On Cryptomundo: Some “Skeptics” Don’t Get It

Loren Coleman responds to a skeptibunkie's attacks: Cryptomundo Some “Skeptics” Don’t Get It

“Bobby The Paranormal Skeptic,” (a/k/a Bobby Nelson, above) writing for “The Bent Spoon Magazine,” penned a decidedly distasteful column entitled “Loren Coleman’s Cheap Attempt to get Hits on 9/11…” I certainly don’t view the universe the same way this guy does. Besides, he’s dead wrong about his facts.

Bobby posts these beginning passages:

Over at Cryptomundo, a website dedicated to all things cryptid related, owner and operator Loren Coleman wrote a post titled “9/11’s Forgotten Fatality: Robert Steele.”

Coleman shamelessly plugging his book, The Copycat Effect, pastes a paragraph about a man who was killed by an alligator attack in Florida.

Consider the unknown: Leveling with skeptics | New Crystal Mind

Consider the unknown: Leveling with skeptics | New Crystal Mind

You may find this scenario familiar: speaking among friends or colleagues about a particular subject, someone new to the group expresses their complete doubt over its authenticity or legitimacy. They may try to categorize your discussion as that of “fringe” science or research, saying the term with a condescending attitude. In this situation I would advise you to be open to criticism but firm in your beliefs; impress upon the skeptic the existing scientific data to back up the claim. I’d also implore you to ask the skeptic to take the following steps if they want to get a better understanding of paranormal and fringe sciences.

(thnaks to Lesley Gunter at The Debris Field for link)

A Message to James Van Praagh

The official letter from the James Randi Foundation, written by JREF president D.J. Grothe, to James Van Praagh, inviting him to "the Challenge..."

A Message to James Van Praagh

UFO Media Matters: Top Skeptic Goes Ghost busting

Joseph Capp at Media Matters shares his thoughts about skeptic Michael Shermer's stint on Paranormal Challenge: UFO Media Matters: Top Skeptic Goes Ghost busting. (See related post here.)

Beyond Belief and Randi's Million Dollar Challenge | TDG - Science, Magick, Myth and History

Greg Taylor at The Daily Grail has a very good article on why the "million dollar challenge" is ridiculous, as well as the JREF's scientific rigged test:

Beyond Belief and Randi's Million Dollar Challenge | TDG - Science, Magick, Myth and History

Firstly: there is something very wrong with an organisation that is supposedly dedicated to raising the public understanding of science and skepticism deliberately obfuscating the fact that its well-known challenge is no real scientific test of the topic and thus says *nothing* about the existence or non-existence of the paranormal. Now when you raise that point, Randi and others will be quick to say that "we never claim that, it's just a one-off challenge". But the MDC is always promoted as the be-all-and-end-all of tests - "if you're psychic, you'd obviously just go and take Randi's money". For example, this is the way in which it is reported in the media: 

Read the rest at The Daily Grail!