Best of James Randi Amazing Arguments And Clever Comebacks Part 2

in academia we are used to some titles it's dr. this and professor that and it's refreshing pleasure pleasure to introduce somebody who's title is the amazing James the amazing Randi is here tonight because he's a scientist and he's a scientist not because a diploma says so but out of necessity and oddly enough because he is a magician he's turned his profession of fooling people for fun into a life's work of teaching people how not to be fooled by others or by themselves in recognition of his skill and dedication at this work he's received numerous awards and prizes a couple of my favorites American Physical Society Forum award because I'm a physicist in 1989 and one that's nice is having an asteroid named after him now he's reached the point where there are awards that are named for him and he offers prizes and I will quote from a rather legalistic appearing document you can find on the web that says I James Randi through the James Randi Educational Foundation will pay the sum of us 1 million dollars to any person or persons who can demonstrate any psychic supernatural or paranormal ability of any kind under satisfactory observing conditions it's amazing how the number one million dollars focuses the mind [Music] [Music] I have a very specialized field I know two things with a great deal of expertise one how people are fooled that's what one does as a magician to deceive people for purposes of entertainment and you hope that you do make it a pleasant experience for them the second one is much more important you know how people fool themselves that's the critical one here so you can fool people you know how they fool themselves having knowledge of both those fields is very valuable to someone in my position now as a magician one of the first things that I learned along the way was that people make assumptions most of the magician's when they work on stage they allow people to make assumption instead of telling them this box is empty they take the box and toss it on the stage and it sounds empty and it probably is but they don't say that box is empty because you tend not to believe that when you're told it because you know this guy is tricky so they allow people to make assumptions and they do that gladly very willingly oh they fall into that immediately no problem and you were saying to yourselves as you sit there smugly I don't make any assumptions I mean I need to have evidence right well you see I can prove you I think as a magician that you have already made a couple of assumptions now we all make assumptions where we become catatonic I can tell you from my experience of traveling around the world as I do that certain things are pretty consistent for example in every country I've ever been in when I look at traffic signals we have red and amber and green red means go red a practicum he'll be all right keep your seats I'll be okay another attack of salinity or whatever it is green maids go red means stop and a ver means go like hell we all know that of course we recognize that and I can tell you in every country I've ever been in that has been consistent so when you stepped up to a curb and you see traffic slowing down and stopping there other people with you you look at a traffic light across the street facing you and you see it turn from red to green you can assume not that you can step off the curb and cross the street without getting run down except in New York City there are exceptions to every rule of course so you've made an assumption there but that assumption is based upon previous knowledge and good common sense but you see in stepping off the curve even you make an assumption the assumption you make is that that Street is solid under your feet no I saw you folks coming in here tonight I didn't see one of you test the chair that you sat down in I didn't see anybody lower the seat and push on it to make sure that it would support them you assumed that it would because if you didn't assume certain things you would become catatonic it freeze up you'd be afraid to do anything and you've made a couple of assumptions about me already for example I'm standing here and I'm looking out at you I think you assume that I have a pretty eye I can see there are people in the balcony but that's about all I can see and they're people on the Main Aur but I couldn't recognize one of you because I have very bad eyesight and I normally wear glasses these are not glasses these are empty frames my real glasses are here I shall now Don the real gun oh there you are hello good evening my name is James Randi we should start all over again because now I can see oh and the balcony is pretty full too no jumping from the balcony until the final applause play okay now that's an assumption you made but it was based upon your expectation I didn't come out here and say these are glasses or you might have done it did you see you also assume that I'm using this microphone which I'm not that microphone is switched off to see and even though I've leaned in close to it that microphone is switched up my microphone is here underneath the chai and the audio man goes absolutely berserk if you have it underneath the tie because it cuts out the high frequencies there that should be much better I cannot prove that there is no deity however I firmly believe that there is no jealous capricious angry vengeful insecure cruel murderous critter known as the deity and I want you to notice that I said critter I didn't say creature because that would involve the possibility it even God was created by another god I I don't allow any possibilities here that is my firm belief but I cannot prove it because there is no way for me to prove that I cannot prove that kind of a negative I can prove one negative that I am NOT a giraffe because I'm much more attractive and my neck isn't quite as long now I represent the James Randi Educational Foundation we're in Florida and we offer services to the media and to students inventors researchers we have a very large library they're both in video and in books I always look at the book library and I say this is about 96% total nonsense but we got to keep up with the opposition you see and the other six percent is mostly my books but we do have a large book library there as I say and we have a very large video library with many hundreds of hours of programs and people are welcome to come in there so if you're ever in Fort Lauderdale Florida do look us up and come by and does it really happy to see you but the key J rathas we affectionately refer to it as a more important function as well we offer a million-dollar prize to any person or persons who can provide evidence of any paranormal alcohol or supernatural event of any kind under proper observing conditions it's that simple friends that simple all they have to do is do what they say they can do and walk away with a million dollars now you would think that they'd be hammering at this door right now and in fact we do get some application sex am I too late did someone win it no I wouldn't worry too much but they're in a panic that sweat on the forehead did I make it in time a gentleman now I'm not I'm not kidding and when I'm a magician I will lie to you see I'll lie shamelessly because I'm entertaining you but believe me this is quite true Linda my secretary it came to me shaking her head I said what now she said I took her into the library I said who she said a fellow from Mexico it's sort of sad he came all the way from Mexico to win the million dollars and he's got a suitcase with him an empty suitcase for the million dollars I could pack it down smaller than that suitcase I'm sure if we ever had to give it away I went in to meet the gentlemen and through an interpreter friend of mine we found that he glows in the dark he was visited by some UFOs openings as they're known in Spanish ovie and eyes and he said that he glows in the dark and you can clearly see it really well our library has no windows in it and we can seal it off and it is quite like tight we've done various experiments in there we did this experiment he walked into the room with us and the first question was where are you I can't see you I'm right over here a glowing I don't see you oh well you're probably not sensitive enough get somebody else in here well we got the whole staff in there needless to say we could not see the gentleman though he said that he was glowing very strongly because he was radioactive after being visited by the UFOs that's the kind of thing we get where is John Edward for example he speaks with the dead the guy on the sci-fi channel and now syndicated in something like three hundred and eighty stations around the United States on TV this guy says he speaks with dead people oh really well we did a bit of Investigation on John Edward and I was sent a videotape by I think it was Inside Edition and they said we'll allow you to choose a part of this videotape to make comments out and I said well to be perfectly fair I will take say the first minute so that I won't select through for something that proves my point and so I just put the videotape machine on and Andrew harder stood at my side and we watched the opening of the show we only used the first 45 seconds that was quite sufficient for our needs in 45 seconds confronted with a gentleman sitting in the audience with his wife the gentleman who said that he wanted to contact the spirit of his deceased father he knew that much and the audience knew that much he took 45 seconds to make 23 guesses that's more than one guess every two seconds you have to really speak quickly to do that transportation business I see something about a train there's the uniform involved in this end-of-the gonna have to pull out that goes on and on like this very quickly we slowed it all down and we played it back transcribed it now during that 45 seconds from the beginning to the end the man started to cry the tears came down his face he began to sob and he was doing this kind of a thing and his wife had her arm around him and he turned to her and he says that's him that's him 23 guesses 20 of them were wrong the three that were right now that's 87 percent friends if your kid came home from school with 13 out of a hundred on a test paper you'd be alarmed wouldn't you but apparently not with John Edward because that's enough they don't need it to be any more now but what were the three that were right out of the twenty three hey this man is dead he's an older man and there's a younger man connected with him yeah the guy sitting right there in the chair those are the only three things that were right he had nothing significant to tell this now and yet this man was reduced to tears and sobbing that's how easy it is to be what we call him the trade a cold reader that's the technique it's a game of 20 questions really now we've challenged endless number of times John Edward to come for the million dollar prize I've appeared in the last couple of months a few times on the Larry King show we've challenged Sylvia Browne as well she does the same act it's a case if I'm getting a J here a J or a G a wait a minute wait a minute if the dead are talking to this guy or to Sylvia why do they come over and say Sylvia asked if my name starts with jr. G no I wouldn't they say something like Gary you know that's my name and I'm his dad no and they'll say something like gee I have a G a Gary yes was this your brother no it's my dad yes I knew he was in the family yeah that's the act that they are doing now every now and then it changes from cold reading to what we call hot reading people who attend the John Edward show are kept for up to two hours in a relatively small room where young couples walk around and make conversation with oh hi my name's Sally Ann and this is George here and we've been here for several readings you're gonna have a reading today and they get into conversation is it any wonder that every now and then John Edward can say and I'm getting something about sweden's how are you connected with this kind of thing and indeed it turns out to be correct so that's what we call a hot reading when they can get information in advance oh one additional fact there are the so called venerated sites in which the various Franciscan pseudo archaeologists have been digging for the last century or so they were situated where they are to make them fit as much as could be done their requirements of the Gospels description for example according to Luke 4 verses 16 to 30 quote he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as his custom was he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read he spoke some controversial words and all day in the synagogue when they heard these things were filled with wrath and rose up and thrust him out of the city and led him unto the brow of the hill whereupon their City was built that they might cast him down headlong and of quote by the way Jesus escaped by some sort of subterfuge but we don't have to get into that but let's examine these infallible facts shall we according to these holy words said to be written by st. Luke himself there was a synagogue at Nazareth but extensive archaeological excavation over a century remember has only found the city well nothing else not one stone of construction remaining from this temple anywhere in the vicinity also there is no nazareth hill thus no brow of the hill nor cliff exists or existed we in the last hundred thousand years there is no such elevation there is there any reasonable place where such a cliff could have existed the bare fact is that no evidence of buildings or cliffs of any kind dating to the turn of the era has ever been found at these generated sites the tourists are barking up the wrong tree st. Luke and thus the inerrant Bible was plainly demonstrably dead wrong [Music] you

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Keywords: James Randi (Author), Philosophy (Field Of Study), best, of, nonbelievers, nonbeliever, arguments, argument, comebacks, comeback, part, Agnosticism, science, logic, religion, Christianity, clever, Delivery, Atheism (Religion), Atheist (Religion), Antitheism (Literature Subject), Religion, Science, great, answer, anti-theist, anti, theist, intelligent, bright, smart, new, morality, god, amazing, Creationism, magician, Intelligent Design, scientific, Skepticism, skeptic, paranormal, pseudoscience, two, Agatan, Foundation

Id: -Of7rViCk0M

Length: 16min 34sec (994 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 03 2018