Center for Inquiry
American nonprofit organization
The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit advocacy group that works to defend science and critical thinking and fight the influence of religion in government.
History
The Center for Inquiry was established in 1991 by atheist philosopher and author Paul Kurtz. It brought together two organizations: the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (founded by Kurtz in 1976) and the Council for Secular Humanism (founded by Kurtz in 1980). The Center for Inquiry Inc was registered as a tax-exempt nonprofit organization in April 2001.
Kurtz, a humanist who founded CFI to offer a positive alternative to religion, led the organization for thirty years. In 2009, Kurtz said he was forced out of CFI after conflict with Ronald A. Lindsay, a corporate lawyer hired to become CEO in 2008.
Robyn Blumner succeeded Lindsay as CEO in January 2016 when CFI announced that it was merging with the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science.
Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
Through the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), and its journal, Skeptical Inquirer magazine, published by the Center for Inquiry, CSI examines evidential claims of the paranormal or supernormal, including psychics, ghosts, telepathy, clairvoyance, UFOs, and creationism. It also hosts the CSICon.
They also examine pseudoscientific claims involving vaccines, cellphones, power lines, GMOs, and alternative medicine.
The public source identifies “Center for Inquiry” as american nonprofit organization. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Center, Inquiry and American.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q648015. VIAF identifies the subject as 230391003. The Library of Congress control number is no2003049189. Authority coordinates are 42.998, -78.800. 2 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1991, 1976, 1980 and 2001.
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This entry incorporates text from “Center for Inquiry” 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.