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Originally Posted by pacificwhim  What I want to know is, what's Randi planning to confront Sheldrake about? Getting stabbed? Being British? What's Rupert done lately to ruffle the feathers of the arch-skeptic?
Weird. |
Randi plus TV crew will probably be trying to do what his friend Richard Dawkins attempted last year.... stitch up Sheldrake by being economical with what the (later named) 'Enemies of Reasons' programme was all about, not that it worked.
According to Sheldrake .....
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'..... The previous week I had sent Richard [Dawkins] copies of some of my papers, published in peer-reviewed journals, so that he could look at the data.
Richard seemed uneasy and said, “I’m don’t want to discuss evidence”. “Why not?” I asked. “There isn’t time. It’s too complicated. And that’s not what this programme is about.” The camera stopped.
The Director, Russell Barnes, confirmed that he too was not interested in evidence. The film he was making was another Dawkins polemic.
I said to Russell, “If you’re treating telepathy as an irrational belief, surely evidence about whether it exists or not is essential for the discussion. If telepathy occurs, it’s not irrational to believe in it. I thought that’s what we were going to talk about. I made it clear from the outset that I wasn’t interested in taking part in another low grade debunking exercise.”
Richard said, “It’s not a low grade debunking exercise; it’s a high grade debunking exercise.”
In that case, I replied, there had been a serious misunderstanding, because I had been led to believe that this was to be a balanced scientific discussion about evidence. Russell Barnes asked to see the emails I had received from his assistant. He read them with obvious dismay, and said the assurances she had given me were wrong. The team packed up and left.
Dialogues and Controversies - Controversies - Richard Dawkins |
Sheldrake's account is probably fairly accurate IMHO, over a year ago I spoke to someone else who was excited to be asked to appear on same two part series, although they knew Dawkins was on programme too, it wasn't made clear the programme was just a vehicle for Dawkin's own viewpoint only, he turned it down on realizing the likely type of programme. Others probably did so too.