SKEPTICISM IN ARGENTINA

(Photo from pensar.org)

Alejandro Borgo, journalist, writer, director of Pensar magazine, 
representative of the Center for Inquiry in Argentina, 
and member of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI).

Perhaps the first Argentine who wrote a book on skepticism was Eduardo Goligorsky. The book was called Contra la Corriente. Guía de mitos, tabúes y disparates para escépticos, herejes e inconformistas [Against the Current. Guide of myths, taboos and nonsense for skeptics, heretics and nonconformists] (Granica Edi,1972). In it, Goligorsky wanders through a wide variety of topics related to irrationalism. An essential gem.

Back in 1979, interested in paranormal phenomena, I went to the Argentine Institute of Parapsychology (IAP) to take a course. At that time, I had read a book that attracted my attention: Parapsychology, by Robert Amadou. Although I did not rule out the possibility of the existence of telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition and psychokinesis, I had my doubts. After the course, I began researching parapsychological phenomena at the IAP. I met serious researchers and, together with Daniel De Cinti (1954-2020), we became part of the Institute's research team.

We tried to replicate the "successful" experiments that appeared in the publications we received: the journals of the Society for Psychical Research in the United Kingdom and the American Society for Psychical Research in the United States. Thus, we learned statistics and experimental design. Over time, we did dozens of investigations with no positive results. We were strict with experimental controls and found no evidence for the existence of ESP. I left the IAP in 1987, after 7 years of serious research, and I was disappointed, as were many of my colleagues. We had already become skeptics.

The idea of forming CAIRP ("Argentine Center for the Investigation and Refutation of Pseudoscience") arose in late 1989 from a telephone conversation between Enrique Marquez and an Argentine subscriber to the Skeptical Inquirer, the official publication of CSICOP (now CSI). Both agreed to call friends from their environment who might be interested in forming a group dedicated to demystifying pseudoscience. At the end of February 1990 the first meeting took place, to which I joined myself, Enrique Carpinetti (Kartis), Naum Kreiman, Rudyard Magaldi, Enrique Peralta (Marduk) and Benjamín Santos Pedrotti.

It was thus that in 1990 a group of skeptical students, professionals and illusionists formed the CAIRP. The first members were Enrique Márquez, Alejandro Agostinelli, Enrique Pereira de Lucena (1956-2021), Enrique Carpinetti, Aldo Slepetis, Benjamín Santos Pedrotti, Heriberto Janosch, Ellen Popper and myself, together with other students and professionals who shared a skeptical view of the paranormal.

Many scientific researchers joined our initiative, among them: Dr. Celso M. Aldao (University of Mar del Plata), Dr. Fernando Saraví (University of Cuyo) and Iván Tiranti (Río Cuarto, province of Córdoba). Then more and more people joined, curious to know what the pseudosciences were about. Among them, Arturo Belda, Francisco Bosch, Orlando Liguori and others.

(Image from facebook.com/ElCojoEsceptico/photos)

In 1991 the first skeptical magazine appeared, which I had the pleasure of directing for six years: El Ojo Escéptico [The Skeptical Eye]. Both CAIRP and El Ojo Escéptico had an enormous impact in Argentina. We began to carry out a task of demystification of the paranormal that took us to the written press, radio and television. For years we were invited to hundreds of programs in which we had the opportunity to show "the other side of the coin". Many of the programs in which we participated can be seen on YouTube. We began to receive letters from teachers, journalists and other professionals, who contacted us to collaborate with our work. Carl Sagan accepted to be an Honorary Member of CAIRP. So did Mario Bunge, who in 1985 had tried unsuccessfully to create an association similar to ours. Thus, we began to give courses, lectures, workshops in various institutions, even at the University of Buenos Aires. And of course, we contacted CSICOP, the most important organization dedicated to the demystification of pseudoscience.

CAIRP was dissolved in 2001 because those who took a place when Márquez, Agostinelli and I were no longer there, distorted the work of the Center.

A few years later I joined the Center for Inquiry (CFI) and began to edit the magazine Pensar, in 2004, in print. The journal had hundreds of subscribers, but due to the economic crisis its publication had to be suspended in 2009. Then we resumed Pensar magazine, but this time online, pensar.org.

In 2005, the First Ibero-American Conference on Critical Thinking was held in Buenos Aires, with 21 speakers from various countries: Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Argentina, the United States and Spain.

The task of demystifying pseudoscience continues, but more people are needed, especially professionals, who are more committed to the fight against charlatanism.

(Translation by Deepl.com of the Spanish article EL ESCEPTICISMO EN LA ARGENTINA, and review by Manuel A. Paz y Miño)

 GO TO NEO-SKEPSIS # 15: SKEPTICISM IN THE WORLD (II)