Got five minutes left to come up with an entry. Browsing hurriedly through some of my favorite sites. Oh look, this is rare event. James Randi is probably the man most directly responsible for me taking an interest in developing my critical thinking skills and a healthy sense of skepticism. He normally doesn’t get into the issue of religion as he’s already pretty busy debunking psychics, ghost stories, astrologers, homeopathy and other forms of pseudo-science and nonsense. This week’s commentary from him, however, is all about his views on religion.
This week’s page will be devoted entirely to religion. I’ve reached the point where I just have to unload on this subject that until now I’ve felt was just outside of the matters that the JREF handles. Since religion shows up as a part of so many arguments in support of other fantastic claims, I want to show you that its embrace is of the same nature as acceptance of astrology, ESP, prophecy, dowsing, and the other myriad of strange beliefs we handle here every day. Previously, I’ve excused myself from involved discussions of this pervasive notion, on grounds that it offers no examinable evidence, as the other supernatural beliefs actually do though those examinations have always shown negative results. Religious people can’t be argued with logically, because they claim that their beliefs are of such a nature that they cannot be examined, but just “are.”
Rather than argue or try to reason by their standards, I’ll settle for pointing out, briefly, how unlikely, unreasonable, bizarre, and fantastic their basic claims are, dealing for the most part with those I’m more familiar with, from personal experience.
Randi is always a good read and this time is no exception. Check it out.
