Million Dollar Prize
From SkepticWiki
The James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) offers a prize currently valued at one million US dollars for "anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event." The prize originated in 1964, when James Randi put up $1000 as a prize to anyone who could show objective proof of the paranormal. The amount of the prize winnings have grown, largely through public support and donations in support of the JREF educational mission.
To date, over 1000 people have applied to take the challenge. Most drop out before their claims can be properly tested; none have successfully passed.
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[edit] Other Challenges
A number of believers in the paranormal have created challenges of their own, in imitation/parody of the Randi Challenge.
[edit] Zammit
Victor Zammit, a retired Australian lawyer, offers one million dollars [1] (currency not specified) "to any skeptic who can rebut the evidence for the existence of the afterlife." Unlike the Randi Challenge, the Zammit Challenge can be demonstrated to be unwinnable -- for example, the Randi Foundation and the claimant together negotiate to determine what will constitute a successful challenge application, while the Zammit challenge requires, up-front, that challengers "rebut the substantive objective evidence," and that "the level of proof required to rebut the evidence will be the Cartesian test, "beyond any doubt". This means that there has to be absolutely no doubt at all in the minds of the Committee that the 'evidence' has been rebutted." This is obviously an unreasonable burden of proof, something that, as a lawyer, Zammit undoubtedly knows.
[edit] Hovind
Similarly, creationist Kent Hovind has a standing challenge of $250,000 "to anyone who can give any empirical evidence (scientific proof) for evolution." Again, closer investigation [2] [3] indicates that this challenge is unwinnable.
[edit] Fomenko
Delamare Resources Publishing are the publishers of Anatoly Fomenko's book History: Fiction or Science? Fomenko believes that human civilization began in the eleventh century, and that Jesus was born in 1053 AD. Delamare Resources, according to their press release, will pay a rather stingy $10,000 to anyone who can prove him wrong by producing "a single piece of firm written evidence or artifact that could be reliably and independently dated earlier than the XI century". Before you rush to claim your prize, you should note that the press release also stipulates that "archaeological, dendrochronological, paleographical and carbon methods of dating of ancient sources and artifacts" are not to be considered reliable, which leaves one wondering what possible evidence they would accept.
[edit] 9-11 conspiracy theorist
There is also a million dollar challenge offered by a 9-11 conspiracy theorist. This challenge can also be shown to be unwinnable as a) it requires that the challenger prove a negative (specifically, proof that no explosives were used, when that should be on the side of the conspiracy theorist to prove) and b) it sets up several bad-science aspects of the collapse (such as the requirement that the challenger explain how the towers fell at free-fall, when the video evidence clearly shows the debris around the towers falling faster, meaning the towers were falling at a slower rate than free-fall).
[edit] Catholic Apologetics International
Perhaps the most miserly challenge is that offered by Catholic Apologetics International[4], who will give a mere $1000 to anyone who proves that the Earth moves; or, more accurately, to anyone whom they will admit has proved that the Earth moves.
The reason that they will never pay up is that they have noticed that we can always choose to describe the Universe using a coordinate system in which the Earth stands still and everything else is behaving in bizarre ways which contradict the laws of motion and gravity, and which, by this miraculous and concerted breach of the laws of nature, give scientists the false impression that the Earth is moving. Their challenge requires that this alternate theory should be falsified, and since their alternate "theory" might be summarised as "Everything looks exactly as it would if the Earth was moving, but it isn't." Clearly, for any scientific theory, or indeed any factual statement, such an alternative theory can be produced and cannot be falsified.
[edit] External Links
- The James Randi Educational Foundation
- The JREF Challenge
- The JREF Challenge Application
- The JREF Challenge FAQ
- The Zammit Challenge
- The Hovind Challenge
