Are you a skeptic? An Atheist? Agnostic? Free-Thinker? Do you love science? Do you appreciate logic and reason? Do you laugh at television “psychics?”
Let me ask you this. Do you love going on “Free For All” rampages on Call Of Duty 4? How about going head-to-head in a Gears Of War death match? Do you love to curb-stomp your enemies into oblivion? How about a friendly game of golf in Tiger Woods PGA Tour?
If you are a skeptic, and you’re on Xbox Live, I have a place for you to go to meet like-minded people. I created a group on MySpace for people like us.
Of course, obviously, this group is pointed toward a narrow audience. But, I think that it’s a good idea.
The group is called Xkeptix. Click the link to join up or take a look. Post your Xbox Live ID after you join.
Tentatively, this group is also on MySpace. I will probably stick with the Facebook location.
We have had trees, grilled cheese sandwiches, fences, regular doors, and now we have a doggie door proposed to have the face of Jesus on it. I don’t quite understand why Jesus doesn’t just get on with and come back already, instead of playing hide and seek on random silly objects? Oh, that’s probably because neither of those are happening.
Roger Bowman and his family claim that in January of 2007 they first discovered the face of Jesus on their doggie door and interpreted it as divine intervention, telling them to keep the out-of-control dogs. Interestingly enough, that “divine intervention” came in the form of taking the dogs to a dog trainer. DUH! They never thought of that before? And interestingly enough, the divine intervention wasn’t enough, as one of the dogs was put to sleep due to being mentally unstable. Thanks for the false hope, Jesus!
Lately though, the Bowmans have fallen on hard times after his wife lost her job and now he, too is out of work, though his wife is working now working. Of course, the next logical step is to call all the TV stations and newspapers to let them know he’s placing the doggie door on eBay.
Right now the bid is up to $1,185! Bowman claims in the Q&A part of his listing that he didn’t intend to make a profit on the door when he first saw it, though earlier in the listing where he posted an instant message conversation with his wife after he discovered the door. He says:
“You know how some people saw the image of Jesus on their toast and put it on eBay?”
I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and just assume he was trying to make a comparison.
Mr.Bowman actually does a pretty good job of debunking his own item in his FAQ section, making such statements as:
I am told humans are genetically predisposed to identify faces, as it is an important survival skill. It is therefore reasonable to presume that different people possess differing levels of that trait. Hence it is likewise reasonable to expect some people would readily see the image while others struggle.
So is this door divine? It is to someone who believes it is.
Of course, these tidbits are drowning in a sea of nonsense that surrounds it, and I find it too ironic that he thinks it’s “far fetched” for people not to see the face. Oh, silly us, it’s much more reasonable that Jesus Christ pressed his face against your mud flap. I really should take a logic course.
I found this little gem of a very short Uri Geller interview.
The first important bit about this interview, is the anecdote he gives about how he (Geller) influenced the outcome of the ‘96 game between England and Scotland in the Euro Championships. In particular, moving the ball during a Scotland penalty kick which helped give the win to England. This, of course, was a very bold claim and smacked me in the face of what we call in the “psychic” world, a “never was” story. Basically, it’s a story that is designed to attest to the authenticity of a “psychic,” which is totally made up and actually never happened. To my surprise, most of the story was true.
Apparently, Geller hovered over the stadium while… and get this… clutching 11 energized crystals – one for each England team member – plus a giant crystal he uses “to receive and transmit positive thoughts.” WOW.
The other fact that does check out is that apparently the ball did move before the shot was taken. I don’t really find that too be much of a mystery since that sort of thing happens all the time, especially outside on a field. But of course Geller claims he made it do that. I also found that after the game, Geller also claimed that he was willing England goalie, David Sherman, to move right to deflect the goal.
This begs the question of if he’s so powerful as to make the ball move to misdirect the shot – which would have gone in if not blocked – and to make the goalie move in the appropriate direction, then why not just will the kicker to kick it in the stands? Why setup this Rune Goldberg machine of wills when you could do it in one direct manor? Obviously he’s just adapting what happened to be congruent with the nonsense he claims to be able to do.
Its funny though how while looking up references about the ‘96 game, I stumbled upon a website called The Curse of Uri Geller! , which documents all the times Geller has failed to influence things he claimed he was going to. On that list is that Geller claimed he was going to help Scotland win in ‘99, since he had helped England win the first time. England won 2-0. Why didn’t you mention that in your little story, Geller?
Lastly on this point is the fact that England won the game 2-0. Geller implies that willing the penalty shot to not go in was what won the game for England, yet at the time of the penalty shot England was up 1-0. At most the penalty kick would have tied the game at that point. But Scotland still would have lost by a goal in the grand scheme of things. It just doesn’t add up.
Now, I think this short interview was brilliant! It’s amazing how absolutely spot on the reaction was that Randi predicted. First Geller went directly into a red herring about how skeptics help give him attention,which had been his standard answer for a long time. Ever since his appearance as a judge for the show, Phenomenon, Geller has changed his tune to putting himself in the ambiguous category of “Mystifier.” Most people, when talking to Geller, would just accept his “Mystifier” answer and move on. But Mr. Margerrison asks the obvious question of, “what exactly does he mean by that?” Of course, Geller acts like an utter child and hangs up the phone.
So which is it, Geller? Are you a psychic? Or have you just been playing one for the past over 30 years, and wasting a lot of money and people’s careers along the way? So far the only person with any real predictive power on the has been James Randi, as you just demonstrated.
