Randi fans and detractors - who are the more virulently obsessed?

[Liberal]

Got it. Thanks to everyone for their patience. I realize that something like this can be both hard to explain and emotionally exasperating.

[Mikemike2]

@Liberal

Well, perhaps my assumptions about his offer are incorrect. I’m just naturally suspicious when the lawmaker is also the judge. Certainly, I understand the principle that it’s his money and therefore his rules. But there’s nothing scientific about that. I’m just as suspicious of oil company findings that global warming has nothing to do with them. Why can’t Randi offload the requirements portion of his challenge if he wants it to be credible beyond the my-ball/my-game threshold?

The tests are set up so that no judging is involved. The applicant and foundation agree ahead of time as to what is a fair test. What constitutes a pass or no pass is made clear ahead of time. ie you successfully find gold in 14 or more sealed containers using dowsing methods. Randi is often not involved with the actual tests.

[Cisco]

@devilsknew in the GD thread

No academic in their right mind is going to risk signing off on anybody, even if they saw the applicant fly upside down and through hoops in their own laboratory. Because, let’s face it, JREF isn’t about truth, or impartiality, or even skepticism, it is a very transparently disguised defamation league. Randi would not only trash and slander the failed applicant per his inexorably one sided, inconclusive, test design but go on to trash, slander, and question the Academic’s reputation all within the same breath.

You should apply for the million dollars. You are obviously psychic because nothing even remotely approaching these circumstances has ever occurred, yet you know exactly what would happen if it did.

What was that? You’re not psychic at all and you were actually just talking out of your ass? Oh, carry on then.

[Colibri]

@Sage Rat

Heh, seems that the GD thread got chased into this one.

Yes, a certain poster in the GD thread seems loath to enter the Pit, for some inexplicable reason. Ironically enough, this is makes it easier to have a coherent discussion of the subject in the Pit than in GD.

[Princhester]

… a house in New Orleans, they call the Rising Sun. And it’s been the ruin of many a poor girl, Oh Lord, I know, I’m … crack, zzzzirt… a house in New Orleans, they call the Rising Sun. And it’s been the ruin of many a poor girl, Oh Lord, I know, I’m … crack, zzzzirt… a house in New Orleans, they call the Rising Sun. And it’s been the ruin of many a poor girl, Oh Lord, I know, I’m … crack, zzzzirt… a house in New Orleans, they call the Rising Sun. And it’s been the ruin of many a poor girl, Oh Lord, I know, I’m … crack, zzzzirt… a house in New Orleans, they call the Rising Sun. And it’s been the ruin of many a poor girl, Oh Lord, I know, I’m … crack, zzzzirt… a house in New Orleans, they call the Rising Sun. And it’s been the ruin of many a poor girl, Oh Lord, I know, I’m … crack, zzzzirt… a house in New Orleans, they call the Rising Sun. And it’s been the ruin of many a poor girl, Oh Lord, I know, I’m … crack, zzzzirt… a house in New Orleans, they call the Rising Sun. And it’s been the ruin of many a poor girl, Oh Lord, I know, I’m … crack, zzzzirt… a house in New Orleans, they call the Rising Sun. And it’s been the ruin of many a poor girl, Oh Lord, I know, I’m … crack, zzzzirt… a house in New Orleans, they call the Rising Sun. And it’s been the ruin of many a poor girl, Oh Lord, I know, I’m … crack, zzzzirt …

[Apos]

Liberal, a good example of what is meant is the classic case of seeing auras. Some people claim that there are visible energy fields extending beyond the body that only certain sensitives can see. They then agree that they can see these fields even when a magazine is held up to completely, but JUST barely, cover the face.

So the test devised is simple: given these claims, logically, the person’s ability should be able to determine where behind a wall someone is standing if the view of the wall JUST barely covers the person, but not where the claimed visible aural field is. Either the person can track someone behind the wall in this way, or they can’t, and something is fishy about their claims.