Activities
According to CSI's charter, in order to carry out its major objectives the Committee:
- maintains a network of people interested in critically examining paranormal, fringe science, and other claims, and in contributing to consumer education;
- prepares bibliographies of published materials that carefully examine such claims;
- encourages research by objective and impartial inquiry in areas where it is needed;
- convenes conferences and meetings;
- publishes articles that examine claims of the paranormal;
- does not reject claims on a priori grounds, antecedent to inquiry, but examines them objectively and carefully.
CSI conducts and publishes investigations into Bigfoot and UFO sightings, psychics, astrologers, alternative medicine, religious cults, and paranormal or pseudoscientific claims.
CSI has also helped to support local grassroot efforts, such as SkeptiCamp community-organized conferences.
Read more about this topic: Committee For Skeptical Inquiry
Famous quotes containing the word activities:
“There is, I think, no point in the philosophy of progressive education which is sounder than its emphasis upon the importance of the participation of the learner in the formation of the purposes which direct his activities in the learning process, just as there is no defect in traditional education greater than its failure to secure the active cooperation of the pupil in construction of the purposes involved in his studying.”
—John Dewey (1859–1952)
“Love and work are viewed and experienced as totally separate activities motivated by separate needs. Yet, when we think about it, our common sense tells us that our most inspired, creative acts are deeply tied to our need to love and that, when we lack love, we find it difficult to work creatively; that work without love is dead, mechanical, sheer competence without vitality, that love without work grows boring, monotonous, lacks depth and passion.”
—Marta Zahaykevich, Ucranian born-U.S. psychitrist. “Critical Perspectives on Adult Women’s Development,” (1980)
“Both gossip and joking are intrinsically valuable activities. Both are essentially social activities that strengthen interpersonal bonds—we do not tell jokes and gossip to ourselves. As popular activities that evade social restrictions, they often refer to topics that are inaccessible to serious public discussion. Gossip and joking often appear together: when we gossip we usually tell jokes and when we are joking we often gossip as well.”
—Aaron Ben-Ze’Ev, Israeli philosopher. “The Vindication of Gossip,” Good Gossip, University Press of Kansas (1994)