I'm pleased to hear this. The MDC was a gimmick and paranormal challenges date back in various incarnations, I believe, more than a hundred years. So, it is most definitely time to move on. Either find another, better gimmick or use the money for tangible, measurable work. I applaud JREF for using its assets for (hopefully!) the purposes of actual education in critical thinking, and not just as a prop for what usually turns out to be a bit of a pantomime. The latest test was severely lacking in dignity and 100% useless as a PR tool or indeed any sort of leverage whatsoever. And the press don't care about the MDC generally, so time to find another way to make a point.
Or, skip making points into the ether and start making a difference that can be measured.
With better PR, I think the MDC could have been more famous than it is, but that takes money and without releasing the million there obviously isn't any money, so...catch 22.
I look forward to seeing what the money will be used for.
What Teek said.
Why tie up a million dollars forever? Perhaps the only thing that might have been better was to have set a time limit from the beginning. Then change wouldn't have been an issue.
Have the woo claims decreased since the challenge? Has anyone who believed in woo stopped making their claims because of the challenge?
The challenge hopefully influenced those who might otherwise have believed in some woo to have second thoughts. That can still occur. We can still say the challenge was open for
x number of years and no one could provide evidence for any woo during that time. That essentially covers all the usual traditional claims, talking to the dead, ESP, dowsing, homeopathy and so on.
I think the MDC has done all it can. What I hope to see the money used for if it is to be used for the JREF mission is twofold. First and foremost, I think we need to use science ourselves. Have we ever launched a study to actually discover and test methods for increasing critical thought in the population at large? I'll repeat what I have said many times, woo beliefs are not strictly the result of a knowledge deficit. Yet I suspect that 90% of the skeptics' approach to woo is to provide knowledge.
We counter claim after claim with demonstrable evidence. I have honed my arguments on some subjects to a fine point, yet sharing this information mostly changes the beliefs of the portion of the population which has already adopted evidence based beliefs. We make progress at a snail's pace. There are many scientists in the world and our body of scientific knowledge is growing exponentially. But do we even know how that is affecting the woo beliefs of the huge number of people in the world who don't use critical thinking and don't understand the difference between evidence based conclusions and superstition based conclusions? Have the incredible advances in science been accompanied by an equally growing number of rational thinkers?
Are schools producing at least a majority of critical thinkers? Considering how many people waste their money on woo products, how many people believe in witches and monsters, how many rush out to buy the latest book offering success if you just magically wish it so, and how many people including some of the leaders of the most powerful country in the world can't figure out the theory of evolution is NOT in question, it would appear that schools are failing miserably.
There are marketers who study the science of changing people's beliefs. There are any number of Discovery Institute like religious think tanks out there studying the science of getting people to believe science and critical thinking are not the best option. There is a worldwide Evangelical movement that is paying particular attention to what is successful and what isn't, and that has allowed them to spread their anti-science message to millions worldwide.
All the while the scientific community is still only addressing the knowledge deficit. Where are our scientific studies looking at why people believe weird things? We have a couple books and a couple people thinking about it. Where is the research? Why are we not using the same science that the anti-science crowd is using against promoting critical thinking?
And the second thing I'd put the million toward were it up to me would then be implementing the methods of change developed from the scientific research and evaluate the effectiveness.
So end the MDC, that is not such a bad idea. But think about the scientific process. Practice what we love to preach. Research the problem. Develop solutions based on the research. Implement the solutions. Evaluate the effectiveness. Adopt the effective solutions based on the scientific approach. What is wrong with us that we are not doing that already?
