Forum

- 1 February 1992

James Randi is being pursued by Uri Geller in the US courts, to gag his outspoken comments on the “paranormal” performer. The cost of Randi’s defence is frightening, and NZ Skeptics were quick to contribute to his defence fund.

Our gift came from individual members, an AGM-approved grant from NZCSICOP’s general funds, and the proceeds of a firewalk in Christchurch, organised by John Campbell and Denis Dutton. We sent NZ$830 to James Randi in Florida.

Bernard Howard

Randi’s Thanks

Please express my deep gratitude to the New Zealand Skeptics, to the individual members of NZCSICOP, and to those who trod the embers to raise contributions to my legal fund. In particular, my thanks to Drs. Campbell and Dutton.

I must tell you that the James Randi Fund has received contributions from every corner of the globe, not only from skeptical groups but from major individuals in the academic world and from various scientific groups as well. I believe the recognised fact is that if Geller and his ilk are able to silence one high-profile individual by bringing legal action that may be designed to financially cripple, they can similarly affect other persons and organisations.

Rest assured that we are now in a position to win this case definitively. The judge bas ruled that Mr. Geller must prove his divine powers under deposition, and you may share my belief that he will find that somewhat difficult.

At one time, this was my battle. At this point in time, it is our battle. We will win, not only this battle, but the war. Count on it.

Look for reports on the matter and editorials in scientific journals. There is much concern for the “freedom of speech” issue at stake here, another reason why it seems evident that Geller and his sycophants have bitten off much more of this tough old curmudgeon than they can ever hope to swallow. Their efforts to cuddle up to my allies and persuade them of my contemptible character and background have been summarily rejected and reported to me immediately. No doubt to his great surprise, Mr. Geller has discovered that there is a strong and united front in the academic/skeptical community that will no longer ignore him and his pretensions.

Again, my thanks to you all. Your support is encouraging indeed.

James Randi

Skepticism On IQs

Shame on you, Denis Dutton. Here you are, the editor of New Zealand’s leading skeptic magazine, indulging in as good a piece of pseudoscience as I’ve ever seen — and going national too. Tut! Tut!

I refer to “News Front” (Skeptic #20). In “Skeptics Rubbish Ghostbusting,” you are quoted as saying “It’s our understanding that the participants in this scheme would require IQs of at least 150”. IQs? What are IQs? Current thinking places IQs alongside auras, surely.

The concept of IQ dates back to early this century, when the US Department of Education commissioned Alfred Binet to develop techniques to identify children in need of special education. Binet devised a series of tests based on a range of activities in the hope of being able to allocate a general measure of children’s potential in the form of a single number or score. German psychologist W. Stern devised what is known today as the IQ, based on dividing Binet’s score, which was assumed to be a measure of mental age, by chronological age.

Binet was always at great pains to declare that intelligence is too complex to describe by a single number. He stated that IQ is not a measure of intelligence because intellectual qualities are not superposable.

Unfortunately, the damage was done. A variety of institutions, such as the US Army and the Immigration Service, had found a tool, albeit a spurious one, for grading people into desirable and not so desirable groups. Most of us are aware of the injustices wrought by this allocation of a score to measure intellectual potential. The subject is covered in detail in Stephen Jay Gould’s book The Mismeasure of Man.

As an afterthought, my children at various times have been members of Mensa both here and overseas. I make no apologies for their adolescent explorations (Mensa is a club for those with high IQs). Rarely have I met such a weird selection of beliefs as manifested by articles in Mensa magazines. Mensa members believe in all sorts of paranormal phenomena, from ESP to dowsing. It is as I thought, IQ — whatever it is — and intelligence are unrelated.

Russell Dear

Ig Nobel Prizes

All know of Alfred Nobel, who left his fortune to endow the world’s highest awards for scientific research.

Few, however, will have heard of Alfred’s brother, Ignatius. To honour him, and to rescue his name from undeserved obscurity, a group of distinguished American scientists has selected 10 researchers for its first round of Ig Nobel Prize awards.

The complete list will be found in that leading scientific periodical, the Journal of Irreproducible Results. Here, we note only the chemistry prize, awarded to Jacques Benveniste, for “the persistent discovery that H2O is an intelligent liquid.”

Bernard Howard

Tasty Swastika

The person who used the term “bad taste” concerning the New Age symbol (Skeptic

#20) is obviously offended by the association of the swastika with a certain popular movement initiated by a Mr Hitler back in ‘28. I suggest that that person never takes a holiday in Bali, where the crooked cross is all too common.

The truth of the matter is, of course, that the swastika is a very ancient religious symbol, predating Hitler’s brown-shirted fan club by millennia. It is not to the discredit of Hindus and Buddhists that the symbol was hijacked, and I would regard it as being in “bad taste” to refer to its continuing use as a religious symbol as “bad taste”!

Barend Vlaardingerbroek

The Sanskrit svastika means “conducive to wellbeing”, and indeed the symbol is found not only in India (modern and ancient), but on Greek coins, Celtic monuments and Navajo rugs. In the Orient, it is the counterclockwise version that we see; the Nazis adopted the clockwise version as their emblem.

There is nothing in intrinsically bad taste about the symbol used in a Buddhist or Hindu temple. But for a European New Age guru to superimpose the Nazi version on a Star of David requires astonishing insensitivity. (DD)

Green Skepticism

The Skeptic is on target with its criticisms of the Listener. Its “terminal gullibility” though is by no means confined to alternative medicines. Articles in their pages dealing with the environment and, in particular, pertaining to nuclear energy and global warming, often show the same anti-scientific bias.

The Listener is by no means alone. “We have to offer up scary scenarios,” says Stephen Schneider, a prominent US environmentalist, “make simplified dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubt we may have. We have to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest.”

Thus science and logic seem to be the losers in the Green debate, with emotional and political argument taking precedence over scientific fact. I, for one, would be extremely interested to see contributors in the Skeptic regarding these vital issues.

Mike Houlding

Over the Edge

When Mr Justice Mahon was conducting his enquiry into the Mount Erebus disaster, in which an Air New Zealand sightseeing plane crashed into the Antarctic mountain, he received a letter telling him that the accident had happened because the maps used by the pilot were wrong.

The correspondent claimed that the world is flat and that the Antarctic lies around the edge — all that ice stops the water falling off. Mr Mahon’s reply to the flat-earth believer is a gem of legal put-down:

I acknowledge receipt of your lengthy memorandum. Unfortunately, my terms of reference, as gazetted under the hand of the Governor General, are founded on the thesis that the world is round. I am therefore precluded from considering any other possibility.

Bernard Howard