Skeptics R Us

The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal(CSICOP) was founded in the spring of 1976, during a meeting of the American Humanist Association in Buffalo, New York. The impetus for the group's form-ation had been provided a year earlier by the publication of "Objections to Astrology" by Paul Kurtz, professor of philosophy at the State University ofNew York at Buffalo. The manifesto had been signed by 186 scientists, in-cluding 18 Nobel prizewinners, who feared that the public was confusing astronomy and astrology.Today Kurtz is chairman of the loosely knit international organization, whichholds annual meetings and publishes a 25,000-circulation quarterly, "The Skeptical Inquirer." The journal is devoted to articles debunking psychokinesistelepathy,clairvoyance, and other psychic claims, the Loch Ness Monster, astro-logy and UFOs. CSICOP Fellows include science writer Isaac Asimov, astronomerCarl Sagan, Nobel physicist Murray Gell-Mann, and James Randi, recent recipientof a "genius grant" awarded by the MacArthur Foundation.The UFO subcommittee is led by Philip J. Klass ("UFOs--Identified","UFOs Ex-plained",and "UFOs, the Public Decieved"), James Oberg ("UFOs & Outer SpaceMysteries"),and Robert Sheaffer ("The UFO Verdict"). The subcommittee con-sists of about two dozen members who operate as an informal network, exchang-ing articles about UFOs for information and comment. Some members make them-selves available for local media appearances to counteract what Klass calls"the popular view of UFOs as extraterrestrial spaceships.""We prefer to have skeptics, of course," says Klass, "but we don't requireanyone to take an oath of allegiance saying they don't believe in flyingsaucers. Basically, we're a mutual education circuit."