Rupert Sheldrake and the Pseudoskeptics

I confess I'm a bit of a fan of Rupert Sheldrake, and I recently came across the Google lecture I'm linking below.

It's quite long, but it is consistently entertaining, and in it he makes some very trenchant remarks about two well-known "skeptics" (I would call them both psedoskeptics), James Randi and Richard Dawkins.

Sheldrake describes how he was asked to take part in a TV discussion with Dawkins. Wary of a simple debunking exercise, he set some simple ground rules, the main one of which is that Dawkins should review his empirical evidence for his claims.

When the day came, it began to look like a low-grade debunking exercise. When he said as much to Dawkins, he replied, "It's a high grade debunking exercise!"

The full anecdote is very entertaining.

In the Q&A session after the lecture (it's about half way through the video) he is asked why he doesn't apply for Randi's million-dollar prize. His answer is fascinating and reveals things about Randi that brand him as the charlatan and fraud he undoubtedly is.

Enjoy.

(Whoops! Forgot to link the video!)



[edit on 28-3-2009 by rich23]

reply to post by rich23


I like him too, I had corresponded with him via email last Dec. a few times.

I like that he is willing to look at things other than just the "scientific" accepted way.

He understands there are alternative ways of forecasting events.

Fascinating. What a great way to start my day. It is a tad long, but goes great with a fresh pot o' joe. Admittedly, I skimmed.

I have witnessed first hand on countless occasions my dogs anticipating my wife' arrival at random times.

Thanks again for sharing. This is why I keep coming back for more ATS goodness. And, of course, to snare a few trolls.

S & F from me.

KK

Edit to add link to his website. Cool on-line experiments, videos.

www.sheldrake.org...




[edit on 28-3-2009 by kinda kurious]