Thursday, July 21, 2022

Skeptic: fraud, quackery, James Randi (TED)

James Randi, TED Talks, 4/20/10; Pat Macpherson, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Homeopathy, quackery, and fraud | rabid skeptic James Randi
(TED) Legendary skeptic James Randi takes a "fatal" dose of homeopathic sleeping pills onstage, kicking off a searing 18-minute indictment of beliefs he finds "irrational." He throws out a [phony] challenge to the world's psychics: Prove what you do is real, and I'll give you a million dollars. (No takers yet). [Takers need not apply because he isn't going to give anything because no proof would ever be good enough because his whole worldview and all the meaning in his life would have to go out the window. But he's a showman as bad as the real and phony people he's criticizing, so a million dollar offer sounds serious and irresistible to people who are not looking for fame trouble.]


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