PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Contact: Nathan Bupp
Phone: (716) 636-4869 x 218
E-mail: nbupp@centerforinquiry.net
Center Devoted to the Public’s Appreciation of Science and Humanism Expands to Include UK
January 15, 2008
Local Organization Inaugurates New Educational Centre in the UK
Amherst, New York (January 15, 2008)—The Center for Inquiry/Transnational (CFI), an Amherst, New York based international think tank promoting reason, science, and secular humanism, has announced that it is opening an office in the United Kingdom.
The new office, based in London, will mark the beginning of CFI's contributions to education, enrichment, and research in the United Kingdom, mirroring similar efforts throughout North America, Europe, and other parts of the world.
“We are committed to the furtherance of science and reason in the world, increasingly under attack by irrational forces, but necessary for the planetary civilization that is emerging,” said Paul Kurtz, chairman and founder of CFI.
The new London office will mark its inauguration this week with an opening conference, "Secularism in the Multicultural Society: The Civil Limits of Tolerance.” The event will feature welcoming remarks and addresses from distinguished representatives of the British academic, secular, and humanist communities. The conference will be held at Conway Hall, home of the new Centre for Inquiry, London. Housing the South Place Ethical Society's collection of humanist research resources, the largest and most comprehensive of its kind in the United Kingdom, Conway Hall is a landmark for progressive thought and free speech.
Through its founder Paul Kurtz, CFI has a historical association with the United Kingdom going back four decades. “It makes good sense,” said R. Joseph Hoffman, vice president of educational affairs at CFI, “to express the solidarity between the two great Anglophone freethought traditions through this concrete expression of international good will and for CFI to develop a permanent base in the United Kingdom.” Hoffmann says that CFI intends to be of “public intellectual benefit” through research and education and to work cooperatively to ensure that a humanist tradition extending back to the English Renaissance remains vital and influential.
The Centre for Inquiry, London has entered into an agreement with the administrators of Conway Hall to deliver courses and lecture series, as well as hold special events of interest to secularists, humanists, and those interested in the humanist worldview. Following the opening of the Centre, a week's course of lectures will be given at Conway Hall to inaugurate the educational program into its new home.
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The Center for Inquiry is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization, comprising the Council for Secular Humanism, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), and the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion (CSER). Headquartered in Amherst, New York, the Center for Inquiry strives to promote rational thinking in all aspects of life. The organization's Web site can be found at www.centerforinquiry.net.
