Committee for Skeptical Inquiry


The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, formerly known as the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, is a program within the U.S. non-profit organization Center for Inquiry, which seeks to "promote scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and the use of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims." Paul Kurtz proposed the establishment of CSICOP in 1976 as an independent non-profit organization, to counter what he regarded as an uncritical acceptance of, and support for, paranormal claims by both the media and society in general. Its philosophical position is one of scientific skepticism. CSI's fellows have included notable scientists, Nobel laureates, philosophers, psychologists, educators, and authors. It is headquartered in Amherst, New York.

History

The committee was officially launched on April 30, 1976, and was co-chaired by Paul Kurtz and Marcello Truzzi. In the early 1970s, scientific skeptics were concerned that interest in the paranormal was on the rise in the United States, part of a growing tide of irrationalism. In 1975, Kurtz, a secular humanist, initiated a statement, "Objections to Astrology", which was co-written with Bart Bok and Lawrence E. Jerome, and endorsed by 186 scientists, including 19 Nobel laureates. The statement was published in the American Humanist Association 's newsletter The Humanist, of which Kurtz was then editor. According to Kurtz, the statement was sent to every newspaper in the United States and Canada. It received a positive reaction, which encouraged Kurtz to invite skeptical researchers to a 1976 conference with the aim of establishing a new organization to critically examine a wide range of paranormal claims. Attendees included Martin Gardner, Ray Hyman, James Randi, and Marcello Truzzi, all members of the Resources for the Scientific Evaluation of the Paranormal, a fledgling group with objectives similar to those CSI would subsequently adopt.
RSEP disbanded and its members, along with Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, B.F. Skinner, and Philip J. Klass, then joined Kurtz, Randi, Gardner, and Hyman to formally found the Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. Kurtz, Randi, Gardner, and Hyman took seats on the executive board. CSICOP was officially launched at a specially convened conference of the AHA on April 30 and May 1, 1976.
According to the published correspondence between Gardner and Truzzi, disagreements over what CSICOP should show how volatile the beginnings of the organization were. Truzzi accused CSICOP of "act more like lawyers" taking on a position of dismissal before evaluating the claims, saying that CSICOP took a "debunking stance". Gardner, on the other hand, "opposed 'believers' in the paranormal becoming CSICOP members", which Truzzi supported. Gardner felt that Truzzi "conferred too much respectability to nonsense".
CSICOP was funded in part with donations and sales of their magazine, Skeptical Inquirer.

Mission statement

The formal mission statement, approved in 2006 and still current, states:
The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry promotes science and scientific inquiry, critical thinking, science education, and the use of reason in examining important issues. It encourages the critical investigation of controversial or extraordinary claims from a responsible, scientific point of view and disseminates factual information about the results of such inquiries to the scientific community, the media, and the public.
A shorter version of the mission statement appears in every issue: "... promotes scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and the use of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims." A previous mission statement referred to "investigation of paranormal and fringe-science claims", but the 2006 change recognized and ratified a wider purview for CSI and its magazine, Skeptical Inquirer, that includes "new science related issues at the intersection of science and public concerns, while not ignoring core topics". A history of the first two decades is available in The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal published in 1998 by S.I. editor Kendrick Frazier. In 2018, Frazier reemphasized the importance of the committee's work by saying that "e need independent, evidence-based, science-based critical investigation and inquiry now more than perhaps at any other time in our history."

Name

Paul Kurtz was inspired by the 1949 Belgian organization Comité Para, whose full name was Comité Belge pour l'Investigation Scientifique des Phénomènes Réputés Paranormaux. In 1976, the proposed name was "Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal and Other Phenomena" which was shortened to "Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal". The initial acronym, "CSICP" was difficult to pronounce and so was changed to "CSICOP". According to James Alcock, it was never intended to be "Psi Cop", a nickname that some of the group's detractors adopted.
In November 2006, CSICOP further shortened its name to "Committee for Skeptical Inquiry", pronounced C-S-I. The reasons for the change were to create a name that was shorter, more "media-friendly", to remove "paranormal" from the name, and to reflect more accurately the actual scope of the organization with its broader focus on critical thinking, science, and rationality in general, and because "it includes the root words of our magazine's title, the Skeptical Inquirer".

Activities

In order to carry out its mission, the committee "maintains a network of people interested in critically examining paranormal, fringe science, and other claims, and in contributing to consumer education; prepares bibliographies of published materials that carefully examine such claims;encourages research by objective and impartial inquiry in areas where it is needed; convenes conferences and meetings; publishes articles that examine claims of the paranormal; does not reject claims on a priori grounds, antecedent to inquiry, but examines them objectively and carefully".

Standard

An axiom often repeated among CSI members is the quote "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence", which Carl Sagan made famous and adapted from an earlier quote by Marcello Truzzi: "An extraordinary claim requires extraordinary proof".
According to CSI member Martin Gardner, CSI regularly puts into practice H. L. Mencken's maxim "one horse-laugh is worth a thousand syllogisms."

Publications

CSI publishes the magazine Skeptical Inquirer, which was founded by Truzzi, under the name The Zetetic. The journal was under Truzzi's editorship for the first year, until August 1977. The magazine was retitled to Skeptical Inquirer with Kendrick Frazier, former editor of Science News, serving as its editor. In June 2023, Stephen Hupp was named as the magazine's editor. Hupp replaced Stuart Vyse, who was the interim editor in November 2022 following the passing of Kendrick Frazier. In 1987, Cecil Adams of The Straight Dope called Skeptical Inquirer "one of the nation's leading antifruitcake journals". In addition, CSI publishes Skeptical Briefs, a quarterly newsletter for associate members.
CSI conducts and publishes investigations into Bigfoot and UFO sightings, psychics, astrologers, alternative medicine, religious cults, and paranormal or pseudoscientific claims.

Conferences

CSICOP has held dozens of conferences between 1983 and 2005, two of them in Europe, and all six World Skeptics Congresses so far were sponsored by it. Since 2011, the conference is known as CSICon. Two conventions have been held in conjunction with its sister and parent organizations, CSH and CFI, in 2013 and 2015. The conferences bring together some of the most prominent figures in scientific research, science communication, and skeptical activism, to exchange information on all topics of common concern and to strengthen the movement and community of skeptics.
CSI has also supported local grassroot efforts, such as SkeptiCamp community-organized conferences.

Response to mass media

Many CSI activities are oriented toward the media. As CSI's former executive director Lee Nisbet wrote in the 25th-anniversary issue of the group's journal, Skeptical Inquirer:
As a media watchdog, CSI has "mobilized thousands of scientists, academics and responsible communicators" to criticize what it regards as "media's most blatant excesses". Criticism has focused on factual TV programming or newspaper articles offering support for paranormal claims, and programs such as The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which its members believe portray skeptics and science in a bad light and help to promote belief in the paranormal. CSI's website currently lists the email addresses of over ninety U.S. media organizations and encourages visitors to "directly influence" the media by contacting "the networks, the TV shows, and the editors responsible for the way the world."

Following pseudoscientific and paranormal belief trends

CSI was quoted to consider pseudoscience topics to include yogic flying, therapeutic touch, astrology, fire walking, voodoo, magical thinking, Uri Geller, alternative medicine, channeling, psychic hotlines and detectives, near-death experiences, unidentified flying objects, the Bermuda Triangle, homeopathy, faith healing, and reincarnation.
CSI changes its focus with the changing popularity and prominence of what it considers to be pseudoscientific and paranormal beliefs. For example, as promoters of intelligent design increased their efforts to include it in school curricula in recent years, CSI stepped up its attention to the subject, creating an "Intelligent Design Watch" website publishing numerous articles on evolution and intelligent design in Skeptical Inquirer and on the Internet.