Issues
The Center for Inquiry defends the secular, scientific outlook, with particular attention to freedom of inquiry, conscience, and expression. Current projects include:
- Universality of Human Rights. A number of forces in the international community are converging to undermine the universality of human rights, in favor of special rights under a particular religion or special protections for particular religious beliefs. CFI joins with other NGOs at the UN in seeking to uphold freedom of expression and equality of rights, as guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
- Alliance of Civilizations. Expanding on the Center for Inquiry’s historic work on Averroes (Ibn Rushd) and critical Quranic scholarship, the UN mission works to support secular values in Arab and Muslim societies. In March 2007, CFI organized a major conference of dissidents of majority Muslim societies, the Secular Islam Summit. In September 2008, the Center released a position paper on the "clash of civilizations," critically assessing the Alliance of Civilizations, the United Nations response to the idea of a civilizational clash.
- Worldviews of Scientists. A new series of global surveys of professional scientists beliefs and attitudes about religion, ethics, health, politics, and society, pursued in partnership with the Institue for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut.
- Science & the Public in China. In October 2008, the Center for Inquiry will participate in a scholarly exchange in collaboration with the Chinese Research Institute for Science Popularization. The CFI delegation will consist in Professior Xiufeng Liu, Univerity at Buffalo, director of the CFI-supported master’s program in Science and the Public, and Dr. Austin Dacey, United Nations representative of the Center for Inquiry.
