hink of them as the real ghostbusters, coming up with logical explanations for supernatural events. They're the members of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, and their Web site brings online CSICOP's mission of skeptical inquiry into the unexplained.
The CSICOP site has a tremendous amount of information to explore, but the dominant features are selected articles from the print edition of its bimonthly magazine, the Skeptical Inquirer. The Inquirer focuses its eye on modern-day debates that could use a healthy dose of reason, such as magnetic therapy and psychic surgery. It also includes essays by CSICOP members, as well as book reviews.
The Inquirer's quarterly counterpart, Skeptical Briefs, is available via e-mail to the organization's associate members. Feature articles from current and previous editions of the newsletter--such as "The Energy Fields of Life" and "Italy's 'Graveyard Ghost' Photo"--are available on the Web site.
The CSICOP news section contains new and recent press releases issued by the organization. For instance, in June, it ran a release that coincided with The X-Files: Fight the Future and a feature on a CSICOP member who had been quoted on the A&E cable channel's The Unexplained.
CSICOP's Site Reviews section includes reviews of two dozen Web sites, covering things like Nova Online, NASA's Galileo Project and Scientific America Online. Beyond the reviews, visitors can use a search engine to dig through CSICOP's archives, and they can also explore an extensive collection of links. Finally, the site provides opportunities to join CSICOP and to buy items from its gift shop.
A candle in the darkness?
The Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal was created nearly two decades ago by scientists, academics and science writers. Both Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov were founding members, and the love of science and wit they portrayed in their fiction and non-fiction works is echoed on the CSICOP Web site.
The rotating head of the site's mascot--the infamous bug-eyed gray alien--is featured on the front page, and the site makes good use of the occasional cartoon to poke fun at such ideas as "animal magnetism." CSICOP's goal of promoting "science and scientific inquiry, critical thinking, science education, and the use of reason in examining important issues" is reflected in the Web site's content. The articles provide reasonable, logical and well-written looks at modern-day issues.
Site navigation is simple, and each page includes a line at the top explaining how deep into the site a visitor has gone and providing links back to the home page. The What's New? section is a quick way for visitors to find out what has been added to the site over the last few months.
In Carl Sagan's last book, The Demon-Haunted World, he wrote at length about the rise of belief in supernatural and extraterrestrial forces, and about how using the methods of science in everyday life could be used to counter this rise. He spoke about science and skepticism as a candle illuminating the darkness of superstition and paranoia. Visitors who long for a skeptical look at paranormal will find this Web site to be one of those candles. Those who don't like CSICOP's no-nonsense approach to paranormal inquiries might be, ahem, skeptical of the site at first, but it should at least get them thinking about the scientific explanations for supernatural occurrences.
