Comments on: Haben Sie eine woo?

By: Tom S. Fox

Tom S. Fox — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:24:32 +0000

Alright, here is part two: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga1IjO6hrU0
And here is the fixed and improved version of part one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEYFYZ0KuJQ

Have fun!

By: Tom S. Fox

Tom S. Fox — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 15:55:38 +0000

Hey, thank you for posting my link here!
As an update, part two is on its way and so is a fixed and improved version of part one!
I will let you know when they are up!

By: quasidog

quasidog — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:53:03 +0000

I agree with your line of thought ‘Quiet Desperation’ regarding the seeming unimportance of debunking small issues when there are clearly bigger issues worth debunking, but I would argue a couple of points.

First being: The world is not the USA, and most people in the world don’t really care about all the religion and politics that goes on there. (no offense intended), but I do note you mentioned religious extremism around the globe. ( I live in Australia where religious superstition and extremism seems to be a minor issue for most people)

Second : For less skeptically minded people, debunking big issues is too much information to process. Small issues however can lead to debunking bigger issues. The same way in which learning small things in science will lead to understanding bigger things. EG: spoon bending in some religious belief systems comes under ‘demonic influence’. If a person discovers spoon bending to be nothing but a trick, and not due to some sort of demonic influence, it may lead to higher thinking in which case many other more complicated facets about his/her religious superstition, often akin to religious extremism, will be that much easier to uncover and understand. (I am not for debunking religion, just religious superstition)

I truly believe that it is not very important ‘what’ or ‘where’ James Randi is debunking falsehoods, but that he IS debunking falsehoods. I am really just glad to see him still actively involved in skepticism. Debunking ’spoon bending’ may seem small and unimportant in the big picture, as there are far bigger things worth debunking, but if you look at it from the point of view of the common person that really doesn’t give these issues too much thought, it’s very appropriate.

By: Sebastian

Sebastian — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 13:59:20 +0000

Thanks for the link! I’m german myself, but I don’t watch that much TV, and I usually dislike shows like “Welt der Wunder”, as they tend to dumb things down a lot, and concentrate on flashy effects. Nevertheless, this episode seems to be firmly grounded in skepticism, which is allways good. Also: Yay, The Amazing Randi!

By: Chaos

Chaos — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 12:13:30 +0000

Even people who don´t speak German can understand a lot of it. You can still hear what Randi says quite clearly most of the time… at least you could on TV.

By: Jorg Willekens

Jorg Willekens — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 11:35:09 +0000

@Lars Bruchmann

Try this: http://www.onlinetvrecorder.com/

Haven’t tried it myself yet since I live near Germany, so I can watch the shows directly, but it might be an option for you.

(I know this is offtopic, sorry about that)

By: Quiet Desperation

Quiet Desperation — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 06:16:55 +0000

“Welt der Wunder”

Sounds more like a show about stigmata.

I hate to be a party pooper, but this is the sort of thing that drives me nuts about the skeptical community.

We have a presidential candidate about to be swept into office on a personality cult. We have a country divided by deep ideological blindness on all sides. There’s a rising tide of religious extremism all over the globe.

So what is Randi going all the way over on German TV to be skeptical about?

Spoon bending.

Great. :-\

Christopher Hitchens needs to go bitch slap him.