Paranormal Skeptic James Randi is Dead

[JaneV2.0]

I've always thought he and others of his ilk were a gaggle of arrogant jerks. People who believe nothing are as useless as people who believe everything, IMO.

[catherine]

He was 92. Let's celebrate his life...

Maybe we can be grateful to him for the possibility that there is so much more to life than our experience can see. (Whether or not he was the best person to prove that.)

[JaneV2.0]

He was 92. Let's celebrate his life...

Maybe we can be grateful to him for the possibility that there is so much more to life than our experience can see. (Whether or not he was the best person to prove that.)

Of course there's more to life than we can measure with our clumsy tools; any observant person knows that. He got the limelight he sought. I'm not interested in celebrating his life.

[Tammy]

My same friend introduced me to the Origins Project at ASU. Neil deGrasse Tyson, Lawrence Krause, etc. At one event I heard Neal Stephenson speak. I love his books. I also love Cosmos (season 3 is on fox on Tuesday nights this fall).

Both the James Randi crowd and the Origins crowd have their problems. They both illustrate what is wrong with “worship the hero” culture. Not unlike many other organizations (including religious ones) that are being forced to face their own misogyny and privilege.

However that does not negate the good things they have offered society through the years.

[iris lilies]

I've always thought he and others of his ilk were a gaggle of arrogant jerks. People who believe nothing are as useless as people who believe everything, IMO.

I can see the arrogance, but parts of James Randi’s famous schtick was exposing predators.

He was a magician himself, and had no qualms about that activity as pure entertainment.

He exposed the “parapsychologists” who extorted money from those easily manipulated. When the healing-through-god practitioners used underhanded tricks to get at trusting audience members, he exposed their tricks.

But I suppose it could be said that as a result of his long term fame in the biz, he became as dependent on his rigid theology as those who believed the opposite. Fame and money distorts when one wants to hang onto it all.

[JaneV2.0]

I have no problem at all with fact-checking or revealing charlatans. I use Snopes, and I applaud those who out predators no matter what institutions they hide behind. I respect organizations like MUFON that weigh the facts of cases to try to get to the truth. But I have no use whatever for those who dismiss anything they can't explain out of hand with a perma-smirk on their faces. To quote Albert Einstein: "We still do not know one-thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us."

[Tybee]

I guess it is how one encountered him. For me, he will always be my friend's kind boss. I celebrate that he lived so long, and reminded me of long ago happy days as a kid, just starting out in the world.

[ToomuchStuff]

This reminds me that back in Randi’s heyday, Washington University had a department devoted to paranormal research. Yes, respected, respectable, Washington university, where you spend upwards of $40,000/ annually to send your reasonably smart but not brilliant college student, studied that tooic.

It was quietly phased out some years later.

Weren’t we a sweeter and more naive country when studying paranormal sciences and taking sides with Uri Geller were our national past-times?

Never heard of the guy. But the above, makes me think of Ghostbusters, as well as our governments research into remote viewing.

[iris lilies]

For anyone bored today, here is a summary of James Randi’s interactions with the PSI lab at the esteemed Washington
University down the road from me.

All of this was long before I lived in St. Louis, but I did know about Randi in the early 80’s, soon after his “work” with .wash U.

edited to add: well doh, imforgot to add the link.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Alpha

[ewomack]

I have followed Randi for a while and was very sorry to hear about his passing. I think he made it to 92, at least. He spent a lifetime challenging those who claimed to have psychic or supernatural powers to rigorous tests that no one ever passed. He also exposed some major scams.