Tarot! Is! A! Game! Not! Fortune! Telling!

I'm not sure what great revelation J. Neill Furr at Game of Tarot thinks he’s uncovering... his big thing is that Tarot cards were “invented” for game playing, not “fortune telling.” As one headline on his site screamingly insists: “Think you know Tarot Cards? Think again... they were invented for card games not fortune telling!” On another page is the headline: “The Chances are that you have been lied to!”Contrary to popular myth, tarot cards were invented for card games, not fortune telling.

Tarot isn’t “fortune telling” not in the simplistic way he clearly means, but we’ll move on. The assumption, one of them, is that people who read cards are unaware of this astounding revelation. As usual, the skeptoid universe is shown to be one of either/or, black vs. white, dichotomous mindsets that consider most things to be of sinister and dishonest intent.

Furr goes on, and on, and on some more, about all that. But what I find intriguing is his obsession, which isn't at all an unfamiliar trait among the skeptoid, but always a curious one. Furr has a nice website, chock full of information about the Tarot as merely, only, and truly just a game. But he doesn’t stop there, no, he wants to enlist the help of skepti bunkies everywhere:

This web site exists to promote these games to the English speaking world and to a large extent my methods will be that of a sceptic. After all, the two greatest obstacles to my goal are the myths of tarot’s origins and its perceived use as a tool for fortune tellers. I believe that sceptics should take special note of tarot’s history and games and so some of my efforts on this site will be directed at them. I shall also try to enlist your help in this project, as I cannot hope to achieve my goals alone

He also has a little video clip that implores skeptics to help with his mission: “to be a resource for all -- both to take up the fight and to enjoy!” (You have to love the fact Furr sees a fight where none is intended... that’s one of the things I love about skeptoids. They’re so, well, damn contentious.)

There’s also stuff you can buy, promos to help spread the word about Tarot; the real Tarot as game that is, not Tarot as “fortune telling,”  and pdf downloads, graphics to print out, links, a whole universe of resources to help the skeptic get the message out about Tarot as a game, not fortune telling, damnit!

He’s very specific about all this, and his purpose;for example, none of his stuff available for download can be used if:

3. The text may not be used to promote anything other than the games of tarot and the associated web sites. If your web site promotes tarot games.

4. The text may not be used in the in association with or in the context of the promotion of occultism, religion, or any form of divination.

It's Nice To Be Mentioned

It's always nice to be mentioned, even when that mention comes from uber-skeptoids, and even when that mention has nothing much to do with anything.

A skeptic blog called Miss Rants begins a recent post thusly:

Go Read this blog; then immediately return to my blog to hear commentary: Snarly Skepticism…(and Unofficial JREF Watch).

This is a blog devoted to attacking people who are sceptical of paranormal activity (of course, you already know that because you went and read the blog. Trés bien fait!)

Well, thanks for the plug! But, while the given of the actual purpose of this blog goes over her head, as it does all "skeptics," ("attacking people who are skeptical . . .") there's no there there, as Gertrude Stein once said. Miss Rants just continues on about the silliness of woo, without addressing anything specific on this blog. But I'm not quibbling; her interest and link just goes to show "they" have stopped by to take a look around.

Ironically, Miss Rants is a Christian, and sees nothing odd about the fact she doesn't believe any of that woo stuff, but does believe that Jesus rules. Bigfoot is silly:

Reason and science tell me that there is not a breeding population of giant apes living outside of Seattle;

(I always love it when the skeptics assume BF is just a giant ape, to be fair, so do a lot of Bigfoot researchers. . .)

But Jesus is real:

Of course, they also tell me that a Jewish carpenter from Nazareth who lived on the outer-edge of the Roman Empire 2,000 years ago was not the omnipotent ruler of the universe. That I can expect the former but reject the later is a sign of my own intellectual laziness perhaps. Even more so then, I appreciate the sceptical. I cannot help but think that blessed are those who do not believe what they do not see.

At least she acknowledges the "intellectual laziness" but I would argue it isn't lazy at all.  While I don't believe in any Christian type construct of Jesus/God, or the Bible as literal truth divinely inspired or dictated by said God, and so on, I am not an atheist by any means, (not even a secular humanist since they bash woo just as much as any old skeptibunkie)  and have faith in all kinds of things, including, for lack of a better term, a spiritual system. 

I have direct experience of some things, and no, I'm not going to debate anyone -- certainly not skeptoids, I mean, have you been reading this blog? -- about the validity of those direct experiences. Interpretations of those experiences are one thing; manipulated to fit into one's personal cultural/religous/soceital framework, blah blah, though I will not dignify any of those with entertaining suggestions I'm mentally ill or have a brain tumor.  UFOs are not something to believe in, any more than you believe in a toaster. (And for Pete's sake do not say "we know what a toaster looks like, but we don't know what a UFO looks like!") (Actually we know what UFOs look like; they look like triangles, and cylinders, orbs, spheres, stars, diamond shapes, cigars, ... we have thousands of pictures of them all over the world.) For that matter, Bigfoot isn't something to believe in; I don't pray to a Bigfoot carving in my room or go to Bigfoot church.  I have what I suppose you could call "faith" aliens exist, based on personal experience and evidence, but I don't KNOW for a fact. And either do you.

Well, seems I went off on a little rant/tangent of my own there. Anyway, thanks for stopping by!

JREF Bigfoot Thread Watch

This topic almost deserves a blog of its own.

Anyway, in the "What was that again, cognitive dissonance, irony calling" statement of the day, comes this comment from a BF thread over there titled 'Calling All Skeptics! Help Kitakaze End PGF Controversy - Pitch to Discovery Channel' certainly a long winded title. Thread starts off with the somberly serious self-congratulatory and yet endearingly naive plan to make a BF documentary that will forever silence BF believers and gratify skeptics. Then the thread devolves into fights amongst the debunkers themselves, namely William Parcher. But anyway, on the issue of why so many damn BF threads about something that doesn't exist by people who don't think it exists, this statement by "Blackdog":

I think people are wasting their time in the woods chasing BF but I don't think it's a waste of time to discuss it.

I love it. Just a delicious example of debunkers and their evil ways of moving goal posts, contradicting themselves, general dishonesty, and utterly oblivious to their own surreal exhibitions of humor.

So; going out and actually doing physical research and investigation in hopes of finding physical evidence, proof even, hopefully vs. staying at home and typing on your computer endless non-productive arguments about how something you don't believe exists, doesn't' t exist.

Sounds rational to me!

James Randi: "How To Say It"

I cannot abide the agendas of the JREF and all its cult followers, James Randi's philosophies, and all  the rest of the uber skeptic, pathological debunker lies, tactics, behaviors, manifestos, shilling, and well, you know. The usual. There's nothing good I can say.

But, I do have to say I support Randi's decision to make public the fact he is gay. Here's what he has to say about that: How To Say It.

New Inductee Into Snarly Skepticism Owl Award: James McGaha

I've inducted a new member into the  Snarly Skepticism Owl Award section: James McGaha. Mcgaha quotes we just love:

• "are you qualified to look at the stars at night?"
• "pilots are not trained observers ... they're trianed to be pilots"
• "UFOs are a myth and a magical belief system . . ."

Congratulations Joe! 

Florida PositiveID Co. Chips Alzheimer Patients

I comment on an article about this that's up at the JREF, of all places, on my Octopus Confessional blog.

From Doc Paranormal: 'Angry E-Mail From a Paranormal Skeptic'

Hee hee.

Angry E-Mail From a Paranormal Skeptic" . Thanks to Lesley at The Debris Field for link.

Frank Feschino's Flatwoods Monster on Monster Quest

No doubt there'll be an appearance by arch skeptic Joe Nickell, who will tell us that the Flatwoods Monster was just an owl.

Check Your TV Listings for the MonsterQuest Program On The History Channel March 10, 2010 at 9:00 PM EST (21:00 Hrs)! At Long, Long Last Frank Feschino's Flatwoods Monster Story Is Told And A Whole Town of Good People Are Vindicated!