Snarly UFO (and other) Skeptics
In late February, the prolific Regan Lee started another blog in her growing line of vital information and commentary. This one is called “Snarly Skepticism,” and chronicles the activities of a group I have referred to as “fundamentalist skeptics.” My term was meant to distinguish people like CSICOP’s Joe Nickell from those who practice more dictionary-definition skepticsm, like the late Marcello Truzzi.
Lee commented today on the recent stabbing of Rupert Sheldrake and some apprently tasteless comments logged about it at the James Randi Educational Foundation forums. The link I followed didn’t work, but I can imagine the barely concealed glee at someone’s mortal misfortune–someone who in their opinion is engaging in pseudo-science for daring to research paranormal topics from the perspective of scientific inquiry, a useless and perhaps dangerous pursuit from their point of view. I don’t think the punishment for that should be death or even serious bodily injury.
Lee has also instituted the “Joe Nickell Owl Award for Best Debunking Theory” which is pretty funny in itself.
Just to show you that this sort of attitude is not confined to Randi fans, here is another take on the Sheldrake news by a blogger who protests his innocence when his own readers take him to task for the gaffe. He seems to find humor in the incident, which I wouldn’t agree with if, for example, James Randi had been attacked.
P.S. Nick has informed me that will be away for a couple of days, so I’m holding down the fort until Thursday or so. He asked me to apoligize for his abscence.
This entry was posted
on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 9:54 pm and is filed under Wake Up Down There, Breaking News, UFOlogy, Blogroll, Beliefs. You can follow responses via RSS 2.0 feed.
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is not allowed.
del.icio.us Digg Reddit Ma.gnolia Technorati Help
- Related News Stories:
- Fundamentalist Skeptics Not In The Majority »
- “New” Ufology »
- Roswell Continues… »
- The Acronym “UFO” Is Now Copyrighted »
- SETI Gets A Kick In The Butt »
|
Apr 07 2008 
April 7th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Let’s be clear.
1) I am a HUGE Randi fan.
2) Exactly two people, out of 168 who have viewed that post complained, and to my knowledge that was the first time either had posted comments to my blog. So classifying them as my “own readers” is a bit of a stretch.
While I am certainly glad that Sheldrake was not seriously injured, and he wasn’t, I did indeed find it very ironic that a guy promoting telepathy was attacked by a guy hearing voices in his head.
Your mileage may vary.
Troy Britain
April 7th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Troy,
Well, that was a fast reply! Since I couldn’t access the threads on the JREF site (which I suppose is composed of fans) I looked elsewhere and found your site.
Yes, the Sheldrake incident was ironic on one level, but “voices in the head” does not reside in the same house with telepathy, at least in my opinion. Irony can be used for humor or pathos, and it appeared that you had stepped in on the side of humor. If not, I’ll have to believe you.
It might have been more apropos to state that it was surprising that no one at the conference could either predict or “pick up on” the impending attack, but that could be construed as an underhanded swipe too.
According to the news article linked in my post, “Sheldrake had a 2- or 3-inch cut on the front of his left thigh, just above his kneecap, causing blood to spurt some 8 inches into the air as he lay on his back” which does not sound like a minor injury, although it was not life-threatening. I suppose there can be differing opinions about the severity level of knife wounds.
The fact that it appeared that you had made light of the situation was what offended people, and caused me to link to the site. Also, since the people reading it had never commented on your posts, this leads me to believe that they thought you had crossed the line, and felt moved to write in.
In any case, thanks for commenting on the site, and I’d be interested to see your take on some of the other posts here.
April 8th, 2008 at 2:09 am
Troy wrote:
“While I am certainly glad that Sheldrake was not seriously injured, and he wasn’t, I did indeed find it very ironic that a guy promoting telepathy was attacked by a guy hearing voices in his head.
Your mileage may vary.”
A: Depends what you mean by seriously injured. Reports are that he won’t be able to walk properly for a year. I’d consider that fairly serious. Beyond that, he didn’t sit on a tack…someone attempted to murder him. I consider that pretty serious, regardless of the outcome.
B. It’s only ironic if you consider telepathy and hearing voices as equivalent. Personally I think only people who haven’t read much of the literature would make that conflation.
C. You can apply irony where you like. If Richard Dawkins was stabbed during a conference, we could all note the irony of “survival of the fittest” and such. It doesn’t show wit, so much as personal bias reinforcement. Would you find the humour in someone making fun of Richard Dawkins or Randi being stabbed?
D. I do hope you apply your skepticism to Randi, as well as the purveyors of “woo”. Believe me, the man is a goldmine.
Kind regards,
Greg
April 8th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Humor at the expense of someone else’s severe bodily pain and attempted murder is always in poor taste. It might illicit laughs, but that isn’t the point. The point is, that it is not compassionate to laugh at another’s serious misfortune. It shows a lack of connection between the one who laughs and the one whose suffering is so “funny.”
I am a Buddhist, so ymmv, but I am glad to see Greg call out such less than charming behavior.
April 8th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Instead of dealing with petty comments, why don’t we do something construtive for a change, and send our good wishes of recovery to Mr. Sheldrake via this e-mail address some kind commenter at Cryptomundo provided?
pam@telepet.demon.co.uk
I think we owe the man that much, don’t you?
April 8th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
What I find most ironic is that Mr. Britain hasn’t vociferously condemned this attempted murder or noticed that this is just more fuel for the fire for us,the conspiracy minded folk. How could a mental-disturbed person from Japan board a plane fly 10k miles to New Mexico without attracting notice from our increased airport security? Is this person a victim of a mind control experiment? Why Sheldrake and not some more conspicuous member of the Alternative Healing and Treatment field?
Just playing devil’s advocate
Carlos in Austin,Tx