The group of international skeptics, known for debunking
psychics, ghosts and alien abductions, is opening a new office
in Manhattan to promote better scientific coverage by the news
media.
"There is irresponsible presentation of paranormal and
supernatural phenomena and I think that media shares some
of the blame," Dacey said.
The Center for Inquiry, based in Amherst, N.Y., is a
non-profit organization with two major subdivisions: the
Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of
the Paranormal (CSICOP), which investigates paranormal and
fringe science claims; and the Council for Secular Humanism,
which promotes naturalism and secularism.
It has branches across the globe, including Russia, Mexico,
Nigeria and France, and publishes two magazines and a philosophy
journal. The New York office, which was originally based in
Montclair, N.J., is holding open houses this weekend.
"We are committed to reason, science and freedom of inquiry
in all areas of human interest," said CFI founder Paul Kurtz.
"So we represent a kind of naturalistic outlook that has largely
been ignored by the news media and overlooked by the American
public."
The New York office, on the 28th floor, will house a small
library and conference room for meetings and lectures. Dacey
hopes to eventually open a bookstore and cultural center at
street level.
A similar center in Los Angeles was opened two years ago to
debunk the belief in the paranormal and supernatural spread by
Hollywood movies and television shows. While the Los Angeles
center focuses on entertainment media, the New York branch of
CFI will try to link the news media and public with scientists
and experts to cast a critical eye on fringe science and religious
claims.
Fellows of the scientific wing of the center include Francis
Crick, who, along with James Watson, unlocked the secrets of DNA;
Richard Dawkins, Oxford University's professor for the public
understanding of science; and Bill Nye, the "Science Guy" of
children's television.
Pairing journalists and scientists will lead to better science
coverage because many journalists don't understand the basics of
scientific investigation, said Kristen Alley Swain, coordinator of
the Science Journalism Center at the University of South Florida.
"Scientists use a different language than what the public understands,"
she said. "The journalist is in the midst of interpreting the jargon.
They have a difficulty bridging that gap."
Sharon L. Dunwoody, professor of journalism at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison, said science journalism has improved in recent
years. But she said organizations such as the Center for Free Inquiry
can help journalists remain wary of claims about paranormal phenomena
such as psychics.
"The center argues that journalists have an obligation to care
about where the weight of evidence lies," she said. "They are constantly
urging journalists to evaluate the evidence. There is some merit to
that."
Kurtz said the public doesn't hear enough from the scientific community
in debates about important issues such as human cloning, which would be
banned by a bill passed by the U.S. House and now under consideration by
the Senate.
"If this passes, it will go down in the annals of history as
infamously as the efforts to suppress Darwin and Galileo," Kurtz said.
"They say it is immoral to experiment on the dividing cells," he
continued. "They think that the soul is imparted at conception.
That makes no sense scientifically."
Swain co-authored a study on media coverage of a related topic,
stem cell research, which found that journalists tended to quote
politicians, religious figures and anti-abortion groups more than
scientists on the issue.
"One complaint I heard from scientists is that journalists tend
to focus most on stories that have controversies," she said. "They
probably just need to talk to scientists more than they do."
The center is making some strides in the entertainment media.
Its CSICOP wing recently contributed to the production of a
television series on the Discovery Channel called "Critical Eye,"
which investigates the paranormal and unexplained. And Kurtz
also founded a publishing company, Prometheus Books.
"(What) we have to do is demystify science," said Dacey, standing
in front of a large poster of Albert Einstein. "The scientific method
is not something mysterious or esoteric. It's just the extension of the
same way we make up our minds in everyday life."
Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press
