James Randi came out as gay today at the ripe old age of 81. Good on him.
For those who don’t know of him: James Randi is a famed magician, skeptic, and debunker of pseudoscience. He is best known for his “One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge,” which offers a prize of one million U.S. dollars to anyone who can demonstrate a supernatural ability under mutually agreed-upon scientific testing criteria. Many have taken the challenge, but none have succeeded.
Randi and his foundation have exposed psychics like Sylvia Browne, paranormalists like Uri Geller, and faith healers like Peter Popoff for the frauds they are.
This isn’t a criticism, I’m genuinely curious: Why are things like this considered news? Does that really have any impact on what he’s done? I would argue no.
What makes it news, I think, is that he waited this long to come out. But I didn’t post this because it was newsworthy per se. It’s more a show a support. A congratulations.
On the podcast they go into how it is news and what it has to do with skepticism and atheism.