Starbaby
Dennis Rawlins
Quote:I used to believe it was simply a figment of the National Enquirer's weekly imagination that the Science Establishment would cover up evidence for the occult. But that was in the era B.C. -- Before the Committee. I refer to the "Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal" (CSICOP), of which I am a cofounder and on whose ruling Executive Council (generally called the Council) I served for some years. I am still skeptical of the occult beliefs CSICOP was created to debunk. But I have changed my mind about the integrity of some of those who make a career of opposing occultism.
I now believe that if a flying saucer landed in the backyard of a leading anti-UFO spokesman, he might hide the incident from the public (for the public's own good, of course). He might swiftly convince himself that the landing was a hoax, a delusion or an "unfortunate" interpretation of mundane phenomena that could be explained away with "further research."
The irony of all this particularly distresses me since both in print and before a national television audience I have stated that the conspiratorial mentality of believers in occultism presents a real political danger in a voting democracy. Now I find that the very group I helped found has partially Justified this mentality.
'Historically, we may regard materialism as a system of dogma set up to combat orthodox dogma...Accordingly we find that, as ancient orthodoxies disintegrate, materialism more and more gives way to scepticism.'
- Bertrand Russell
(This post was last modified: 2020-12-09, 08:49 PM by Sciborg_S_Patel.)
Didn't someone post about this on a Skeptiko thread a while back? I recognise the term.
(2020-12-09, 09:11 PM)OmniVersalNexus Wrote: Didn't someone post about this on a Skeptiko thread a while back? I recognise the term.
Yeah those threads are buried and the forums over there locked though.
'Historically, we may regard materialism as a system of dogma set up to combat orthodox dogma...Accordingly we find that, as ancient orthodoxies disintegrate, materialism more and more gives way to scepticism.'
- Bertrand Russell
More on CSICOP scandals from Guy Lyon Playfair
Quote:Truzzi was anything but authoritarian and was certainly no latter-day “Witchfinder General”. Indeed, one of his first acts as editor of The Zetetic was to commission an article criticising the anti-astrology manifesto, as his opinion of it was similar to Sagan’s. This act of open-mindedness and impartiality on Truzzi’s part led to rumours among members of the CSICOP Council that he was too soft on the paranormal. There was even a suggestion that he might be a “closet occultist”.
It was all getting rather nasty...
Quote:The whole story of what followed was told in great detail in a 31-page article in Fate (October l982) with this editorial comment:
Quote:“They call themselves The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. In fact, they are a group of would-be debunkers who bungled their major investigation, falsified the results, covered up their errors and gave the boot to a colleague who threatened to tell the truth.”
These were serious charges to make against a supposedly scientific body, yet the author not only repeated them but added several more. These were presumably accurate, since the article was in fact written by the whistle-blowing colleague himself, astrophysicist and founder CSICOP member Dennis Rawlins.
Quote:Moving the goalposts is a favourite CSICOP ploy – testing somebody for something they have never claimed to be able to do. A particularly blatant instance of this was the supposed testing of Natasha Demkina, the “Girl with X-ray Eyes” by two CSICOP Fellows, professors Ray Hyman and Richard Wiseman. (See “The Demkina File” on this site).
Another was the supposed test of “dream detective” Chris Robinson, one of whose claims is that he can dream in advance what object will be found in a sealed box. He agreed to do this for an episode of Arthur C.Clarke’s Mysterious Universe, yet on arriving at the studio he was asked to do something entirely different – to hold an object connected to a crime and describe the events and persons associated with it. This is known as psychometry, something Chris has never done nor claimed to be able to do, and although he was not entirely unsuccessful, viewers were clearly led to believe that he had no psychic powers at all despite the abundant evidence to the contrary. (See Chris Robinson’s website for a full account of this disgraceful episode).
'Historically, we may regard materialism as a system of dogma set up to combat orthodox dogma...Accordingly we find that, as ancient orthodoxies disintegrate, materialism more and more gives way to scepticism.'
- Bertrand Russell
(This post was last modified: 2021-02-20, 04:03 PM by Sciborg_S_Patel.)
(2021-02-20, 02:48 PM)Obiwan Wrote: I think it’s Guy Lyon Playfair.
Ah thanks, not sure how Layton got in there...
'Historically, we may regard materialism as a system of dogma set up to combat orthodox dogma...Accordingly we find that, as ancient orthodoxies disintegrate, materialism more and more gives way to scepticism.'
- Bertrand Russell
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