CFI Research Introduction
The Center for Inquiry pursues a variety of research activities, in order to ensure that its naturalistic and secular humanistic positions are fully supported by the latest scientific research, the best philosophical arguments, and the most advanced legal reasoning.
CFI’s founder and chair emeritus, Dr. Paul Kurtz (Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, SUNY at Buffalo) is an internationally recognized philosopher and secular humanist. Dr. Ronald A. Lindsay, CFI CEO, is also a prominent defender of secular humanism in philosophical, political, and legal fields. Joining them on the CFI staff are skeptics, humanists, philosophers, and lawyers who actively research and frequently publish on a wide variety of topics relating to the defense of science, secular public policy and law, humanist ethics, and philosophical naturalism. Together they lead the many councils, committees, and programs that make up CFI, including the Council for Secular Humanism, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, the Office for Public Policy, the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion, and the Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health. There are currently four full-time Senior Research Fellows employed by CFI: Ronald A. Lindsay (PhD/JD), John R. Shook (PhD), Joe Nickell (PhD) and Ibn Warraq (MA).
CFI publishes some scholarly writings in its premier magazines, the Council for Secular Humanism’s Free Inquiry and the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry’s Skeptical Inquirer, and it also publishes peer-reviewed academic journals, including CÆSAR: A Journal for the Critical Study of Religion and Human Values, Philo: A Journal of Philosophy, The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine, and The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice. CFI’s Naturalism Research Project, based at CFI Transnational headquarters in Amherst, N.Y., promotes the study of scientific method and philosophical naturalism. The Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion encourage humanistic, critical and non-parochial approaches to the study of religious traditions and institutions. The CFI Office of Public Policy in Washington, D.C. defends the values of scientific naturalism and secular humanism in the context of U.S. law and public policy, publishing policy papers of new research and analysis about important topics. The CFI Legal Department promotes the mission of the Center for Inquiry and its affiliates by filing amicus briefs in cases involving First Amendment rights, reproductive freedom, assistance in dying, and other issues of importance to the Center and its supporters. The CFI Mission to the United Nations in New York City works to defend the secular, scientific outlook in the international community.
