HAVE YOU MET JAMES RANDI YET? Hold on to your hat!

by Terry 23 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  The wanderer

  Dear Terry:

  This is the William G. Roll that
  I am talking about.

  Respectfully,

  Richard
• 

  The wanderer

  Dear Terry:

  A magician or a leading
  scientist and researcher.

  You make the call.

  Respectfully,

  Richard
• 

  Warlock

  I wonder if his beard is real.

  If I ever see him up close, I'll yank it and see.

  Warlock
• 

  RunningMan

  Who is better qualified to expose pseudo-scientific showmanship than a magician?
• 

  the dreamer dreaming

  it seems that humans are liars by nature and easily deceived at times, so skepticism seems the most rational approach to any experience. experiences are facts of perception, but beliefs about them are made in gross ignorance, even with our best science... and many cannot seem to tell the difference.
• 

  gumby

  Silly Mr. Randi.....doesn't he know that ghosts and demuns, and aliens, and all superpowers, never expose themselves when under pressure or when sceptics are around? It's the same reason ghosts never appear when there's a camera around ( kinda like there's never a buck deer around when you have a rifle)

  I'll bet that gray bearded bastard has never been on a bible study in a home that has demunz cuz if he did, he'd hafta pay out that million bucks he offers.He's just a big fraidy cat.

  Gumby
• 

  glenster

  
  The Popoff expose was a honey. The thing I think of relating him to JWs
  leaders concerns is:

  Popoff played prophet with the radio transmitter in his ear, which is espe-
  cially cynical since he got people who bought the deception to throw away their
  nitroglycerin and insulin, etc., though Popoff knew some could get hurt or die.

  I think the JWs leaders play prophet with their stance of beng the guided
  chosen ones of the elite "144,000." The stance is affected with exclusive rules
  which the JWs leaders require agreement with for salvation and cook up cases
  for. One of their rules that no one else calls a guaranteed intended meaning of
  a conservative interpretation of the Bible is their ban of the medical use of
  blood and major blood fractions. It's especially cynical for the JWs leaders to
  maintain their pretension despite the fact that people and their kids have died
  over those rules (and expanded ideas about worldliness, etc., leading to deaths
  in Germany, Malawi, possibly somewhere else where it may run into another in-
  tolerant political leader). They even come a hair's breadth from bragging about
  the fatalities being in the thousands, as if to brag, "Look how many martyred
  themselves for us."

  The JWs leaders don't believe their exclusivist routine/marketing strategy any
  more than Popoff thought God talked to him through that radio transmitter. Ei-
  ther way, an expose of it is an expose of lying that's done though people can get
  hurt or killed, not intolerance for sincere harmless difference of belief or
  non-belief choice.

  I think Randi has helped a lot with his findings but I think he ought to pitch
  in on the case of the JWs leaders. It's like the Popoff case and he's in a
  position to spread awareness about it. I don't know why he doesn't do that.
• 

  mkr32208

  he's an editor for sceptic magazine too. Great stuff!
• 

  Mary

  Here's a couple of links about James Randi that I found quite interesting:

  http://www.skepticalinvestigations.org/exam/Prescott_Randi.htm

  http://www.skepticalinvestigations.org/whoswho/Randi_dogs.htm
• 

  Paralipomenon

  I like the idea, but his methods leave much to be desired.
  
  At some point he starts losing credibility and is only preaching to the choir. Anyone that has that much invested in being right cannot be objective. Not saying I believe most of this stuff, but if Jesus appeared with holes in his hands and flicked him on the forehead, it's still in Randi's best interest to deny it happened.
  
  Just another form of entertainment wrapped up in the guise of being an intellectual pursuit.