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James Randi dead at 92.

Sideroxylon said:
Along with Sagan he made a difference to how I think.
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Pretty much this. Randi helped crystalize in my mind what previously had been a loosely related collection of thoughts and impulses into a coherent philosophy and tool with which to discover and understand the universe. I will be forever grateful.
 
This is another gut punch in 2020. He was a big influence on me.
 
Sideroxylon said:
Along with Sagan he made a difference to how I think.
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I have skeptic books from three authors: those two, and

The Bermuda Triangle Mystery -- Solved! by Larry Kusche, who was a librarian sick of credophiles constantly coming in and asking for Bermuda Triangle. It pours over every case, delving into not just the actual known facts, suggesting mundane explanations, but goes into how book hacks exaggerate, mislead, or even lie to make the case for something odd.
 
So sorry

I haven't logged on here in years so nobody will remember me from the old site but just heard and wanted to extend my condolences. We all owe him a great debt and I feel terrible about the news.
 
The world is a worse place, which is both the simpliest and highest honor you put on someone's passing.

And 2020 is not a year which will benefit from fewer spokespersons for rational thought.

A signed, first edition of Flim-Flam is one of my most prized personal positions, and I consider it a huge lost opportunity that I never found myself in a place to either met Mr. Randi or at least see him speak, in person.

But Uri Geller is being petty and passive aggressive about his death, and I know that would have made Randi happy. I hope every two bit charlatan he's ever crossed walks up to spit on his grave. There truly is no greater or more appropriate memorial for the man.
 
JihadJane said:
Would James Randi have approved of a euphemism like "passes"?
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Why not? We're all going to pass into molecular form that will live on forever in the Universe.

That's how I think of my death.

But I think Randi would have said, call it whatever you want, I'm gone and it doesn't matter to me.
 
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James Randi was a fine man and I will miss him.

By the way, has anyone noticed that Paul Bethke never did succeed in using his god powers to blind James Randi (and quite a few other people here on the Forum).
 
I was so upset to hear that he had gone. I joined when this was JREF, so I was aware of the impression he created, though I have never seen any of his previous work displayed. His persona pervaded JREF, you had to view comments critically. I think this was noticeable to me in the period facing the 9/11 conspiracy theories, and then the climate change denialists. Never has his philosophy been more important.
 
He was indeed amazing.

I recall listening to his radio show on WOR, where he hosted The Amazing Randi Show in 1967/68 and the New York-based children's television series Wonderama.
 
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