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Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

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The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) is a U.S. advocacy organization founded to "encourage the critical investigation of paranormal and fringe-science claims from a responsible, scientific point of view and disseminate factual information about the results of such inquiries to the scientific community and the public." It is a nonprofit organization, founded in 1976 by Paul Kurtz to counter an apparent uncritical acceptance of, and support for, paranormal claims by both the media and society in general. Its practical goals and philosophical position of scientific skepticism are closely shared by the Skeptics Society, the James Randi Educational Foundation, and many smaller U.S. regional skeptics' organizations, as well as by national skeptics' organizations in other countries. (Many of the U.S. regional and overseas skeptics' groups are formally associated with CSICOP.) Notable members of CSICOP have included TV science program host Bill Nye, Isaac Asimov, Carl Sagan, Milbourne Christopher, Martin Gardner, James Randi, and many others.

Activities

According to CSICOP's charter, the organization exists to pursue six major goals:

  1. Maintain a network of people interested in critically examining paranormal, fringe science, and other claims, and in contributing to consumer education.
  2. Prepare bibliographies of published materials that carefully examine such claims.
  3. Encourage research by objective and impartial inquiry in areas where it is needed.
  4. Convene conferences and meetings.
  5. Publish articles that examine claims of the paranormal.
  6. Do not reject claims on a priori grounds, antecedent to inquiry, but examine them objectively and carefully.

CSICOP has conducted or published investigations into many paranormal claims, ranging from Bigfoot and UFO sightings to self-proclaimed psychics, pseudoscience, astrology, alternative medicines, and religious cults. Most commentators accept that critical scrutiny of claims of the paranormal is appropriate and valuable; differences between skeptics and proponents of the paranormal often arise over the issue of acceptable standards of evidence.

An axiom often repeated among CSICOP members is that "extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence." Since paranormal claims are potentially revolutionary scientific discoveries that may run counter to an established body of scientific knowledge, nothing less than the strictest standards of scientific scrutiny should be accepted as convincing. This might involve, for example, well-designed, double-blind, strictly controlled scientific experiments published in reputable peer-reviewed journals, followed by successful independent replication by other scientists.

Paranormal proponents often advocate a less stringent standard of evidence. Arguing for a preponderance of evidence and offering as proof of paranormal phenomena such evidence as eyewitness testimonies, historical quotations, informal experiments, and inference. These lines of evidence are typically published in popular sources, and not subject to formal criticism or peer-review.

CSICOP's activities are primarily oriented towards the media. As CSICOP executive director Lee Nisbet wrote in a 25th anniversary issue of Skeptical Inquirer:

"CSICOP originated in the spring of 1976 to fight mass-media exploitation of supposedly "occult" and "paranormal" phenomena. The strategy was twofold: First, to strengthen the hand of skeptics in the media by providing information that "debunked" paranormal wonders. Second, to serve as a "media-watchdog" group which would direct public and media attention to egregious media exploitation of the supposed paranormal wonders. An underlying principle of action was to use the mainline media's thirst for public-attracting controversies to keep our activities in the media, hence public eye."

This media-orientation continues to the present day with, for example, CSICOP founding the Council For Media Integrity in 1996, as well as co-producing a TV documentary series Critical Eye hosted by William B. Davis (The X-Files’ Smoking Man). CSICOP members can also be seen regularly in the mainstream media offering their perspective on a variety of paranormal claims, and in 1999 Joe Nickell was appointed special consultant on a number of investigative documentaries for the BBC. In its capacity as a media-watchdog, CSICOP has “mobilized thousands of scientists, academics and responsible communicators” to criticize what it regards as “media's most blatant excesses.” While much of this criticism has focused on factual TV programming or newspaper articles offering support for paranormal claims, CSICOP has also been critical of programs such as The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer which it feels portray skeptics and science in a bad light and help to promote belief in the paranormal. CSICOP’s website currently lists the email addresses of over 90 US media organizations and encourages visitors to “directly influence” the media by contacting “the networks, the TV shows and the editors responsible for the way it portrays the world.”

An issue of particular concern to CSICOP is instances of paranormal claims or pseudoscience that endanger people's health and well-being. The use of alternative medicine treatments, to the exclusion of scientifically supported treatments for a life-threatening illness, is one example of this. Investigations by CSICOP and others, including consumer watchdog groups, law enforcement agencies, and government regulatory bodies, have shown that the industries surrounding paranormal phenomena, alternative medicine and pseudo-scientific products can be enormously profitable. CSICOP alleges that this profitability has enabled various pro-paranormal factions to dedicate large resources to advertising, lobbying efforts and other forms of advocacy, to the detriment of the public's well-being.

CSICOP changes its focus with the changing popularity and prominence of different aspects of pseudoscience and paranormal belief. For example, as promoters of Intelligent Design have increased their efforts to have this teaching included in school curriculums in recent years, CSICOP has stepped up their own attention to the subject, creating an "Intelligent Design Watch" website, and publishing numerous articles on evolution and Intelligent Design in Skeptical Inquirer and on the web.

In addition to "extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence," another maxim occasionally exercised by CSICOP is H. L. Mencken's "one belly laugh is worth a thousand syllogisms." Thus, Skeptical Inquirer has carried such articles as reports on the success rate of past years' tabloid "psychic predictions" and coverage of the Australian Skeptics' "Bent Spoon Awards" (winners are notified by telepathy and required to collect their trophy by paranormal means).

CSICOP is a member organization of the International Humanist and Ethical Union and endorses the Amsterdam Declaration 2002.

CSICOP awards the Robert P. Balles Annual Prize in Critical Thinking. The first award was shared by Ray Hyman, Andrew Skolnick, and Joe Nickell for their reports in 2005 on the purported "girl with X-ray eyes," Natasha Demkina. Template:Ref harvard.

Skeptical Inquirer

CSICOP publishes the magazine Skeptical Inquirer, containing articles on its inquiries and those of like-minded individuals. The Skeptical Inquirer was founded by Marcello Truzzi, under the name The Zetetic and retitled after a few months under the editorship of Kendrick Frazier, former editor of Science News. Cecil Adams of The Straight Dope calls the Skeptical Inquirer "one of the nation's leading antifruitcake journals".

Center for Inquiry

A transnational non-profit umbrella organization called the Center for Inquiry encompasses both CSICOP and the Council for Secular Humanism, as well as other organizations such as the Center for Inquiry - On Campus national youth group and the Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health. While these organizations share headquarters and some staff, their mandates are kept distinct: while CSICOP generally addresses questions of religion only in cases in which testable scientifics assertions have been made (such as weeping statues or faith healing), the Council for Secular Humanism is an organization explicitly devoted to Humanism and secularism. Activities of the Council for Secular Humanism include campaigning for the separation of church and state and the publication of the bi-monthly journal Free Inquiry.

Partial list of CSICOP fellows (past and present)

Controversy and Criticism

CSICOP's activities have earned it some criticism, as well the nickname the "Psi-Cops". Most of the criticism has come from those individuals or groups that have been the focus of CSICOP’s attention. Israeli psychic Uri Geller, for example, had until recently been in open dispute with the organisation for many years and had filed a number of lawsuits against them. Some criticism, however, has come from within the scientific community and at times from within CSICOP itself. Marcello Truzzi, one of CSICOP's co-founders, left the organisation after only a short time claiming that “They tend to block honest inquiry, in my opinion. Most of them are not agnostic toward claims of the paranormal; they are out to knock them. When an experiment of the paranormal meets their requirements, then they move the goal posts.” Truzzi even coined the term pseudoskeptic to describe the attitude he felt was prevalent in CSICOP.

An early controversy concerned the so-called Mars effect: French statistician Michel Gauquelin’s claim that champion athletes are more likely to be born when the planet Mars is in certain positions in the sky. In late 1975, prior to the formal launch of CSICOP, astronomer Dennis Rawlins, along with Paul Kurtz, George Abel and Marvin Zelen (all subsequent members of CSICOP) began investigating the claim. Rawlins, a founding member of CSICOP at its launch in May 1976, resigned in early 1980 claiming that other CSICOP researchers had used incorrect statistics, faulty science and outright falsification in an attempt to debunk Gauquelin’s claims. In an article for the pro-paranormal magazine Fate, he wrote: "I am still skeptical of the occult beliefs CSICOP was created to debunk. But I have changed my mind about the integrity of some of those who make a career of opposing occultism." CSICOP's Philip Klass responded by circulating an article to CSICOP members critical of Rawlins' arguments and motives; Klass' unpublished response itself becoming the target for further criticism.

In 2004, CSICOP was accused of scientific misconduct in its involvement with Discovery Channel's test of the "girl with X-ray eyes," Natasha Demkina. In a self-published commentary, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Brian Josephson criticized the design and evaluation of the test and argued that the results should have been deemed "inconclusive." The well-known advocate for paranormal beliefs also questioned the researchers' motivations and alleged that the experiment was "some kind of plot to discredit the teenage claimed psychic." Ray Hyman, one of the three researchers who designed and conducted the test, published a response to this and other criticisms. He noted that their decision to use a significance level of approximately 0.02 (instead of the more commonly used 0.05) was based on a Bayesian analysis, which is appropriate when testing unlikely claims. He also pointed out that substantially lower significance values were commonly used by J.B. Rhine and other paranormal researchers. The Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health also published a detailed response to these and other objections.

On a more general level, CSICOP has been criticized for an overly dogmatic and sometimes arrogant approach based on a priori convictions, and that this aggressive debunking discourages scientific research into the paranormal. Astronomer Carl Sagan wrote on this:

"Have I ever heard a skeptic wax superior and contemptuous? Certainly. I've even sometimes heard, to my retrospective dismay, that unpleasant tone in my own voice. There are human imperfections on both sides of this issue. Even when it's applied sensitively, scientific skepticism may come across as arrogant, dogmatic, heartless, and dismissive of the feelings and deeply held beliefs of others... CSICOP is imperfect. But from my point of view CSICOP serves an important social function — as a well-known organization to which media can apply when they wish to hear the other side of the story, especially when some amazing claim of pseudoscience is judged newsworthy."

On at least one occasion, CSICOP was the intended target of an attack more serious than mere criticism. In 1977, a government raid on the offices of the Church of Scientology uncovered considerable evidence of a plot against CSICOP by the Church; this included plans by Scientology to discredit CSICOP by forging CIA documents. The documents seized by the FBI described a plan to spread rumors that CSICOP was actually a front group for the CIA. (Source: Toronto Globe and Mail, January 25, 1980.)

Notes

  1. "CSICOP website". CSICOP. Retrieved 2006-06-21. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help) Statement from the heading of the website.
  2. Nisbet, Lee (2001). "The Origins and Evolution of CSICOP; Science Is Too Important to Be Left to Scientists". Skeptical Inquirer. Retrieved 2006-06-22. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  3. http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_344.html
  4. "The Campaign for Philosophical Freedom". Retrieved 13 August. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  5. Rawlins, Dennis (1981). ""sTARBABY"". FATE Magazine. Retrieved 2006-06-21. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |coauthors= and |month= (help) Rawlins' account of the Mars Effect investigation
  6. Klass, Philip J. (1981). ""Crybaby"". Retrieved 2006-06-21. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |coauthors= and |month= (help)
  7. Josephson, Brian. "Scientists' unethical use of media for propaganda purposes". Retrieved 2006-08-31.
  8. Hyman, Ray. "Statistics and the Test of Natasha". CSICOP. Retrieved 2006-08-31.
  9. "Natasha Demkina, The Girl with Very Normal Eyes". CSMMH. Retrieved 2006-08-31.
  10. The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, Volume 86, No. 1, January 1992; pp. 20, 24, 40, 46, 51
  11. Sagan, Carl (1995). The Demon-haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Random House. ISBN 0-394-53512-X.


See also

External links

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