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New Mexicans for Science and Reason

organization

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ19866471
Source-derived summary

New Mexicans for Science and Reason (also known by the abbreviation NMSR) is a science advocacy organization based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded by Skeptical Inquirer editor Kendrick Frazier on May 16, 1990. As of 1998 the President is physicist and mathematician Dave Thomas. Thomas was still the President in spring of 2018 In 1996 creationists on the New Mexico School Board tried to change science standards to water down instruction of evolution. NMSR was instrumental in having that decision reversed.

History

The organization was established in 1990 by Kendrick Frazier, the editor of Skeptical Inquirer. The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry's (CSI) focus during that time was to start local skeptic groups. Frazier, as a resident of Albuquerque, felt that the area had a good mix of potential members. "We have a lot of bizarre claims," he said, "from UFOs in the south to New Age claims in Santa Fe". At that time New Mexico was tied for second place in Skeptical Inquirer's state rankings of subscribers per capita, behind first-place California and tied with Colorado, Washington, and Massachusetts in second.

Editorial summary

“New Mexicans for Science and Reason” enters the record as organization. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Mexicans, Science and Reason can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewMost valuable as an event-and-institution map that identifies actors, dates and record creators for deeper historical inquiry. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1990, 1998, 2018, 1996—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1990. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Mexicans, Science and Reason.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“New Mexicans for Science and Reason” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Mexicans, Science and Reason provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q19866471. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1990, 1998, 2018 and 1996.

Critical limits

Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “New Mexicans for Science and Reason”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow New Mexicans for Science and Reason primary sources, New Mexicans for Science and Reason archive and Mexicans research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “New Mexicans for Science and Reason”?
  2. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
  3. Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from New Mexicans for Science and Reason” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.