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Local branch CFI-Tampa Bay fosters a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, humanist values, and your constitutional liberties … You can help! Volunteer.

Here’s why: In the contemporary marketplace of ideas, one can find responsible, objective, & evidence-based information on everything from foreign policy to hormone replacement therapy. Yet when it comes to some of our most fundamental questions — about human values, the transcendent, or the borderlands of science — one often only hears from partisans of traditional religion, New Age practitioners, or anti-science movements.

With its local communities & public seminars, its network of scientists, philosophers & other thinkers, its grassroots advocacy & public education programs, & its popular & scholarly publications, the Center for Inquiry fills this gap, lending a credible voice to critical inquiry & the scientific outlook.

Affiliations

Tampa Bay Skeptics — Founded in 1988 by Gary P. Posner, M.D., TBS is a nonprofit educational and scientific organization devoted to the critical examination of paranormal and fringe-science claims, and the dissemination of factual information about such claims.

TBS’s “$1,000 Challenge” Whenever possible, TBS attempts to put claims to the test. Since 1989 we have had a standing “$1,000 Challenge” available to anyone able to provide TBS with verifiable scientific proof of any paranormal phenomenon. No one has yet succeeded, but we remain open-minded (though highly skeptical) and desirous of subjecting testable paranormal claims to objective scrutiny.

Membership in TBS: We encourage those who wish to help further the cause of skepticism to join TBS!

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The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry — The mission of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry is to promote scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and the use of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims. To carry out these 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

The Committee is a nonprofit scientific and educational organization, started in 1976. The Skeptical Inquirer is its official journal.
Some of the founding members of CSI include scientists, academics, and science writers such as Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Philip Klass, Paul Kurtz, Ray Hyman, James Randi, Martin Gardner, Sidney Hook, and others. A list of CSI fellows is published in every issue of Skeptical Inquirer magazine.
CSI encourages careful, rational, critical examination of unusual claims. One of the best guides is a short piece by Ray Hyman, a professor of psychology at the University of Oregon, titled “Proper Criticism”.

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The Council for Secular Humanism The mission of the Council for Secular Humanism is to advocate and defend a nonreligious lifestance rooted in science, naturalistic philosophy, and humanist ethics and to serve and support adherents of that lifestance.

The Council is North America’s leading organization for non-religious people. It is a program of the Center for Inquiry, a not-for-profit educational corporation. The Council supports a wide range of activities to meet the needs of people who find meaning and value in life without looking to a religion. Its activities range from magazine publishing and campaigning on ethical issues to holding conferences and supporting a network of autonomous local groups.

Secular humanists reject supernatural and authoritarian beliefs. They affirm that we must take responsibility for our own lives and the communities and world in which we live. Secular humanism emphasizes reason and scientific inquiry, individual freedom and responsibility, human values and compassion, and the need for tolerance and cooperation.

Free Inquiry is its official journal.

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Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science Founded in 2006 by Richard Dawkins, the foundation’s mission is to realize Richard’s vision to remove the influence of religion in science education and public policy, and eliminate the stigma that surrounds atheism and non-belief. Further, the mission of the Richard Dawkins Foundation is to promote scientific literacy and a secular worldview. Some might see this as two distinct missions: 1) Teaching the value of science, and 2) Advancing secularism.

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Many more of our programs may be found here: Resources | CFI Tampa Bay