Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, or CSICOP, is an organization formed to encourage open minded, critical investigation of paranormal and pseudoscientific claims from a responsible, scientific point of view. It is a nonprofit organization, founded in 1976 by Paul Kurtz.

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 investigations into many paranormal claims, ranging from Bigfoot and Men in Black is a 1997 science fiction action film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith and Vincent D'Onofrio. Based on the comic books of Lowell Cunnningham and featuring the creature animation of Rick Baker.

A secretive government agency: the Immigration Bureau Earth— allows aliens onto the planet and monitors them while here. The movie follows an NYPD officer (Will Smith) as he becomes a part of MiB, and his first major mission. Tommy Lee Jones plays 'K', a senior MiB agent who guides 'J' (the code-name assigned to Smith) as he learns the ropes.

Representitives of this agency wear sunglasses and dark suits, and appear at UFO landing sites, similar to reported Men In Black.

A Bug (an alien species, similar in many ways to a very large cockroach) is trying to steal a galaxy from another alien—whose government is willing to have the earth destroyed rather than let this galaxy fall into the hands of the Bugs.

An animated television series followed, based closely on the style of the movie.

The movie sequel Men in Black II or (M.II.B.) was released in summer 2002, but performed poorly at the box office compared to this first film.

See also: Men in Black

External links

• IMDb entry on Men in Black
• alt.fan.men-in-black

sightings to self-proclaimed psychics, to pseudoscience, astrology, alternative medicines, and religious cults. Notable members of CSICOP have included TV science program host Bill Nye, Isaac Asimov, Carl Sagan, Martin Gardner, James Randi, and many others.

As the publishers of the magazine Skeptical Inquirer, the committee disseminates information about results of such inquiries to the scientific community and the public.

CSICOP's critical investigations into claims of paranormal phenomena have been unrelenting; the organization has never abandoned its belief that claims of the paranormal must be proven to exist by scientific means, or else the claims must be considered baseless. The organization's critics often accuse its members of arrogance. Critics often claim that the group has a fixed opinion that paranormal phenomena do not exist, regardless of any evidence presented to them that such phenomena do indeed exist. CSICOP's response to these criticisms has been to state that no definite, peer-reviewed evidence of the existence of paranormal phenomena has ever been presented. According to the mainstream scientific community, every instance of claimed paranormal activity has failed to stand up under scientific scrutiny.

CSICOP's harsh criticism of paranormal phenomena, pseudoscience, and fringe groups that encourage these practices has won it a large number of enemies. Some of these groups have claim that CSICOP has no credibility. 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 a plot 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.)

CSICOP states that the various pro-paranormal factions have exerted a vast amount of energy, time, and money to ensure that the "grey areas" surrounding their fields of study remain in flux, largely in order to protect their profits and sources of revenue. The group's investigations into pseudoscience have shown that the field of paranormal phenomena, alternative medicine, and pseudoscience is often quite profitable. One of CSICOP's major concerns about the persistence of the belief in magical thinking and the paranormal is the significant risk it poses to the people who depend on pseudoscience to treat various life-threatening ailments and situations. One slogan originated by CSICOP concerning the profitability of pseudoscience states: Junk science books sell far more than real science.

There is an asteroid named in honor of CSICOP called (6630) Skepticus.

See also

• Mars effect
• Gérard Majax
• James Randi

External Links

• CSICOP homepage
• "CSICOP and the Skeptics: An Overview"