Skeptical Briefs

The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), formerly known as the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), is a program within the US non-profit organization Center for Inquiry (CFI), 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 (before merging with CFI as one of its programs in 2015), 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.''The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research'', Volume 86, No. 1, January 1992 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 (AHA)'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. The statement 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 (RSEP), 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 (CSICOP). Kurtz, Randi, Gardner and Hyman took seats on the executive board.Higginbotham, Adam (November 7, 2014)
"The Unbelievable Skepticism of the Amazing Randi"
. ''The New York Times''. 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 be shown how volatile the beginnings of the organization were. Truzzi criticised CSICOP for "act ngmore 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 heircore 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 " 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'' ("Belgian Committee for Scientific Investigation of Purported Paranormal Phenomena"). 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" (CSI), pronounced C-S-I."CSICOP becomes CSI after thirty years"
CSI. 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". (Truzzi in turn traced the idea back through the Principle of Laplace to the philosopher David Hume.)

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 Tuzzi'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 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 towards the media. As CSI's former executive director Lee Nisbet wrote in the 25th-anniversary issue of the group's journal, ''Skeptical Inquirer'':

Involvement with mass media continues to the present day with, for example, CSI founding the Council for Media Integrity in 1996, and co-producing a TV documentary series ''Critical Eye'' hosted by William B. Davis. CSI members can be seen regularly in the mainstream media offering their perspective on a variety of paranormal claims. In 1999 Joe Nickell was appointed special consultant on a number of investigative documentaries for the BBC
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