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Randi, James "the Amazing" Scientific Advisory Board Most famous skeptic ever. Luminary of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), together with Paul Kurz, Ray Hyman (FMSF), Joe Nickell, Philip Klass, and Carl Sagan. CSICOP's magazine is the Skeptical Inquirer. Has been accused of continually manipulating the rules of his $1,000,000 reward for someone who can "prove" to him paranormal abilities exists. In other cases he has been accused of plainly refusing to investigate a case or simply not to accept what he saw as "paranormal", only as "unexplained". Has always been debunking his eternal enemy Uri Geller. February 11, 1996, Toronto Star: "What I had hesitated to mention is that the colorful Randi has been involved in a number of lawsuits. Part of the evidence brought against Randi was a tape of his telephone conversations, of explicit sexual content, with teenage boys. Randi has at different times claimed that the tape was a hoax made by his enemies to blackmail him, that he made the tape himself, and that the police asked him to make it. Whichever version is true, it's amazing indeed that such a person could be taken seriously as a scientific adviser in an organization dedicated to denying claims of child sexual abuse." This tape was played during a trial in which Randi was accused by Eldon Byrd, a good friend of Uri and a former Naval Surface Weapons Center researcher, of defamation by claiming he was known pedophile. True or not, during the trial Byrd and his team played a tape on which Randi was speaking to a small boy about sex and how much it would cost. Randi claimed it was all a setup by Byrd and the boys on the tape were prank callers. The judge wasn't so sure about that, especially because Randi voluntarily called back one of the boys after the latter told him his money was running out. It's a confusing story, but you wonder what he's doing at the FMSF.
chiggerbit wrote:Really, reading this from the link I gave above, you have to wonder if there is another somewhat covert challenge going on inside the overt challenge:It's a confusing story, but you wonder what he's doing at the FMSF.
Because of the same cognitive biases we all suffer from, too? That's my guess. He seems like a typical human being to me, brilliant in some aspects, blind as fuck in others.
barracuda wrote:Special goggles, eh? That somehow sounds like the lynchpin of the whole deal.
Wombaticus Rex wrote:Hey Hugh, I asked you in another thread and you never addressed it, so I'll pose it again: what reasons do you have for distrusting Dean Radin?
Does he have a nefarious past or suspicious connections? Can you point out where he's been decietful? Because it seems to me he's an honest and rigorous scientist whose interests overlap with some of your pet keywords. Is there an actual reason?
Also -- do you dismiss psi phenomena as altogether false?
Hey Hugh, I asked you in another thread and you never addressed it, so I'll pose it again: what reasons do you have for distrusting Dean Radin?
Does he have a nefarious past or suspicious connections? Can you point out where he's been decietful?
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