The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, or CSICOP, is a U.S. 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."^[1] 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. Motto: (traditional) In God We Trust (official, 1956–present) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington, D.C. Largest city New York City Official language(s) None at the federal level; English de facto Government Federal Republic  - President George W. Bush (R)  - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence - Declared - Recognized... Anomalous phenomena are phenomena which are observed and for which there are no suitable explanations in the context of a specific body of scientific knowledge, e. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A non-profit organization (often called non-profit org or simply non-profit or not-for-profit) can be seen as an organization that doesnt have a goal to make a profit. ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... Paul Kurtz (born February 12, 1926 in Newark, New Jersey) is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University at Buffalo (SUNY), but is best known for prominent role in the American skeptical community. ... Scientific skepticism or rational skepticism (UK spelling, scepticism) sometimes referred to as skeptical inquiry, is a scientific, or practical, epistemological position (or paradigm) in which one questions the veracity of claims unless they can be empirically tested. ... The Skeptics Society is a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting scientific skepticism and resisting the spread of pseudoscience, superstition, and irrational beliefs. ... James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge, August 7, 1928), more often known as The Amazing Randi, is a stage magician, skeptic, and opponent of pseudoscience (including homeopathy). ... Bill Nye as the technical expert on the TV show BattleBots. ... Dr. Isaac Asimov (c. ... It has been suggested that Minimum deterrence be merged into this article or section. ... Milbourne Christopher (1914–1984) was one of Americas foremost illusionists, performing in sixty-eight countries. ... Martin Gardner (born October 21, 1914) is an American recreational mathematician, magician, skeptic, and author of the long-running but now discontinued Mathematical Games column in Scientific American. ... James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge, August 7, 1928 in Toronto, Ontario), more often known as The Amazing Randi, is a stage magician, a skeptic, best known as a debunker of pseudoscience. ...

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. A priori is a Latin phrase meaning from the former or less literally before experience. In much of the modern Western tradition, the term a priori is considered to mean propositional knowledge that can be had without, or prior to, experience. ... This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims. ... A UFO or unidentified flying object is any real or apparent flying object which remains unidentified after investigation. ... Parapsychology is the study of the evidence of mental awareness or influence of external objects without interaction from known physical means. ... Phrenology is regarded today as being a classic example of pseudoscience. ... Astrology refers to any of several systems, traditions or beliefs in which knowledge of the apparent positions of celestial bodies is held to be useful in understanding, interpreting, and organizing knowledge about human affairs and events on Earth. ... It has been suggested that Complementary and alternative medicine be merged into this article or section. ... In religion and sociology, a cult is a cohesive group of people (often a relatively small and recently founded religious movement) devoted to beliefs or practices that the surrounding culture or society considers to be far outside the mainstream. ...

CSICOP encourages and publishes examinations of claims of paranormal phenomena that apply accepted scientific and academic methodologies to topics that most scientific organizations ignore as fringe science or pseudoscience. Noting that many paranormal claims, if true, would have major scientific importance, CSICOP advocates an approach to such claims in the manner recommended by CSICOP Fellow Carl Sagan:

"... at the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes — an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive, and the most ruthlessly skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense. The collective enterprise of creative thinking and skeptical thinking, working together, keeps the field on track." (Sagan 1995:304)

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 common to CSICOP members is that "extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence." This is analogous to the standard required by U.S. criminal courts, in which the claimant must prove their claim beyond a reasonable doubt. Since paranormal claims are potentially revolutionary scientific discoveries that fly in the face of 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 standard analogous to that required by U.S. civil courts, paranormal proponents may offer 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.

Throughout its history, CSICOP has been involved with the media in a number of ways. 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."^[2]

This media-orientation continues to the present day, with CSICOP even co-producing its own documentary series Critical Eye hosted by William B. Davis (The X-Files’ Smoking Man). CISCOP 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 programmes 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 the paranormal agenda. CSICOP’s website currently lists the email addresses of over 90 US media organisations 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.” Cigarette Smoking Man William Bruce Davis (born: January 13, 1938 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian actor, best known for his role as Cancer Man (aka the Cigarette Smoking Man) on The X-Files. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC, sometimes also known as the Beeb or Auntie) is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world, founded in 1922. ... The X-Files is a popular American television series created by Chris Carter. ... Buffy the Vampire Slayer was an American television series inspired by the 1992 movie of the same name. ...

Another issue of particular concern to CSICOP members 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 the 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. It has been suggested that Complementary and alternative medicine be merged into this article or section. ...

A related focus of CSICOP is the improvement of scientific literacy. Not only do they consider this the best defense against being victimized by paranormal and pseudoscience frauds, it is also a growing need in a world that is increasingly affected by science and technology.

CSICOP is a member organization of the International Humanist and Ethical Union and endorses the Amsterdam Declaration 2002. Founded in Amsterdam in 1952, International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) is the sole world umbrella organisation [1] embracing Humanist, atheist, rationalist, secular, skeptic, Ethical Culture, freethought and similar organisations world-wide. ... The Amsterdam Declaration 2002 is a statement of the fundamental principles of modern Humanism passed unanimously by the General Assembly of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) at the 50th anniversary World Humanist Congress in 2002. ...

CSICOP awards the Robert P. Balles Annual Prize in Critical Thinking. The first award was the 2005 award, which was shared by Ray Hyman, Andrew Skolnick, and Joe Nickell (Skeptical Inquirer 2006). are you kiddin ? i was lookin for it for hours ... Ray Hyman (b. ... Joe Nickell was born December 1, 1944 and is a prominent investigator of the paranormal. ...

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. There have been several collections of articles from the Skeptical Inquirer, most edited by Frazier: The Skeptical Inquirer is a magazine of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) dedicated to debunking pseudoscience. ... Marcello Truzzi (September 6, 1935-February 2, 2003) was a professor of sociology at Eastern Michigan University and director for the Center for Scientific Anomalies Research. ... Kendrick Frazier was born in Windsor, Colorado is a science writer and editor. ...

• Paranormal Borderlands of Science (1981). edited by Kendrick Frazier, Prometheus Books; ISBN 0-87975-148-7.

• Science Confronts the Paranormal (1986). edited by Kendrick Frazier, Prometheus Books; ISBN 0-87975-314-5.

• The Hundredth Monkey: And Other Paradigms of the Paranormal (1991). edited by Kendrick Frazier, Prometheus Books; ISBN 0-87975-655-1

• The Outer Edge: Classic Investigations of the Paranormal (1996). edited by Joe Nickell, Barry Karr, and Tom Genoni, CSICOP.

• The UFO Invasion: The Roswell Incident, Alien Abductions, and Government Coverups (1997). edited by Kendrick Frazier, Prometheus Books; ISBN 1-57392-131-9

• Encounters With the Paranormal: Science, Knowledge, and Belief (1998). edited by Kendrick Frazier, Prometheus Books; ISBN 1-57392-203-X.

• Bizarre Cases: From the Files of The Skeptical Inquirer (2000). edited by Benjamin Radford, CSICOP

Joe Nickell was born December 1, 1944 and is a prominent investigator of the paranormal. ...

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. <drini ☎> 14:27, 15 August 2005 (UTC) Categories: Possible copyright violations ... The Council for Secular Humanism (originally the Council for Democratic and Secular Humanism, or CODESH) regards itself as the only exclusively secular humanist organization in the USA. In 1980 CODESH issued A Secular Humanist Declaration. ... The Center for Inquiry - On Campus (originally the Campus Freethought Alliance) is an organization launched by the Council for Secular Humanism in 1996 in order to reach out to university and high school students. ... Spiritual healing redirects here. ... Humanism is a broad category of active ethical philosophies that affirm the dignity and worth of all people, based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appeal to universal human qualities—particularly rationality, common history, experience, and belief. ... Secularity is the state of being free from religious or spiritual qualities. ... The separation of church and state is a political doctrine which states that the institutions of the state or national government should be kept separate from those of religious institutions. ... Free Inquiry is a journal of secular humanist opinion and commentary, published by the Council for Secular Humanism. ...

Partial list of CSICOP fellows (past and present)

George Ogden Abell (March 1, 1927 – October 7, 1983) was an astronomer at UCLA who is best known for his catalogue of clusters of galaxies. ... Dr. Isaac Asimov (c. ... Stephen Barrett, M.D. Stephen Barrett, M.D. (born 1933), is a retired American physician who resides in Allentown, Pennsylvania. ... Susan Jane Blackmore (born July 29, 1951) is a British freelance writer, lecturer, and broadcaster, perhaps best known for her book The Meme Machine. ... Bart Jan Bok (Hoorn, April 28, 1906 – Tucson, August 5, 1983) was a Dutch-American astronomer. ... Jan Harold Brunvand (born 1933) is a professor emeritus of English at the University of Utah in the United States who is best known for spreading the concept of the urban legend, or modern folklore. ... Milbourne Christopher (1914–1984) was one of Americas foremost illusionists, performing in sixty-eight countries. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Richard Dawkins Clinton Richard Dawkins DSc, FRS, FRSL (known as Richard Dawkins; born March 26, 1941) is an eminent British ethologist, evolutionary theorist, and popular science writer who holds the Charles Simonyi Chair in the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. ... L. Sprague de Camp (centre) with Robert A. Heinlein and Isaac Asimov Lyon Sprague de Camp, (November 27, 1907, New York City – November 6, 2000, Plano, Texas) was an American science fiction and fantasy author. ... Daniel Dennett Daniel Clement Dennett (born March 28, 1942 in Boston) is a prominent American philosopher. ... Ann Druyan (b. ... Antony Flew. ... Kendrick Frazier was born in Windsor, Colorado is a science writer and editor. ... Martin Gardner (born October 21, 1914) is an American recreational mathematician, magician, skeptic, and author of the long-running but now discontinued Mathematical Games column in Scientific American. ... Murray Gell-Mann at Harvard University Murray Gell-Mann (born September 15, 1929) is an American physicist who received the 1969 Nobel Prize in physics for his work on the theory of elementary particles. ... Stephen Jay Gould Stephen Jay Gould (September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. ... Douglas Richard Hofstadter (born February 15, 1945) is an American academic. ... Gerald Holton is Mallinckrodt Research Professor of Physics and Research Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University. ... Ray Hyman (b. ... This article is about Philip Julian Klass, the UFO researcher. ... Paul Kurtz (born February 12, 1926 in Newark, New Jersey) is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University at Buffalo (SUNY), but is best known for prominent role in the American skeptical community. ... Leon Max Lederman (born July 15, 1922 in New York) is an American experimental physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1988 for his work on neutrinos. ... Elizabeth F. Loftus is a psychologist who works on human memory and how it can be changed by facts, ideas, suggestions and other forms of post-event information. ... David Marks is a psychologist and professor at City University in London, U.K.. He is founding editor of the Journal of Health Psychology. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Richard A. Muller(Born January 6, 1944) of San Francisco, California, USA, is a physicist who works at the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. ... Joe Nickell was born December 1, 1944 and is a prominent investigator of the paranormal. ... Bill Nye as the technical expert on the TV show BattleBots. ... James Edward Oberg (b. ... Robert L. Park is a professor of physics at the University of Maryland, College Park. ... Willard Van Orman Quine (June 25, 1908 – December 25, 2000), usually cited as W.V. Quine or W.V.O. Quine but known to his friends as Van, was one of the most influential American philosophers and logicians of the 20th century. ... James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge, August 7, 1928 in Toronto, Ontario), more often known as The Amazing Randi, is a stage magician, a skeptic, best known as a debunker of pseudoscience. ... It has been suggested that Minimum deterrence be merged into this article or section. ... Eugenie Scott. ... Glenn T. Seaborg Glenn Theodore Seaborg (April 19, 1912 – February 25, 1999) was an American chemist prominent in the discovery and isolation of many transuranic elements (including plutonium, during the Manhattan Project). ... Thomas Albert Sebeok (born in Budapest, Hungary, on November 9, 1920, died December 21, 2001 in Bloomington, Indiana) was one of the most prolific and wide-ranging of US semioticians. ... Burrhus Frederic Skinner Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist and author. ... Robert Sheaffer is a freelance writer and a leading investigator of unidentified flying objects. ... Jill Tarter is the current director of the Center for SETI Research. ... Carol Tavris is an American social psychologist and author. ... Neil deGrasse Tyson (born 1958) is a well-known astrophysicist and the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. ... Marilyn Vos Savant (born August 11, 1946) is an American magazine columnist, author, lecturer, and playwright who rose to fame through her listing in the Guinness Book of World Records under Highest IQ. Since 1986 she has written Ask Marilyn, a Sunday column in Parade magazine in which she answers... Steven Weinberg at Harvard University Steven Weinberg (born May 3, 1933) is an American physicist. ... Edward O. Wilson Edward Osborne Wilson was born June 10, 1929 in Birmingham, Alabama (USA). ...

Criticisms and responses

Over the years CSICOP's activities concerning the paranormal and fringe-science have earned it considerable criticism, as well as the nickname “the PSI Cops”. Much of this criticism has come, as one might expect, from those individuals or groups that have been the main 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. A small but significant amount of criticism, however, has come from within the scientific community and, indeed, from within CSICOP itself. Marcello Truzzi, for example, one of CSICOP’s co-founders, clamed 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. Uri Geller Uri Geller (born December 20, 1946 in Tel Aviv, Israel) is a famous but controversial television personality and alleged psychic. ... Marcello Truzzi (September 6, 1935-February 2, 2003) was a professor of sociology at Eastern Michigan University and director for the Center for Scientific Anomalies Research. ... Pathological Skepticism is closedmindedness with deception: it is an irrational prejudice against new ideas which masquerades as proper Skepticism. ...

Another founder member, Dennis Rawlins, launched an even more scathing attack on CSICOP over its analysis of claims by French statistician Michel Gauquelin that champion athletes are more likely to be born when the planet Mars is in certain positions in the sky - the so-called Mars effect. Rawlins, a professional astronomer involved in CSICOP's research into the Mars effect, claimed that other CSICOP researchers used incorrect statistics, faulty science and outright falsification in an attempt to "debunk" Gauquelin’s claims. In an article in Fate magazine, Rawlins concluded: "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." ^[3] CSICOP's Philip Klass investigated Rawlins' claims and wrote a lengthy article in rebuttal. ^[4] The Mars effect is a claim that Mars occupies certain positions in the sky more often at the birth of sports champions than at the birth of ordinary people. ... Fate Magazine is a magazine of paranormal phenomena, published since 1948. ...

More recently CSICOP has come under attack for its “debunking” of claimed Psychic Natasha Demkina. Nobel Prize winning physicist Brian Josephson argued that CSICOP’s testing of Demkina looked to have been “some kind of plot to discredit the teenage claimed psychic by setting up the conditions to make it likely that they could pass her off as a failure”.^[5] CSICOP fellow Richard Wiseman, who co-designed the experiment to test Demkina, rejected Josephson’s criticisms as unscientific and questioned Josephson's scientific credentials regarding such matters. Keith Rennolls, Professor of applied statistics at Greenwich University, also claimed the experiment was “woefully inadequate in many ways.”^[6] Natasha Demkina (Наталья Демкина), called The Girl with X-ray Eyes, is a teenage medical psychic from Saransk, Russia. ... Brian David Josephson (born Cardiff, UK, January 4, 1940) is a British physicist whose discovery of the Josephson effect while a 22_year_old graduate student won him a share (with Leo Esaki and Ivar Giaever) of the 1973 Nobel Prize for Physics. ...

On a more general level, CSICOP has been regularly criticised for an overly dogmatic and sometimes arrogant approach based not on science but on a priori convictions, and that this aggressive debunking discourages scientific research into the paranormal.^[7] With qualifications, Carl Sagan concedes that some of this may be accurate:

"Have I ever heard a skeptic wax superior and contempuous? 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." (Source: The Demon-Haunted World, Carl Sagan, 1996.) 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ...

On the question of dogmatism or a priori convictions, CSICOP points out that dedicated paranormal research has been ongoing for many decades both by skeptics and pro-paranormal researchers; in that time, no convincing and independently replicable evidence of the existence of any paranormal phenomena has ever been established to the standards required to persuade the scientific community. On the other hand, many cases of purported paranormal forces or events have been demonstrated to be false, either through misinterpreted data or as intentional fraud.

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.) For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ... The Church of Scientology is the largest organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of the Scientology belief system. ... CIA redirects here. ... January 25 is the 25th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ...

Notes

1. ^ CSICOP Website. CSICOP. Retrieved on 2006-06-21. Statement from the heading of the website.
2. ^ Nisbet, Lee (Nov-Dec 2001). The Origins and Evolution of CSICOP; Science Is Too Important to Be Left to Scientists. Skeptical Inquirer. Retrieved on 2006-06-22.
3. ^ Rawlins, Dennis (1981). "sTARBABY". FATE Magazine. Retrieved on 2006-06-21. Rawlins' account of the Mars Effect investigation
4. ^ Klass, Philip J. (1981). "Crybaby". Retrieved on 2006-06-21. Phillip Klass' response to Rawlins' article
5. ^ [1] Scientists use Media for Propoganda, Brian Josephson
6. ^ [2] The Times Higher Education Supplement: Scientists fail to see eye to eye over girl's 'X-ray vision'
7. ^ The Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, Volume 86, No. 1, January 1992; pp. 20, 24, 40, 46, 51

2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... June 21 is the 172nd day of the year (173rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 193 days remaining. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... June 22 is the 173rd day of the year (174th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 192 days remaining. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... June 21 is the 172nd day of the year (173rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 193 days remaining. ... 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... June 21 is the 172nd day of the year (173rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar, with 193 days remaining. ...

References

•   anon (May 2006). "CSICOP Announces Winners of the First Robert P. Balles Prize". Skeptical Inquirer 30 (2): 13.

•   Sagan, Carl (1995). The Demon-haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Random House. ISBN 0-394-53512-X.

It has been suggested that Minimum deterrence be merged into this article or section. ... Random House is a publishing division of the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann based in New York City. ...

See also

Mascot of the Australian Skeptics. ... <drini ☎> 14:27, 15 August 2005 (UTC) Categories: Possible copyright violations ... The Committee for Surrealist Investigation of Claims of the Normal (CSICON) was founded by Irishman Timothy F.X. Finnegan, who wrote, The normal consists of a null set which nobody and nothing really fits. ... Gérard Majax (April 28, 1943) is a French illusionist and skeptic. ... James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge, August 7, 1928 in Toronto, Ontario), more often known as The Amazing Randi, is a stage magician, a skeptic, best known as a debunker of pseudoscience. ... James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge, August 7, 1928), more often known as The Amazing Randi, is a stage magician, skeptic, and opponent of pseudoscience (including homeopathy). ... Pathological skepticism (or Pseudoskepticism) is a class of pseudoscience masquerading as proper skepticism. ... Milbourne Christopher (1914–1984) was one of Americas foremost illusionists, performing in sixty-eight countries. ... Martin Gardner (born October 21, 1914) is an American recreational mathematician, magician, skeptic, and author of the long-running but now discontinued Mathematical Games column in Scientific American. ... The Mars effect is a claim that Mars occupies certain positions in the sky more often at the birth of sports champions than at the birth of ordinary people. ... The Skeptics Society is a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting scientific skepticism and resisting the spread of pseudoscience, superstition, and irrational beliefs. ... The ASSAP is the Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena. ...

External links

• CSICOP homepage
• Skeptical Inquirer official home page
• Skeptics Society homepage - an organization with similar mandate
• James Randi Educational Foundation homepage - an organization with similar mandate
• "CSICOP and the Skeptics: An Overview" - critique from a competing organization with different viewpoint
• Point Of Inquiry
• An article critical of the motives and methods of CSICOP
• The New Zealand skeptics organization, NZCSICOP