Committee For Skeptical Inquiry - Name Change

Name Change

When the organization was formed in 1976, the original name proposed was "Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal and Other Phenomena" which was shortened to "Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal." The initial acronym, "CSICP" was difficult to pronounce and so was changed to "CSICOP." According to James Alcock, it was never intended to be "Psi Cop", a nickname that some of the group's detractors have taken up.

On November 30, 2006, the organization further shortened its name to "Committee for Skeptical Inquiry" ("CSI", pronounced C-S-I.) The reasons for the change were to create a name that is shorter and more "media-friendly", to remove "paranormal" from the name, and to reflect more accurately the actual scope of the organization with its broader focus on critical thinking, science, and rationality in general.

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Famous quotes containing the word change:

    “And how many hours a day did you do lessons?” said Alice, in a hurry to change the subject.
    “Ten hours the first day,” said the Mock Turtle: “nine the next, and so on.”
    “What a curious plan!” exclaimed Alice.
    “That’s the reason they’re called lessons,” the Gryphon remarked: “because they lessen from day to day.”
    Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)

    There are ... two minimum conditions necessary and sufficient for the existence of a legal system. On the one hand those rules of behavior which are valid according to the system’s ultimate criteria of validity must be generally obeyed, and on the other hand, its rules of recognition specifying the criteria of legal validity and its rules of change and adjudication must be effectively accepted as common public standards of official behavior by its officials.
    —H.L.A. (Herbert Lionel Adolphus)