Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

Logo of the CSI.

The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry ( CSI ; until the end of November 2006 the name was Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal , CSICOP ) is an international organization of the skeptic movement based in the USA . The association, based in Amherst, New York , was founded in 1976 by Paul Kurtz to counter what they believed to be uncritical acceptance and support of paranormal claims by both the media and society in general. Other founding members were James Randi , Ray Hyman , Marcello Truzzi , Martin Gardner , Carl Sagan , Isaac Asimov , BF Skinner and Philip J. Klass .

aims

The CSI was founded with the aim of “ promoting critical research into paranormal and borderline scientific claims from a responsible scientific point of view and disseminating factual information about the results of such research in the scientific community and the public”.

Aims:

1. Run a network of people interested in skeptical thinking and paranormal claims
2. Establish a bibliography of previously published works examining such claims
3. Objective and impartial investigation of areas where such an approach is necessary
4. Run meetings and meetings
5. Publish articles that address and investigate paranormal allegations
6. Publication of a magazine dealing with paranormal claims ( Skeptical Inquirer )
7. Have no bias towards parasciences , but seek an objective study of them.

The CSI has examined numerous such topics. The spectrum ranges from Bigfoot to UFO observations, astrology and alternative medicine to religious cults.

Networking

The committee is a subsidiary of the Center for Inquiry, which was announced in January 2016 to be merged with the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science . His practical goals and ideological orientation are shared by the Skeptics Society , the James Randi Educational Foundation and many smaller regional American and national Skeptics organizations in other countries. Many of these other groups of skeptics, including the Society for the Scientific Study of Parasciences , are formally associated with CSI. CSI is a member of the International Humanist and Ethical Union and supports the Amsterdam Declaration on the Principles of Secular Humanism .

Regular publications

CSI publishes the journal Skeptical Inquirer six times a year .

Other known CSI members (former and active)

George O. Abell Stephen Barrett Susan Blackmore Bart J. Bok Jan Harold Brunvand Mario Bunge Milbourne Christopher Francis Crick Richard Dawkins L. Sprague de Camp Daniel Dennett Ann Druyan

Antony Flew Kendrick Frazier Murray Gell-Mann Stephen Jay Gould Douglas Hofstadter Gerald Holton Cornelis de Jager Larry Kusche Leon Lederman Elizabeth Loftus John Maddox David Marks Kenneth Miller

Marvin Minsky Richard A. Muller Joe Nickell Bill Nye James Oberg Paul Offit Robert L. Park John Allen Paulos Massimo Pigliucci Steven Pinker WV Quine Eugenie Scott Glenn T. Seaborg

Thomas Sebeok Robert Sheaffer Dick Smith Victor J. Stenger Jill Tarter Carol Tavris Stephen Toulmin Neil deGrasse Tyson Marilyn vos Savant Steven Weinberg Edward O. Wilson Richard Wiseman

Web links

• Official website (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ CSI's website
2. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated November 12, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ^ Alison Lesley: Richard Dawkins' Atheist Organization Merges with Center for Inquiry . January 26, 2016. Retrieved January 26, 2016.
4. ↑ Publications - Skeptical Inquirer csicop.org
5. ↑ http://www.csicop.org/news/show/sixteen_notable_figures_in_science_and_skepticism_elected_csi_fellows/