james randi

[anonymous-user]

Just been watching some of his debunks, and it dawns on me that his approach to 'mysteries' could be used in so many other facets of arguments in this modern age.

But the most weird thing that stood out for me is even being shown how the con man does it, people still believe in it, probably explaineing the deep beliefs systems hard wired into the human brain that override sense.

Edited by The Spruce goose on Saturday 10th March 11:45

[Hoofy]

Logic evades many, many people's thought processes. That's why people smoke, eat cakes and drink to excess. Proof ghosts exist and I knew you were going to start this thread.

[carmonk]

It's a similar mindset that demands proof that every single medium is deluded or a fraud. It's not enough that hundreds have been exposed and not one proved genuine, every time one is debunked the believer says, "Well, that one might be a fraud but that doesn't mean this one isn't genuine." It's a kind of mental illness that causes them to apply wrong-thinking to selective parts of their lives. All they need is one single instance of a proven supernatural event and their worldview is vindicated. Whereas with us skeptics the work is never-ending, we are expected to disprove every single instance of kook, fraud and weirdo before we've proved our point.

[Simpo Two]

Much the same as the existence of a god. Heard a programme on R4 a few days ago where they were dividing up non-believers into atheists, 'new atheists', agnostics, coptics or something and discussing them all in fine detail... as though THESE were the views that had to be proved. The assumption seemed to be that 'god' existed and anyone who disagreed had to prove that he/she/it DIDN'T exist.

[hairykrishna]

What I particularly like about Randi is how precise he is when 'debunking'. I remember him in an interview with some TV bloke who was an avid Geller spoon bending believer who asked if he thought the demo that Geller had done for said TV bloke was a fraud. Randi said that he couldn't possibly know, he wasn't there. He then proceeded to exactly replicate the demo himself and say that what he did know was that if Geller was bending spoons with the power of his mind he was doing it the hard way.