GWUP
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| Abbreviation | GWUP | ||
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| Formation | 1987 | ||
| Type | Nonprofit organisation | ||
| Purpose | Popular education and consumer protection | ||
| Headquarters | Roßdorf, Germany | ||
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Region served
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German-speaking Europe | ||
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Membership
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1300 (2016) 1500 (2017) |
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Chairperson
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Amardeo Sarma | ||
| Affiliations | European Council of Skeptical Organisations | ||
| Website |
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The Gesellschaft zur wissenschaftlichen Untersuchung von Parawissenschaften (GWUP) (English: Society for the Scientific Investigation of Parasciences) is a non-profit organisation promoting scientific skepticism, headquartered in Roßdorf, Germany. Its estimated membership in 2016 is 1300 who are scientists or laypersons interested in science. The GWUP annually hosts a conference with varying key subjects.
The GWUP regards the critical contemplation of unproven claims in fields such as parasciences, esotericism, superstition, religion and alternative medicine as its main goal. It strives to achieve enlightenment in the sense of popular education and consumer protection. The GWUP underlines the importance of scientific procedures and critical thinking for societal challenges. Besides a theoretical dispute, individuals like dowsers, telekinetics, proponents of energized water scams, practitioners of alternative medicine and astrologers are being criticised and their skills also partially put to empirical examination.
The stated goal of the GWUP is the promotion of critical thinking and the sciences including their methods. Scientific methods should be disseminated, made understandable and applied to parasciences, pseudosciences as well as related belief systems. This also includes educating the general public about the current state of scientific knowledge about parascientific claims.
The GWUP puts a strong emphasis on health topics like complementary and alternative medicine, especially homeopathy. In these areas critical attention is highly indicated, since belief in these inefficacious methods leads to omission of more effective treatments. Furthermore, the GWUP discusses occultism, spiritism, esotericism and ideologies that underlie e.g. anthroposophy. Additionally they cover topics like religion, faith, superstition and creationism. Astrology, fortune-telling and prophecies are scrutinised in a yearly prognosis check. Further topics are conspiracy theories, paratechnologies, cryptozoology, ancient astronauts and UFOs.
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