A New Year's Message.

From Paul Kurtz, Chairman of the Center for Inquiry, CSICOP, and the Council for Secular Humanism.

The year 2002 proved to be a year of unprecedented growth for CSICOP, Skeptical Inquirer, the Council for Secular Humanism, Free Inquiry, the Campus Freethought Alliance and the Center for Inquiry. The ten magazines that we publish at the Center have hit an all-time high in circulation. Moreover, our activities have accelerated, with the sheer number of speaking engagements, meetings, seminars, media interviews of our staff, not only in North America, but worldwide. Our aim is to provide a dissenting voice in the present world of irrational claims. We are committed to science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and the examination of affirmative ethical alternatives. And we have attempted very hard to defend this outlook with vigor and courage.

Some of the high points of the year 2002 and some of the prospects for 2003 are as follows:

• The Center for Inquiry has appointed Dr. William Cooke to Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry’s new Commission for Transnational Cooperation. Dr. Cooke (and his wife Bobbie) come to us from New Zealand, where he edited the New Zealand Rationalist (now renamed Open Society). Born in Kenya, he has traveled worldwide and is familiar with skepticism, freethought, rationalism, and secular humanism. Among our international Centers are those in Germany, France, Russia, Nepal, India, Peru, Mexico, and Africa. The Center for Inquiry and its affiliated organizations have provided substantial funds to support these Centers worldwide and will continue to do so in the future. We look forward to vigorous growth and development of new Centers, whether humanist or skeptical or both, in other countries around the world.

• The Center for Inquiry Institute hosted its first expanded summer school in July 2002. It provided, for the first time, college credit, in cooperation with the State University of New York. Students from Malaysia, Uganda, Australia, and Russia attended the conference. A similar program will be held July 6–20, 2003. The faculty will include noted skeptics Professor Richard Wiseman from the United Kingdom and Professor Barry Beyerstein from Vancouver, Canada. The course will be “The Psychology of Belief.” The second course, “Reason and Ethics,” will be taught by Austin Dacey with other faculty. An exchange program with Moscow State University will bring students from Russia. Students and Research Fellows from Latin America, Asia, Africa, and other parts of the world are expected to participate. Again, transferable college credit is offered for those wishing to avail themselves of it.

• In August 2002, the Center for Inquiry Institute again offered its popular course for skeptics  conducted at the University of Oregon by Professor Ray Hyman and colleagues. This will again be offered at University of Oregon August 14–17, 2003.

• CSICOP hosted a World Skeptics Congress in June 2002 in Burbank, California, attended by 500 participants from twenty-three countries, including a large delegation from China (headed by Dr. Lin Zixin), India (Sanal Edamaruku), and skeptics from Latin America (Mario Mendez Acosta from México, Manuel Paz y Miño from Perú), etc. The papers of the Center for Inquiry's previous conference will be published in a new book in April 2003, edited by Paul Kurtz, Barry Karr, and Ranjit Sandhu, entitled Science and Religion: Are They Compatible?

• A special Congress in Washington, D.C., will be convened April 11–13, 2003, coordinated by Dr. Edward Buckner, on the topic “One Nation Without God: Secularism, Society and Justice.” Among the speakers will be Christopher Hitchens, Michael Newdow, Peter Beinart (Editor of The New Republic), Julia Sweeney (of Saturday Night Live), Ibn Warraq, Eugenie Scott, Rob Tielman (Commissioner of Education of the Netherlands), Eddie Tabash, and others.

• The Campus Freethought Alliance hosted over 100 debates, meetings and seminars on college campuses across North America. The debates drew thousands and thousands of students. There are now 137 CFA groups on various campuses in North America and throughout the world. And new ones are being added every month.

• The Council for Secular Humanism cosponsored a special program commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Sidney Hook at the City University of New York in October 2002, which received widespread press attention in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and other media. Among those who participated were Nathan Glazer, Arthur Schlessinger Jr., and Cornell West. The proceedings will be published in 2003 by Prometheus Books in a special collection to be edited by Matthew Cotter, Robert Talisse, and Robert Tempio.

• The Council also sponsored a meeting of the Society of Humanist Philosophers at the American Philosophical Association, December 29th, in Philadelphia. The topic under discussion was the writings of Professor Richard Gale, a naturalistic philosopher from Pittsburgh, with criticisms by four theists. A similar meeting will be held in December 2003 at the American Philosophical Association.

• A new Center for Inquiry was launched in Tampa, Florida, at the end of 2002. Its first major conference will be held February, 7–9, 2003. A distinguished list of speakers will participate.

• The Center for Inquiry–MetroNY announced its decision to expand into new offices in the city of Manhattan.

• The media impact of the Center for Inquiry continues very strong. Especially noted are the interviews by Joe Nickell in the December New Yorker and Paul Kurtz in The New York Times. Several hundred radio shows and press interviews featured members of the staff, including Ed Buckner, Tom Flynn, Joe Nickell, Paul Kurtz, Katherine Bourdonnay, Jim Underdown, Barry Seidman, Norm Allen, Ben Radford, Kevin Christopher, and DJ Grothe.

• The Council for Secular Humanism sponsored and produced the TV series Humanist Perspective, moderated by Joe Beck. This continues to play in cities coast to coast.

• CSICOP participated in the TV series on the Discovery Channel in late 2002 called Critical Eye, hosted by William B. Davis of The X-Files. These programs will continue in early 2003.

• The National Media Center at the Center for Inquiry - West is expected to be completed in Hollywood, California in early 2003 and will be a showcase not only for the media, but also for people in Southern California.

• The Religious Right continues its attack on science, reason, and especially secular humanism. Skepticism is constantly engulfed by paranormal programs in the mass media. Thus we strive mightily to respond.

• The worsening economy has had a serious impact on nonprofit organizations such as those affiliated with the Center for Inquiry. The conflict with terrorism, an impending new war in the Middle East, and the possible decline of civil liberties in the United States are indeed worrisome. In spite of this, we have managed to survive, and we look forward with great anticipation to continue our efforts as virtually the lone voice in the cacophonic din. Our mission is to burn bright the candle in the dark — and to keep alive the light of reason and freedom.


- Paul Kurtz