Why the challenge is illogical.

[kerikiwi]

Maybe, but not being able to explain something, correctly or incorrectly, is purely a failure of imagination.

If something has been incorrectly explained, it hasn't really been explained.

 

[Pixel42]

I am also amazed that some organized crime ring doesn't scam the prize constantly. I wonder how exactly that is prevented and why they aren't doing it.

It is prevented by only agreeing to test protocols which carefully and methodically exclude all the known ways of scamming. A professional magician who spent his entire life using exactly the same tricks and techniques the scammers use is the ideal person to ensure that. The scammers know perfectly well they would never fool Randi, which is why they won't touch the challenge with a barge pole. Their refusal to take it can then be pointed to as evidence that they are, indeed, scamming.

The only people who actually apply for the challenge are those who have fooled themselves into believing they have a paranormal ability. As easy as it is to prove that they are wrong, publically humiliating the honestly mistaken is not what the challenge was set up to do, hence the additional hurdles of media coverage and academic endorsement now required to take the challenge.

 

[GrandMasterFox]

quarky, I am also amazed that some organized crime ring doesn't scam the prize constantly. I wonder how exactly that is prevented and why they aren't doing it.

Simplest way to explain this to you, is to go to the challenge forum here and read up on past challenges and their negotiations.

There are a number of applicants that seem quite clear they were going to cheat somehow (or rely on dumb luck) and when the protocol was designated to avoid such things, suddenly the applicant disappears or whatever.

So the basic message I'm getting about the challenge is that it is more of a challenge for the JREF to prove these famous people are fakes, rather than so much of a challenge to someone who may have real paranormal abilities.

Thanks to everyone for helping clarify things.

Preety much. A single test can't prove anything and Randi isn't a scientist. As I said above, think of him more as a member of a fraud investigator.

The purpose of the challenge is to keep badgering John Edwards and his ilk why he hasn't taken the test. But for this to work, the test itself must be honest and allow everyone.

(In other words, not give the frauds an excuse to dodge)