In Memoriam: James Randi
The Amazing Randi has left us following a remarkable 92-year life of stage magic, skeptical debunkings, and quotable quips. A beloved figure in the stage magic scene, he was an inspiration to acts like Penn and Teller and to skeptics everywhere as he unmasked deceivers like Uri Geller and Peter Popoff as showmen and frauds rather than psychics, telekinetics or faith healers.
For a more exhaustive history of this remarkable man, please click here.
Randi’s amazing life and remarkable late discovery that he was gay are chronicled in the film An Honest Liar, which is well worth seeking out. He was an atheist and a progressive. We Atheopagans have him to credit for the term “woo-woo” for unscientific claims of occult and psychic abilities.
His Million-Dollar Paranormal Challenge remains uncollected after decades on offer.
Thank you, Amazing Randi, for being a voice for skepticism as well as a presenter of wonders. May you be long remembered.
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Wow, what a life! And I was completely unaware of him. I think my favorite of his tricks, unintended as they probably were, were the times when people, unable to accept any “normal” explanation for what they were seeing, insisted that he was using paranormal powers, thus, turning the usual relationship between conjuror and “mark” on it’s head.
I’m happy to learn, too, the origin of the term “woo-woo”. Wasn’t someone asking about that, just a few days ago?
Thanks for passing this along, Mark.