The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a U.S. nonprofit organization that works to mitigate belief in pseudoscience and the paranormal and to fight the influence of religion in government.[1][2]
The Center for Inquiry was established in 1991 by atheist philosopher and author Paul Kurtz.[3] It brought together two organizations: the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (founded by Kurtz in 1976) and the Council for Secular Humanism (founded by Kurtz in 1980).[4][5] The Center for Inquiry Inc was registered as a tax-exempt nonprofit organization in April 2001.[6]
Kurtz, a humanist who founded CFI to offer a positive alternative to religion,[7] led the organization for thirty years.[8] In 2009, Kurtz said he was forced out of CFI after conflict with Ronald A. Lindsay, a corporate lawyer hired to become CEO in 2008.[8]
Robyn Blumner succeeded Lindsay as CEO in January 2016 when CFI announced that it was merging with the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.[9][10][11][12]
Through the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), and its journal, Skeptical Inquirer magazine, published by the Center for Inquiry, CSI examines evidential claims of the paranormal or supernormal, including psychics, ghosts, telepathy, clairvoyance, UFOs, and creationism. It also hosts the CSICon.
They also examine pseudoscientific claims involving vaccines, cellphones, power lines, GMOs, and alternative medicine. In the area of religion, they examine beliefs that involve testable claims, such as faith healing and creationism, but stay away from untestable religious beliefs such as the existence of God.[13]