James Randi Quotes - Page 2

We have fought long and hard to escape from medieval superstition. I, for one, do not wish to go back.

Heroin also makes people feel better, but I wouldn't recommend using heroin.

A quick example of that is a woman who said she'd been healed of throat cancer where the faith healer admitted he touched her on the forehead.

... We in the USA have been depending on prayers, pleading, and self-abasement to a deity to bring us magical advantages, and have been encouraged to attribute our prosperity and general success among nations, to that sort of action. In my opinion, hard work and dedication to logic and reason ought to be recognized as the reasons for our achievements, not appeals to a mythical friend-in-the-sky. We got where we are in spite of, not because of, those incantations.

Science is a search for basic truths about the Universe, a search which develops statements that appear to describe how the Universe works, but which are subject to correction, revision, adjustment, or even outright rejection, upon the presentation of better or conflicting evidence.

The conjuror or con man is a very good provider of information. He supplies lots of data, by inference or direct statement, but it's false data. Scientists aren't used to that scenario. An electron or a galaxy is not capricious, nor deceptive; but a human can be either or both.

Uri Geller may have psychic powers by means of which he can bend spoons; if so, he appears to be doing it the hard way.

I believe in the basic goodness of my species, because that appears to be a positive tactic and quality that leads to better chances of survival- and in spite of our foolishness, we seem to have survived.

Death is the ultimate disappointment

One thing that has made a big comeback just recently is this business of speaking with the dead. To my innocent mind, 'dead' implies incapable of communicating.

To recognize that nature has neither a preference for our species nor a bias against it takes only a little courage.

I am in a very peculiar business: I travel all over the world telling people what they should already know.

I can go into a lab and fool the rear ends off any group of scientists.

I do not expect that homeopathy will ever be established as a legitimate form of treatment, but I do expect that it will continue to be popular.

Escapology has one thing going for it that probably made Harry Houdini such a superstar in his day and a legend in the present. Everyone wants to escape from something. Taxes, contracts, illness, work, the multitude of burdens that we chafe under are shadows from which we want to escape.

Paranormal phenomena have a habit of going away whenever they are tested under rigorous conditions. This is why the $1,000,000 reward of James Randi, offered to anyone who can demonstrate a paranormal effect under proper scientific controls, is safe.

I want to be cremated, and I want my ashes blown in Uri Geller's eyes.

I questioned her further, and eventually got to talk to her doctor. And her doctor sort of shook his head and he said, I have examined her for throat cancer at least 15 times in the past few years.

The problem with experiments has always been that human beings make the decisions on whether or not the animals have benefitted from the treatment.

There's something about the Houdini act that is not always made clear - about the escape act in general.

However, I believe that it would be difficult to have legitimate scientists agree to participate.

I don't expect that the million will ever be won, simply because there is no confirming evidence for any paranormal claims to date.

They would have been very let down if they had to leave the theater and he had missed. He would feel badly. Everyone would feel badly. But he never let them down.