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Post by Wayne Smith on Jan 6, 2021 21:03:27 GMT 10
There’s More to James Randi Than Meets the EyeThe famous magician and skeptic never missed an opportunity to denounce Christ and the Catholic Church.Born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge on Aug. 7, 1928, in Toronto, Canada, magician and escape artist James Randi died in Plantation, Florida, on Oct. 20 at the age of 92. Like me, he was a stage magician and a debunker of those who claimed psychic and other preternatural skills and abilities. We examined the claims of those who inevitably prove themselves to be nothing more than charlatans. I consulted with him several times while writing my dissertation on charlatanism and secularism. Unfortunately, my conversations with Randi were marked by his self-inflated ego, anger, embittered worldview and a remarkable anti-intellectualism. Again, I’m not judging him as no one has the right to judge others. But to suggest Randi was all sweetness and light would be, in essence, a lie — not unlike the lies of other charlatans he decried publicly. Randi called himself a “scientific skeptic” but he was in no way qualified to express an opinion on any scientific matter. According to his former colleague Ray Hyman — whom I also interviewed — European universities rescinded their invitations for him to lecture once they found out Randi had no academic credentials. He decried advanced degrees and those who had earned them.
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