A Warm Welcome to Tampa Bay Skeptics from the Center for Inquiry

I am very pleased to be able to say to members of the Tampa Bay Skeptics, "Welcome to the Center for Inquiry!"

For many years Tampa Bay Skeptics has provided a voice for rationality, scientific thought, and a large dose of common sense to the Tampa Bay community and, truth be told, the world community as well.

For over two decades, the programs of public education and advocacy headquartered at the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, New York, such as The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), the Council for Secular Humanism (CSH), and the new Commission for Scientific Medicine (CSMMH), have developed into leading resources for the inquiry community as well.

With the recent establishment of a branch of the Center in the Tampa Bay area, it seemed clear that a combination of resources, expertise, and organizational know-how between the Center and TBS would make a great deal of sense in the never-ending battle to oppose pseudoscience and superstition, while at the same time promote science, the scientific method and freedom of inquiry.

Centers for Inquiry create a shared community where secular humanists, skeptics, philosophical naturalists -- indeed everyone who is interested in the implications of the scientific outlook for society's most cherished beliefs -- can come together and advocate for the values that they share.

However, one does not need to embrace all the various aims of the Center for Inquiry to be an active and enthusiastic member of the Tampa Bay Skeptics. TBS will continue to operate as a Special Interest Group within the Center. You will continue to publish your excellent newsletter, you will continue to act as a resource for the media, conduct investigations, and maintain your very informative website. But now you will also share in the economies of scale that we can provide from the Center, and you will grow as the Center grows.

This is an exciting time for all of us involved with CSICOP, CSH, CFI and the Tampa Bay Skeptics. Glad to have you with us!

Barry Karr
Executive Director
Center for Inquiry International