Bringing Science and Reason to Washington

Center for Inquiry/Transnational Launches New Office of Public Policy

Contact: Nathan Bupp
Phone: (716) 636-4869 x 218
Fax: (716) 636-1733
E-mail: nbupp@centerforinquiry.net

Amherst, N.Y. (July 28, 2006)-The Center for Inquiry/Transnational, a think tank devoted to promoting reason and science in all areas of human interest, announced today that it is opening a new Office of Public Policy in Washington, D.C. This initiative will mark an unprecedented drive to bring a rigorous defense of science and secular values to policy makers located in the focal point of America's political and cultural battleground.

Educators and scientists have long argued that the public needs to be more scientifically literate. But Paul Kurtz, chairman and founder of the Center for Inquiry/Transnational and a fellow of the American Society for the Advancement of Science, says that the foundations of our democratic society are now under attack. "The social and scientific progress we take for granted have been advanced by a basic scientific philosophical point of view: scientific naturalism," said Kurtz. "The methods of the sciences, and the assumptions upon which they are based, are being challenged culturally in the United States today as never before. Despite its success in providing us with unparalleled benefits, religious fundamentalists seek to inhibit free inquiry and to misrepresent the tested conclusions of scientific naturalism. This is a highly charged political issue-both science and secularism are under political attack."

Recently, several public-policy controversies have illustrated the public need for a broad expertise in scientific naturalism. President Bush's blatantly political veto of Congress's bipartisan bill to expand federal funding of stem-cell research illustrates vividly how both the will of the majority, and scientific progress are under attack at the very highest levels.

The intelligent-design debate culminated in the Dover, Pennsylvania lawsuit, but continues through local and state attempts to dilute science curricula. It is not only a scientific dispute but what experts at the Center for Inquiry call "part of a broader cultural war on scientific naturalism and the Enlightenment in general."

NASA also became embroiled in a public controversy when a politically appointed spokesperson began insisting that references to the Big Bang be diluted with language indicating that NASA took no position on whether the Big Bang actually happened and that it was only a "theory." Under intense criticism, that spokesperson resigned, but not before calling attention to the dangers of mixing science, religion, and politics.

Kurtz says that the new Office of Public Policy will draw on the Center's relationship with leading scientists, academics, and public intellectuals, who all share the Center's stated purpose and concerns. "We intend to develop relationships with sympathetic legislators in D.C., and will provide experts to testify in legislative hearings," said Kurtz. They plan to submit white papers, solicited from their impressive network of fellows and scholars, and work with legislators who care about science and reason to affect legislative responses to attacks on Enlightenment values. In sum, the Center for Inquiry will become a full-fledged player in the public-policy arena, aspiring to the ranks of organizations such as Brookings, Heritage, and Cato, all of which serve as both think tanks and public-policy advocates.

Declared Kurtz, "We have a vital role to play. We are part of the mainstream of American life-part of the founding fathers' Enlightenment tradition-and essential for the vitality of future scientific research; we need to make that point abundantly clear."

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The Center for Inquiry/Transnational, a nonprofit, educational, advocacy, and scientific-research think tank based in Amherst, New York, is home to the Council for Secular Humanism, founded in 1980, the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), founded in 1976, and the recently formed Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health. Their research and educational projects focus on three broad areas: religion, ethics, and society; paranormal and fringe-science claims; and medicine and health. The Center’s Web site is www.centerforinquiry.net