F.a.o JON

[jomarie]

hotchic said:

I think these forums are a great place to get stuff off your chest. My children have driven me mad today, the husband is out on the piss and I have gone on here to try to remember there is more to me than being the '[glow=red,2,300]housewife'[/glow] and mother!

there is something other than housewife and mother... my job title is
"chief bum washer"

quite like it really

[exile]

I feel like I'm on a treadmill like they used for prisoners - to send them insane!!

[abcde]

hotchic said:

Jon does like his followers

Skeptics do not like 'followers' - one of the tenets of skepticism is that we do not bow down to (real or perceived) authority figures of any kind. There are no sacred cows in skepticism.

One of the roles of active skepticism is to educate. That's what I see Jon aiming to do: educate people, not lead them. That's a very important point to understand.

I think it's accurate to say that Jon has succeeded in educating a lot of people regarding the claims of psychics and mediums; if he's respected by many, that's because of merit: not some sycophantic blind-faith following such as occurs on psychics' forums.


(I hope that's OK with you Jon)

[Mr. Jon Donnis]

Jon does like his followers, but I am glad you are not one of them.

I do not like followers at all.
In fact i encourage people to fight for what they believe in, if they honestly think they are right and I am wrong, then they should bloody well fight for it.

I refuse to surround myself with followers, I have admin like Lowrider, who is a medium and who i disagree with on just about everything, we have admin Shazz who is a firm believer, and who constantly tells me off, edits my posts and basically bosses me about.

As a sceptic i honestly believe that anyone regardless of belief needs to find their own sceptism, their own proof.

I believe this is done through education, and in 90% of people if you help them to figure things out for themselves they will see the truth.

I dont want people to stop believing in Derek Acorah just because I say so, if they did i would be as bad as him.

I want peope to stop believing in Acorah because of the evidence, and the more people educate themselves in the tricks that psychics use, the more they become sceptical.

To quote John above

There are no sacred cows in skepticism.

This is so true, people keep on about James Randi and about how sceptics treat him like a messiah, and I have to point out how wrong they are.

If Randi was a fraud it would be the sceptics who would expose him, not the believers.

I dont care if you are Ciaran O'Keeffe, Derren Brown or James Randi, if there is something that you do that i do not like I will damn well let the world know about it.

So this is your first lesson in not only me but also sceptisism as a whole, we dont want nor need followers, in fact we want the opposite, people who can think for themselves.

[Guthix]

I've learned alot in the art of cold reading from jon's website and forums and i love the exposes hes done on most haunted and derek acorah, you rock jon there is no other website like this around.

*raises a glass to jon* cheers ;D

[abcde]

admin said:

This is so true, people keep on about James Randi and about how sceptics treat him like a messiah, and I have to point out how wrong they are.

Absolutely spot on.

Believers think that skeptics follow Randi and hang on every word that he comes out with. If you look on Randi's forum, however, you'll often see criticism of things Randi has said in his weekly commentary by the very skeptics who admire and respect (not blindly follow) him.

Also, you'll often see Randi admit his mistakes in the following week's commentary.

'Tis a hard life being a skeptic

[Mr. Jon Donnis]

guthix said:

I've learned alot in the art of cold reading from jon's website and forums and i love the exposes hes done on most haunted and derek acorah, you rock jon there is no other website like this around.

*raises a glass to jon* cheers ;D

Thanks, it is always good to hear that people have gotten something from the site, it makes it all worthwhile.

You should also check out UK Skeptics site at www.skeptics.org.uk
They have a lot of good stuff, bit more serious than BP, but still a very good read, and you know me I rarely recommend any other sceptical sites.