Fancy a million?

Posted by Luke Williams on June 9, 2006 in general thoughts | 0 comments

I’ve long been a fan of James Randi… the one man crusade against quackery. Well, he’s a whole foundation now and its more of a science thing than a religious crusade…. but I digress…

“The Jame Randi Educational Foundation offer a one-million-dollar prize to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event.”

And guess what, no one has ever won the money. Funny that. Despite some big name TV “psychics” agreeing to take the test (one stated they would on larry king’s show) none actually have.

(5) What harm does it do to simply let people believe in silly things? Why do you take away their pleasant delusions?

The potential harm is very real, and dangerous. Belief in such obvious flummeries as astrology or fortune-telling can appear — quite incorrectly — to give confirmatory results, and that can lead to the victim pursuing more dangerous, expensive, and often health-related scams. Blind belief can be comforting, but it can easily cripple reason and productivity, and stop intellectual progress. We at JREF never try to impose our beliefs or philosophies on others; we only try to inform them, and suggest that there are alternate choices to be made. Examples of personal tragedies resulting from an uncritical embrace of supernatural claims, are plentiful.

It all started on a radio debate where he stated that it was all nonsense (he is an illusionist by trade, i should add!) and a paranormal investigator asked him to put his money where his mouth was… so he did.

Hooray for science!