"Scientists are the most gullible people on earth according to the Amazing Randi."
The Amazing Randi is amazingly ignorant.
He should read about pre-Columbian dating disputes concerning Clovis First theories.
Scientists are VERY cautious by nature and trying to get them to change earlier assumptions is difficult without a mountain of data.
If these guys say 500,000 years - its probably pretty close to that.
The Amazing Randi is amazingly ignorant.
Actually, he's not -- DManA is misapplying what Randi has actually said.
Randi is quite aware that scientists working within their own fields are competent and appropriately skeptical.
What James Randi *actually* said applies to a different context entirely -- scientists often get snookered by charlatans because their training and research experience ill-equips them to deal with a test subject (like a "psychic", etc.) who is intentionally tricking them. Scientists aren't used to that, since nature doesn't lie -- they're too trusting of their observations when dealing with a dishonest subject.