James Randi Lecture at NASA 3/12

[ninman58]

Lol, I have a PhD, and I've met a lot of people with PhD's and that's so true, we NEVER say either of those phrases.

[09205479428]

oh no ! Randi is now with the "Institution". Now everything he will tell will be ASSUMED TRUE. yaiks, what a paradox !

:-)

[psycoelement]

science is often wrong thats what science is about, its about creating a theory and then testing it by as many ways possible to see if that said theory MAYBE is correct, it is forever revising and building upon itself.thats where the BLIND belief in creationism,god,paranormal etc fall flat.

[supermembrax69]

Even Randi makes mistakes :-D Sorry Randi, but NASA confessed that they faked the pictures and the videos of the moon. They say that it's because they were worry it would not be clear enough for big time TV.

And that is really suspicious. This proves that sometime even 99% of the scientists can be fooled. (Remember several years ago, the poor scientist that said that the earth is round, he almost got killed by the 99% scientists that were against him)

[digama0]

That was the CHURCH, not the scientists.

[supermembrax69]

Yeah right sorry, I wrote too fast... It was the church but church was supported by science because it has been brought to court.

But you are right, it's mostly the church!

[ScottTheAtheist]

No, thats what was called the Dark ages. The Church controlled everything back then including science. Which makes your point moot.

And yeah scientists can get things wrong, whats your point? So can you, therefore should I completely disregard EVERYTHING you say because of that fact? I doubt you'd agree to that logic but thats what you seem to be suggesting.

[supermembrax69]

I'm not a skilled linguist and it's easy to get me wrong!

I was only suggesting that people stop being blinded by main stream science!

Today science is like a religion. People believe it blindly. If the main scientists say something, everyone will believe it!

That's a mistake because science can sometime be very wrong! We should not close our mind on some subjects just because science doesn't agree!

As long as a theory is a theory, it means that we don't know if it's true! That's what I meant

[blehblehbleh86]

@supermembrax69 Science is not an institution. It is a methodology. It is the practical application of critical thought. A theory, in scientific terms, is an idea that has been proven by evidence. Please don't get confused by the words. If something can not be explained by science, chances are there is nothing to be explained. Don't fall for the 'woo-woo' rationalisation that some things are beyond science - that's bullshit.

[shkotay]

@blehblehbleh86 Dude :D Keep pushing this basic stuff. Thats the whole idea of science in a few sentences and I wholeheartedly agree :D I would only add that theories must have have multiple independent consistent lines of confirming evidence. People cannot be led around by the nose by tricksters or blind men. Ppl should get Randi's message.

[supermembrax69]

@blehblehbleh86 Yeah you're right, but I wasn't talking about Science I was talking about the "main stream science", and that's an institution. (or a kind of family made out of scientists judging each other and waiting in the dark to mock each other about there work in order to walk over them) main stream science = scientific family mocking each other and protecting there budgets.

E.G: Cold Fusion + MIT => Check it out and you will see the scientific method that MIT used to discredit cold fusion

[supermembrax69]

And just something else... It's not because we called it "dark ages" that we solved the problem.

I believe that, deep down, we are still the same people as 500years ago. We have better technology and better knowledge but it doesn't change what we are. History has a bad habit of repeating itself!

So what people did during the Dark Ages can still happen today! We called our age the modern age! Does it mean that we are modern men? People still believe in Creationism and other strange theories!

[SerbAtheist]

Ph.D.'s utter those two sentences all the time. One cannot be an expert in everything.

[coladict]

"My asteroid is bigger than your asteroid"

LMAO at this point

[RhapsodyOfHammerfall]

Randi gets irritated when scientists believe in psychics and such things. That's it. I'm sure there are scientists out there who he thinks are qualified and know what they're doing.

Again with the 3 stars, wtf people. 5/5

[drin2014]

well he is pro-science...

[kejnakapo]

dobrý fusík

[philosophicalisery]

haha. After reading these comments I can see exactly why randi is taking the piss out of you PhD dudes.

[MrFacet]

Especially this Mielu dude. Um, sorry: Mielu PhDude.

[wwritsa]

Hey mister moron, let me tell you something in your language. You're sitting in front of a computer desktop typing nonsense instead of being in a cave (where u belong) only because of something called scientific progress. At the forefront of this progress are a couple of brilliant minds you hear about occasionally in the media, the superstars of science if you will. But most of the daily tinkering is done by anonymous "PhD dudes" you loathe with such ease and ignorance.

[philosophicalisery]

wwritsa, wtf are you on about? I wrote one sentence..... and you reply to me with all this bullshit. You've got some serious issues.....

[wwritsa]

That's what counts here, not Randi and certainly not you and your dispensable wit! This shows that Randi's congregation is not different than any other.

[SueBeaWho]

"My asteroid is bigger than your asteroid." LOLOL

Well, that just proves Sue's theory: All men, no matter their age, are 12-year old boys at heart. :-) Thank God tee hee :-P

Totally into this in case I came off wrong. Just trying to make a joke.

[poppler1234]

people you have to stop arguing about phds. no one cares whether or not you have one or whether or not you're offended by randi's joke.

holy hell , you're adults. get over it. -_-

[BillyRVaughan]

Amen.

[wwritsa]

and what makes you think people care about your opinion on other people's thoughts? And pls stop using identifiers such as "no one" or "nobody". You're not adding any more weight to your claim in this way, and I doubt you're youtube's spokesman on this matter.

[MieluChitaristu]

Also, the example he gives (I know, you're supposed to take that with a grain of salt) shows that he has little understanding (or consideration) for what goes on in the background, before that ceremony takes place: years of hard work, research, sacrifice and sometimes innovation. The awarding procedure, is be assured Mr Randi pretty far from a walk in the park. In some countries (e.g. Germany, France) they have a so-called public defense, which is more like a trial than a ceremony.

[miamimagicians]

Its a very rude thing he said! P.S I live in Miami and have met Randi several times.

[JBRHC78]

Seriously. Get over yourself. It was a little joke. The PhDs in the audience seemed to get it. If you knew anything about Randi you would know that he has the ultimate respect for science and those that dedicate their life to it. But ultimately, the power of science is not in individual PhDs but in science as an institution and a process (replication, peer review, etc). But that's besides the point. Stop projecting your own insecurities onto Randi.

[MieluChitaristu]

First, I do know quite a lot about Randi, so you're guessing wrong. Second, I do have a PhD degree, so stop giving me the "projecting your own insecuties" crap, please. Go play Dr Freud with someone else; there's no question of frustration or insecurity here (unlike Randi's). My hat's off to him for what he did to the likes of Geller, Hydrick, Popoff, Browne, even Bienventiste (up to a point, since that guy also had legitimate research results).

[MieluChitaristu]

Oooops...it's Benveniste actually, but I guess you got the point anyway ;)

[JBRHC78]

I already guessed that you have a PhD. That was the point I was trying to make (albeit sloppily). You obviously take yourself way too seriously, which is funny because that directly contradicts your argument ("down to earth"). You've taken one little joke that he uses in his lecture and used it to characterize him as "frustrated" and "envious". So who exactly is playing Freud now?

[MieluChitaristu]

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear enough in the previous message(s). As a magician I'm sure he's very good at prestidigitation and can also play psychological tricks on his audience, but that's where his expertise ends AFAIAC. I am prepared to stand corrected as far as his scientific education, but the examples he uses rarely exceed middle school level. Yet HE CHALLENGED scientists numerous times to admit they were wrong! Challenged on what basis?

[JBRHC78]

Translation: "I'm a PhD!! How dare he question the methods of me and my brethren!! Never mind that he may raise legitimate questions about our methodology. He doesn't have these letters after his name!"

[MieluChitaristu]

See what I am getting at? Who's taking himself too seriously, me or Randi? Anybody's entitled to have an opinion (including you and I), but his opinion on scientific matters, including data analysis that he refers to so often, is (based on the above) slightly more relevant than mine on Ancient Egypt. Yet so many people are mesmerized when he utters keywords like Avogadro's number, magnetic unipoles, double blind tests, etc

[JBRHC78]

Translation: "I've done all of this studying and research and no one knows who I am!!! But I've got these letters after my name!!"

[MieluChitaristu]

That's a lame attempt... "he's not qualified to judge scientists and scientific methods" and "I want to be famous" are not identical statements, unless you suffer from dyslexia. Since this conversation turns to be a waste of time (for me), I'll have to leave you to your business.

[MieluChitaristu]

And one more thing... a joke now and then is one thing, but this is definitely not the first time when he's making unsavoury remarks about scientists in general, PhDs in particular, hence the irritation. Certainly it doesn't have much to do with me having my head too far up the ass!

[JBRHC78]

Let's see your examples. I call bullshit.

[iDoDew]

Ph.D. is the acronym for Piled higher.Deeper.

[MieluChitaristu]

At the same time however, I don't need Randi to tell me what science should and shouldn't be about, what a DOE entails or what double blind tests are, or whether God exists. And frankly I'm surprised you do...

[JBRHC78]

Secondly, I have a Master's degree and am working towards my PhD and I have never felt condescended to by Randi. I've never heard him claim to be some great philosopher of science. He's a magician who has a great appreciation for the methods of science and understands human fallibility. And frankly, I don't know how you got the idea that my I got my appreciation for science from Randi. I just learned that he exists this year.

[Skabbe1]

As someone said, you're a prefect example of what Randi is talking about.

You completely fail to see his point because you're blindly trying to "defend" your title against an attack that isn't being made.

Why do you think Maddox brought Randi along to investigate Benvenistes research about water memory?

Also, you might want to see who's the president of the JREF, and once you have, ask him if he's also offended by what Randi says.

[MieluChitaristu]

While I generally like Randi, his PhD rant is getting annoying and lame, and frankly it reeks of frustration and envy. He has a point about PhDs being SOMETIMES awarded without much consideration for quality and scientific truth. He also has a (minor) point about the public's erroneous idea of a PhD infallibility. The main point he missed however, is that most PhDs are actually knowledgeable and down to earth at the same time, without thinking of themselves as demi-gods.

[jubulalau]

@MieluChitaristu LOL, it was a joke.

You actually thought he was beeing serious, fucking lulz killer.

[Xerock]

My asteroid is bigger than yours.. too funny.

[uberjim83]

9/10ths of science is guessing and getting that guess proven wrong. That's why when a scientist gets proven right, he makes a big deal out of it, writing books and such.

[matthewdoucette]

youtube and it's spam prevention... visit 3163_Randi on wikipedia

[AJComixII]

I've admitted my mistakes, in fact my third most recent video I noted my biggest screw up this whole year.