivan If science “disenchanted” the world as Sanderson in the 1930s, and then extended in Max Weber famously claimed, deviant fields of the 1950s by Bernard Heuvelmans, the field study like parapsychology and Ufology can built on a history of “romantic zoology,” a way offer a type of “re-enchantment” by introducing for explorers and animal collectors to find new new mysterious forces into the world. A species. Often, this work included the study of sighting of a cryptid is sometimes akin to what In 2003, Loren Coleman started the folklore, hypothesizing that legends of monsters Rudolph Otto called “the wholly other,” an world’s first cryptozoology museum in could have a basis in fact. Since the 1970s, the experience of both wonder and dread that takes Portland, Maine. Coleman’s International discipline has struggled to distinguish itself on religious significance. In some cases, quasi- Cryptozoology Museum opened publicly in from paranormal research and other studies religious rites have formed around specific November 2009, and I recently made the trek involving the anomalous, especially as media cryptids. Numerous rituals have been devised to north to see it. Cryptozoology—the search for interest began to focus on cryptozoology at the summon Bigfoot and Nessie, often involving animals not yet verified by Western science—is close of the 20th century. However, the search drums and chanting. either a useful and legitimate zoological for funding often compels cryptozoologists to So what are we to make of endeavor or a pseudoscience, depending on work with television shows that juxtapose the cryptozoology? Perhaps we would do well to whom you ask. The media has focused intensely hunt for cryptids alongside psychics, hauntings, take Coleman’s advice to keep “an open but on the most legendary subjects of and alien abduction. This has occasionally led to critical mind”—but it’s tough when spiritual cryptozoology: the Loch Ness Monster, confusion as to what cryptozoologists actually seekers and polemicists are using it as Bigfoot, and the Yeti. But aside from “the big do. ammunition against the scientific establishment. three,” cryptozoologists claim a number of “I’m just not interested in ghosts and recent discoveries, including the woodland aliens,” said Coleman. Coleman’s approach is bison, the giant panda, the okapi (an African empirical, and he remains agnostic as to the mammal related to the giraffe), and the existence of Bigfoot. “Belief in Bigfoot”, he coelacanth—a fish once believed to have been argues, “is the providence of religion.” Many extinct since the Cretaceous period. sociologists of religion agree; in fact, the Baylor You cannot get a degree in Religion Survey has been monitoring belief in cryptozoology. It is not a scientific discipline Bigfoot for some time. but rather a network of investigators (often But why would New Agers and using their own funds) with training in zoology, creationists both be drawn to the hunt for anthropology, or marine biology. Bigfoot? For many in the West, Darwin’s On the Cryptozoology often resembles scientific Origin of the Species (1859), as well as The research before the advent of Descent of Man (1871), seemed to confirm that professionalization, when discoveries were religion and science had become incompatible. made not by research institutions but by “men This perceived split inspired two very different of science” epitomized by individuals like responses. Benjamin Franklin. In 1875, the Theosophical Society was Like the first museums of the established. Founders like Madame Helena Enlightenment, Coleman’s museum evolved Blavtasky sought to reconcile religion and from his private “cabinet of curiosities.” The science into an esoteric doctrine greater than collection features a variety of plaster casts both. Blavatsky’s writings describe enlightened made from possible Bigfoot prints, primate beings from other planes of existence, the skulls, and unusual pieces of taxidermy. Prizes inhabitants of other planets, and a process of include an 8-foot statue of Bigfoot covered in spiritual evolution that is largely at odds with musk oxen fur and the rather hideous “Feejee Darwin’s ideas. Most of the features of the mermaid” prop from the film P.T. Barnum. modern New Age milieu are derived from However, the real attraction of the Theosophy. museum is Coleman himself, who gives In 1876, the first annual Niagara Bible personal guided tours of the collection. Conference was held. This conference set the Coleman has training in both anthropology and stage for the interdenominational zoology, as well as a master’s degree in social fundamentalist movement. While early