New Year’s Message: We Welcome 2004
from Paul Kurtz, Chairman
Center for Inquiry-International

The Center for Inquiry achieved unprecedented growth in 2003. We wish to thank all the readers of our various publications and the members of the nearly 875 regional, community, and campus groups now affiliated with the Center for Inquiry. We look forward with great enthusiasm to 2004.

The Center for Inquiry is unique. It is committed “to reason, science, free inquiry and ethical alternatives in every area of human endeavor.” Its main interest is the public understanding and appreciation of reason and science and their application to questions of value. It wishes to define and defend the naturalistic outlook.

The Center for Inquiry movement represents a coalition of several national and international organizations, including the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (publisher of Skeptical Inquirer) and the Council for Secular Humanism (Free Inquiry), the Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health, CFI-OnCampus, African Americans for Humanism, SOS (Secular Organizations for Sobriety), the Society of Humanist Philosophers, the International Academy of Humanism, the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Religion, The American Rationalist, and The Humanist Perspective TV series, which produced over 40 programs last year and aired on nearly 30 stations nationwide. All told, it publishes or supports sixteen magazines and newsletters.

The Center for Inquiry maintains four branches in the United States (in Amherst, Metro N.Y., Los Angeles, and Tampa Bay) with four more in various stages of development, and six Centers internationally (in Russia, Germany, France, Nepal, Peru, and Nigeria), with another four being planned. Affiliated with it are hundreds of skeptical, secular humanist, and addiction recovery organizations worldwide. Many distinguished fellows and humanist laureates are now associated with its diverse programs.

May we touch on the high points of this past year and projections for the upcoming year?:

1) The Center for Inquiry announced the merger of two medical councils, forming the Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health (CSMMH). This commission is now a division of the Center for Inquiry. The Center has assumed publication of two medical journals devoted to advancing evidence-based medical and mental-health practice. A new Executive Director has been appointed to head up the Commission in January, 2004. Its purpose is critical evaluation of questionable health cures and public education about the nature of scientific medicine.

2) Free Inquiry magazine increased its frequency from quarterly to bimonthly—under the guidance of Tom Flynn and Andrea Szalanski, Editor and Managing Editor. A new Spanish-language magazine, Pensar ("To Think") was announced in 2003. Published by CSICOP, its first issue will appear in January of 2004. It is edited by Alejandro Borgo of Argentina with a distinguished list of editorial representatives from other Latin America countries, including Peru, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, and Puerto Rico. This Spanish magazine will be distributed throughout North and South America.

3) CFI-OnCampus (formerly the Campus Freethought Alliance) sponsored dozens of debates and events in 2003. Among these were CFI’s Edward Tabash debating Richard Swinburne (an Oxford philosopher) at the University of Montana in Missoula (over 1,000 people attended), and CFI’s DJ Grothe debating David Noebel at UCLA. CFI-OnCampus has hired another campus organizer (effective in January, 2004) to further expand its growth.

4) The Center for Inquiry-West and the Steve Allen Theater celebrated a gala grand opening on November 15, 2003. Several hundred people attended the open house. Jayne Meadows, comedian Gabe Kaplan, and the staff of CFI participated, including Paul Kurtz, Jan Eisler, Tom Flynn, Jim Underdown, Eddie Tabash, DJ Grothe, David Koepsell and others. A bust of Steve Allen was unveiled at the opening.

5) The Center for Inquiry-MetroNY is pleased to announce that it is moving to larger headquarters at Rockefeller Center (from Thirty Rockefeller Plaza to One Rockefeller Center) effective in early January, 2004. The new office suite on the 27th floor will have a reading room and a conference room, and has a splendid view of New York City. It also announced the appointment of a new Director and the integration of the Long Island Secular Humanist Society into the Center for Inquiry-MetroNY.

6) The Center for Inquiry is pleased to announce that its academic and research programs have formally affiliated with the State University of New York at Buffalo:

It is planning a Master's degree in cooperation with the university on the “public understanding and appreciation of reason and science.”

It has announced a new fellowship postdoctoral-research program. There will be two awards totaling $30,000 for 2004-05 in cooperation with psychology, philosophy, and other departments. Applications are being accepted (by Austin Dacey at adacey@centerforinquiry.net).

Research fellows and key staff members at the Center for Inquiry may also apply for appointments at the University as visiting professors, fellows, or scholars.

The Center for Inquiry libraries (holdings of over 65,000 books, monographs, and journals) are available to research scholars and students at SUNY. Their collection can be accessed online via the OCLC (the national consortium of university libraries). Its rare book room was officially opened, containing many priceless editions (including the first editions of Tom Paine’s The Age of Reason, Ethan Allen’s Reason: the Only Oracle of Man, and Pierre Bayle’s Dictionary).

7) The Center for Inquiry welcomed several visiting research fellows in 2003: Dr. Manuel Paz y Mino of Peru; Dr. Gopi Upretti of Nepal; Professor Valerie Kuvakin of Moscow State University; Professor Vladmir Shtinov, formerly of Urols University; James Herrick of the Rationalist Press Association of the United Kingdom; Dr. Bert Gasenbeek, Managing Director of the Humanist Archives, Utrecht, the Netherlands; Dr. Zheng Nian of Beijing, China. The Center has opened a second guest house to accommodate visitors and research Fellows.

8) The Center expended over $250,000 in 2003 for the support of international programs and affiliated international organizations. This is in addition to Prometheus books published abroad or distributed free worldwide to cognate organizations. The Center for Inquiry-International is now accepting applications for support from individuals who are interested in pursuing research programs at the Center for Inquiry or any one of its four North American branches. It also welcomes international applications from individuals or organizations who wish to develop programs in cooperation with CFI in their respective countries.

9) The Center for Inquiry’s media and public-relations department scheduled hundreds of radio and TV appearances featuring its staff members, including Joe Nickell, Jim Underdown, Tom Flynn, Ed Buckner (Southern Regional spokesperson), Paul Kurtz, Ibn Warraq, Kevin Christopher, DJ Grothe, Benjamin Radford, and others. There were visiting TV crews from the BBC, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, as well as South Korea, Japan, and other countries. It also initiated hundreds of news stories, many of them syndicated widely to newspapers and magazines in North America and throughout the world.

10) Staff members of the Center (CSICOP and the Council for Secular Humanism) lectured in several foreign countries: Paul Kurtz at the University of London; University of Belgrade, Serbia; and Warsaw, Poland; and Bill Cooke in Belgrade, Warsaw and Abu Dhabi. The Center and its affiliated organizations sponsored national and international conferences in Washington, D.C. (CSH, April), Albuquerque, New Mexico (CSICOP, October), and London, England (with European Skeptics and CSICOP, September). It sponsored three Institute programs: Amherst, N.Y. (July), Debater's Toolbox (CSH, Amherst, August), Skeptic’s Toolbox, University of Oregon, Eugene, (CSICOP, August). It concluded with a conference titled “Assault on Scientific Medicine” at the New York Academy of Medicine (CSMMH, November).

11) The Center for Inquiry-International announced in September, 2003 the launching of a four-year, $26.25 million capital-fund drive. The campaign is intended to raise funds for the expansion of the Center’s activities in Los Angeles, Tampa Bay, New York City, and Amherst, New York. In addition, the Center desires to raise endowment funds to support its international programs, CFI-OnCampus, its educational programs at its Research Institute, and the new Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health. (For information, contact Richard Hull at RHull@CenterforInquiry.net.)

12) We are glad to welcome to our staff the following key appointments: David Koepsell, Executive Director, CSH (Council for Secular Humanism); Prof. Richard Hull, Development Director; Toni Van Pelt, Executive Director, CFI-Florida; Susan Jacoby, Director, CFI-MetroNY; Dr. Ed Buckner, Southern Regional Director; Andrew Skolnick, Executive Director, the Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health; Jerry Dantone, Coordinator, the Center for Inquiry meeting in Long Island; Zachary Miner, Campus Organizer, CFI-OnCampus; and Eric Chinchon, New York State Coordinator, SOS (Secular Organizations for Sobriety).


Conclusion

I would like to end this New Year’s message by thanking the members of CFI’s staff for their valiant work in defending reason, science, and free inquiry during 2003. I also wish to thank the hundreds of thousands of readers and volunteers around the world who have supported our efforts. Without your help, the important work we do would not be possible.

The beginning years of the twenty-first century demonstrate both the grave dangers and unparalleled opportunities that we face.

The so-called “War against terrorism,” the religious and ideological conflicts that fester, graphically illustrate the urgent need to develop rational, ethical alternatives. The continued disparities between the affluent and poorer regions of the globe emphasize the importance of reducing poverty and disease and extending the benefits of education and democracy to everyone.

Our age is prominently an age of science and technology—and these continue to offer the best promise for improving the human condition. Yet there is still a long way to go before these are fully implemented. The Center for Inquiry’s focus is primarily on developing critical thinking in society. We emphasize the use of the methods of science for understanding nature and solving human problems. The Center’s various publications have defended democracy, human rights, secularism and the separation of church (or mosque) and state, and freedom of inquiry.

As Naturalists (scientific and philosophical), we are skeptical of unproven occult and paranormal claims, ancient dogmas that provoke unthinking rivalries. We are interested in helping to develop a New Enlightenment: We believe that science and reason are the best ways of expanding discovery and knowledge, and bringing about a more peaceful and prosperous planetary community.