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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26034 Posts |
 Posted - 03/21/2007 : 21:25:08
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Poll Question:
Who has done the most to foster and forward the skeptical "movement?"
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- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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ejdalise
Skeptic Friend
USA
50 Posts |
Posted - 03/21/2007 : 22:06:35 [Permalink]
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On a personal level, a number of authors through my formative years. Some I don't even remember, as they wrote adventure stories for a younger audience.
Later in life I owuld have to say Heinlein . . . weird views, but he made you think.
By the time Sagan came around I was already a flaming atheist/skeptic.
Houdini was a little before my time. Randi is probably the most visible current personage. By visible I mean known outside the skeptical circles. Even then, I don't know how much impact he (or any other skeptic figure) has on the population at large. |
--- Disperser ---
Winning enemies and aggravating friends since 1953 |
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Boron10
Religion Moderator
USA
1266 Posts |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 03/21/2007 : 22:43:02 [Permalink]
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Wow, damn good question. I would say Sagan got the ball rolling for me, but I would guess most people tend to think of him more as a promoter of science than of skepticism per se. In my mind, Richard Feynman played a smiliar role, though without a TV show as a vehicle.
Penn and Teller's show Bullshit has easily done more to promote skepticism to more people recently, but I believe they give a great deal of credit to Randi for exposing them to skepticism initially. Randi's debunking of Uri Geller on The Tonight Show is one of the best and most well-remembered examples of skepticism ever displayed.
But where would Randi be without that other, older magician Houdini, who dedicated the later part of his life to debunking mediums, psychics, spiritualists and other frauds?
Damn good choices all around, but I think I'll have to go with Randi, who I think has done more to promote skepticism as a movement than the others. I believe his long-standing paranormal challenge and creation of the James Randi Educational Foundation are a legacy that will continue to win hearts and minds around the world to skepticism for many years to come.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
| Edited by - H. Humbert on 03/21/2007 22:45:05 |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 03/22/2007 : 00:46:27 [Permalink]
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I hesitantly picked Randi over Sagan simply because, as H.H. mentioned, Carl was more science popularizer than skeptic, in his focus. But I'm not upset that Sagan's taken the early lead. He's up there somewhere, shooting a fist into the air, and saying, "Yes-sss!"
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 03/22/2007 01:11:09 |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 03/22/2007 : 02:58:19 [Permalink]
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Randi's doing a great job debunking people. Sagan has done the most (from the list) taking science to the people. He has his famous quote about extra-ordinary claims. But Shermer, in my experience which is what I am going by, has done more to confront woo in a variety of different areas and has become a public spokesperson specifically about the skeptic philosophy.
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 03/22/2007 : 03:29:04 [Permalink]
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I went with Houdini. He was skeptical back when skeptical wasn't cool (it still isn't, but you know what I mean) and even arrainged to test for his own ghost upon his death. quote:
Fearing spiritualists would exploit his legacy by pretending to contact him after his death, Houdini left his wife a secret code — ten words chosen at random from a letter written by Doyle — that he would use to contact her from the afterlife. His wife held yearly séances on Halloween for ten years after his death, but Houdini never appeared. In 1936, after a last unsuccessful séance on the roof of the Knickerbocker Hotel, she put out the candle that she had kept burning beside a photograph of Houdini since his death, later (1943) saying "ten years is long enough to wait for any man." The tradition of holding a séance for Houdini continues to this day, and is currently organized by Sidney H. Radner.[4]
Tough one.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 03/22/2007 : 12:59:55 [Permalink]
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All good choices, and no easy decision to choose among them.
After some deliberation I have to select Sagan. Demon Haunted World is a great book, and provides the basic tools for people to be able to think critically about the world around them.
But all the names on the list are, imo, admirable skeptics.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 03/22/2007 : 15:23:12 [Permalink]
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| Well, I went with Sagan - he's by far the most popular over here (after Houdini, but I doubt many people over here know about his skeptical side). Randi sometimes makes to the news over here, but I blame Sagan for my presence in this forum, hands down, no question. |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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tomk80
SFN Regular
Netherlands
1278 Posts |
Posted - 03/22/2007 : 18:03:40 [Permalink]
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I went with Randi. Mainly because his way of presenting what he does is so great. But perhaps I am biased, because he is the first skeptic I saw on TV in the Netherlands.
Although I must say that the one who really made turned me in the direction of skepticism was Erich von Daniken. When I was fourteen or so I read three of his books and was fascinated. But it was so far off that I really wanted to get my hands on a book that told me what all those deluded scientists were saying. Luckily, the library provided  . In the same way, the creationist movement drove me from the latent skepticism caused by von Daniken to the more ardent skeptic I am now. |
Tom
`Contrariwise,' continued Tweedledee, `if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.'
-Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Caroll- |
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Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie
USA
4826 Posts |
Posted - 03/22/2007 : 21:09:55 [Permalink]
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Went with Randi.
Toyed with the idea of suggesting Ambrose Bierce. |
Cthulhu/Asmodeus when you're tired of voting for the lesser of two evils
Brother Cutlass of Reasoned Discussion |
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dglas
Skeptic Friend
Canada
397 Posts |
Posted - 03/23/2007 : 02:26:51 [Permalink]
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I picked Sagan as well, as he was a primary influence upon my thinking at an important time. He was what was called a wet-skeptic, and honestly, when it comes down to it, that's the way to be.
Randi has a wonderful, ingenious gimmick, but I can't select him over Sagan for that alone.
Shermer is too busy trying to turn skepticism into religion (sorry, I'm one of them philosophical skeptics, and yes my metaphysical cloud chamber is doing just fine, thinks. I can handle meta-levels of skepticism, even if others can't).
I'm thinking the likes of Derek and Swoopy may be the future. Not yet, though. |
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- dglas (In the hell of 1000 unresolved subplots...)
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The Presupposition of Intrinsic Evil
+ A Self-Justificatory Framework
= The "Heart of Darkness"
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| Edited by - dglas on 03/23/2007 02:28:30 |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 03/23/2007 : 04:34:59 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Valiant Dancer
Went with Randi.
Toyed with the idea of suggesting Ambrose Bierce.
I too, thought of "Bitter" Bierce, who has long been a literary favorite of mine. The Devil's Dictionary is beyond compare. But I think I'd call him a cynic as much as a skeptic. Nothing wrong with that, o'course -- be a skeptic long enough and anybody'd turn a little cynical.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 03/23/2007 : 16:41:15 [Permalink]
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Primarily a cynic though he was (and I abhor cynicism on principle), Bierce was such a fine writer and humorist that it's almost impossible to not to like him or his wonderful The Devil's Dictionary.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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At the forefront?
