The Bigfoot-Dogman-UFO phenomenon could be seen as a projection of human fear and guilt onto the natural world. That may be a large part of what people are seeing, but I don’t think we can rule out the idea that something is actually there. It is not likely to be an undiscovered hominid, however. I expect it is best thought of as the same thing the ancient people experienced as “gods,” whatever that was.
The atheist cannot accept the concept of objective guilt, as far as I can tell. There can be no objective morality, and morality is only whatever the society chooses to enforce, which may change as fashions change. Yet many atheists believe in Bigfoot, in the sense of an undiscovered hominid, or primitive man-ape. This makes the god controllable, and makes him less than man.
This accounts for the popularity of Bigfoot as a subject of ridicule or nothing but an undiscovered species of ape. It is a way of ignoring one’s fear and guilt for not measuring up to objective standards of morality. It is a way of dismissing the gods, or God Himself, and His infinite demands on man for absolute perfection. It is an attempt at ignoring the issue, and dismissing the need for the righteousness of Christ to make one acceptable to Truth Itself, so that one can be in the presence of God in heaven.
Astrobiology Associates 
I think they are always there, just like human guilt, ready to pounce in the form of death itself.
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“There is a sense, therefore, in which death itself is the judgment of the individual; death is the condemnation of all that embodies self-centeredness and selfishness, but it is the consummation of all that embodies love and generosity because it is such a radical going forth from the self. Death fulfills these functions not only at the moment when it happens; it really casts its influence over the whole of life by the fact that it is always imminent and its moment is not known beforehand. The fact of death as certain but of its timing as unpredictable asks for a certain humility and acknowledgment of dependence and contingency at all times, in all projects and relationships. The refusal of such acknowledgment, which is in effect the denial of death, establishes an inauthentic mode of living and of relating to others as well as to God.”
–a RCC sytematic theology
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People try to deal with their fear of final judgment by God for their failure to do what He requires, by projecting it into the environment in the form of a being that they can ridicule, or pretend that it is just an undiscovered animal. Not to deny that there is a REAL entity that serves as their focus. It is not just imagination.
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