Thompson4822's List: Skepticism

• When a famous tantric guru boasted on television that he could kill another  man using only his mystical powers, most viewers either gasped in awe or  merely nodded unquestioningly. Sanal Edamaruku’s response was different. “Go  on then — kill me,” he said.

  • Why would someone make such a bold claim?  He had to have known that he would be challenged at some point, right?
• First, the master chanted mantras, then he sprinkled water on his intended  victim. He brandished a knife, ruffled the sceptic’s hair and pressed his  temples. But after several hours of similar antics, Mr Edamaruku was still  very much alive — smiling for the cameras and taunting the furious holy man.
• “He was over, finished, completely destroyed!” Mr Edamaruku chuckles  triumphantly as he concludes the tale in the Rationalist Centre, his  second-floor office in the town of Noida, just outside Delhi.

  • Seems strange to me that, after all of that time the guru did not have an excuse built up.  I would have.  This is a guy that definitely should be finished!
• Nevertheless, Mr Edamaruku has dedicated his life to exposing the charlatans —  from levitating village fakirs to televangelist yoga masters — who he says  are obstructing an Indian Enlightenment. He has had a busy month, with one  guru arrested over prostitution, another caught in a sex-tape scandal, a  third kidnapping a female follower and a fourth allegedly causing a stampede  that killed 63 people.
• His organisation traces its origins to the 1930s when the “Thinker’s Library”  series of books, published by Britain’s Rationalist Press Association, were  first imported to India. They included works by Aldous Huxley, Charles  Darwin and H.G. Wells; among the early subscribers was Jawaharlal Nehru,  India’s first Prime Minister.

  • Even Huxley?  Wow, that's kinda cool.  And I never knew H.G. Wells was a skeptic...

• The Indian Rationalist Association was founded officially in Madras in 1949  with the encouragement of the British philosopher Bertrand Russell, who sent  a long letter of congratulations. For the next three decades it had no more  than 300 members and focused on publishing pamphlets and debating within the  country’s intellectual elite.  

   

   But since Mr Edamaruku took over in 1985, it has grown into a grass-roots  organisation of more than 100,000 members — mainly young professionals,  teachers and students — covering most of India. Members now spend much of  their time investigating and reverse-engineering “miracles” performed by  self-styled holy men who often claim millions of followers and amass huge  wealth from donations.

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