James Randi's at it again!

I like James Randi. The 'father of skepticism', as he's been called, has made a career of using science and fact to debunk all sorts of outlandish claims by pseudo-sciences and bogus quackery.

He's questioned the claims of homeopathy before, as we've reported on this blog. Now he's come out with a new video challenge, complete with assistance from dozens of other sceptics. The Los Angeles Times reports:

In an online video, Randi consumed an overdose of homeopathic sleeping pills to demonstrate that they have no effect, and skeptics elsewhere consumed large overdoses of other homeopathic drugs in similar demonstrations. Randi also offered $1 million of his own money to any manufacturer of a homeopathic product who could prove that the product actually worked as claimed, and challenged major retailers like CVS, Rite-Aid and Walgreens to remove the products from their shelves.

"Consumers have the right to know what they are buying," he said. "No one should walk out of a drugstore with a homeopathic product without knowing these basic facts: There is no credible evidence that the product does what it says. There is not one bit -- not a single atom -- of the claimed 'active ingredient' in the package, and no U.S. health agency has tested or approved the product."

There's more at the link.

Here's Randi's video challenge.

There's nothing like putting your money where your mouth is, to prove your sincerity: and Randi's backing up his words with a million dollars of his own hard-earned cash. I'd say if the homeopathic industry doesn't take up his challenge, it'll be thoroughly discredited . . . but then, that's the whole idea, isn't it?

Peter

EDITED TO ADD: I've had a couple of e-mails from homeopathy users, accusing me (and Mr. Randi) of bias because we don't 'believe' in it. To answer them, here's the original video I posted in my earlier article on the subject. I think it does a very adequate job of debunking homeopathy's claims.