Paul Kurtz, CSI Goodbye
All organizations have their in fighting and dirty laundry. Big companies, colleges and universities, and certainly the Catholic church have all succumbed to the same human failings and frailties that any family knows that has had a big Thanksgiving reunion. When groups of human being gather together long enough, fighting will occur.
The skeptical community has been better than most at using their critical thinking skills to try to keep the fuss to a civilized minimum, at least in the public eye. Recently though, some dirt has hit the fan and splashed back in a rather public manner. This dirt throwing is typical of someone that feels they are entitled to a position of power, and when they find others do not share that view, they attempt to hurt and perhaps even undermine the very organization they had dedicated their lives to. In a sense they show that in the end it was never about the greater good, the sacrifice of all for a cause above self, in the end it was about, self.
Paul Kurtz was recently asked to step down from being the head of CSI. CSI (the committee for Scientific Investigation) is a wonderful group that has grown tremendously under the leadership and guidance of Paul Kurtz. He should be proud of the baby he built. CSI enjoys a vast membership and the respect of scientists and the media. CSI has taught people the importance of being a skeptic, and how to apply critical thinking skills to everything from ghost hunting to medicine.
Paul Kurtz has given up much of his life to the nurturing of this child called CSI, but now he' has come out with an announcement that he was basically kicked out of his position. Told to step down, or he would be relieved of his position. A nice public face was put on it, until Kurtz decided the truth should be know, and wrote his own final word on CSI. It's always sad when the epitaph on the tombstone is whiny.
Science in many ways advances simply because scientists die. Old theories and beliefs held too closely and personally would be the death of science, if scientists did not die. This is reflected in the rest of society also. One complaint of Islam is that Mohammed's lived too long, into a grumpy old age where edicts of someone too old to understand the young was complaining about how they were out of control and tried to reel them in during his last years. Picture Jesus at the Temple senior center Bingo games, ranting about how young people just don't know how to hold their wine. Sadly, with time and age, we all become the old man yelling keep off my lawn to the younger generation.
Some step down with dignity and grace, while reflecting the truth that sadly, the world never really appreciates all we have done. In the end, appreciation is a matter of personal pride. Others hang on way too long. I come from a family that worked for the FBI in the last years of J.Edgar Hoover. The stories told at home were funny to a young child. The slightly batty old man that couldn't get his new stereo to work, and how my father had helped fix it so Mr.Hoover would never know his ignorance was at fault and not the stereo. But later I was horrified that someone so out of touch with the world, and unwilling to learn, had kept such a powerful position for so long. I was raised with the knowledge that Mr.Hoover had built the FBI from a fairly unknown government agency to the professional force of G-men that is today. But there would never have been G-women while Hoover lived.
Kurtz deserves the respect of all that believe as he does, that critical thinking and skepticism is a foundation to happiness and security for people. That our very safety depends on thinking clearly and asking the tough questions. In not always being nice but instead being well informed and questioning.
Still his final exit is not the story of a man unfairly treated. Instead it is the story of mankind, the story of growth and change that is a part of what it means to be a human, and to be mortal. I know he will continue to be active in the skeptic community. I wish him well.
As I age I take great comfort in the wisdom I see in my children eyes. I learn from them, but I also learn that I need to step back and see what they can do. Sometimes I'll probably cover my eyes! But, I am no longer determining the direction of their lives now that they are adults. Instead, when they ask I will offer my opinion, and always without fail offer my support. But they shouldn't listen to me too much. Because they need to make their own mistakes and also their own victories without following the same path I did. It's kept humankind going for a long time.