Joseph Cotto interviews Atheist and scientific skeptic James Randi (pictured) in the Washington Times:
Joseph F. Cotto: Scientific skepticism is a well-known concept. Why, in your view, is it so important in this day and age?
James Randi: Because very little of this process – to test paranormal and pseudoscientific claims with the methods of science – is shown by the media, by educators, or by the public. It is easier and simpler to accept every crackpot notion and invoke "political correctness" as a crutch. This is a major reason for the existence of the James Randi Educational Foundation, to challenge the media when they are careless and irresponsible about pseudoscience and the paranormal. I call this the "Oprah Winfrey Syndrome," accepting and promoting any woo-woo notion that sounds "nice" and "comforting" without considering its validity.
And, in my opinion, any testable religious claim is a variety of paranormal claim. This includes items such as the Shroud of Turin, weeping icons, and stigmata.
But can you so easily dismiss the Shroud of Turin by branding it a paranormal claim?
James Randi is prejudiced. Even the UN has accepted Parapsychology, and parapsychological phenomena can be divided into:
Paranomal
Extranormal
Supranormal.
The first two are human, the last one involves a power from beyond acting in our world. It should also be pointed that Parapsychology is neutral and should not be confused with Spiritualism.
It is far easier to just dismiss things with specious reasoning than to face what you don’t understand in wonder.
Sorry Andy, I read the posting and didn’t see any reasoning at all, let alone the specious kind. Just clipped pat answers, no evidence of the discipline of the much vaunted “scientific scepticism” at all, Not a single fact offered as any kind of evidence for his bland dogmatic statements.. So who’s the fanatic? Randl has a faith, But it’s in his own uninformed bigoted position, unsupported by a single piece of evidence. Typical of most pseudo-skeptics!