Hungarian Skeptic Society

Official logo of the Hungarian Skeptic Society
Abbreviation	HSS (English); SzT (Hungarian)
Formation	December 2006
Type	Nonprofit organisation
Purpose	Development and support of the skeptic community
Headquarters	Budapest
Region served	Hungary
President	Gábor Hraskó
Website	http://www.szkeptikustarsasag.hu

The Hungarian Skeptic Society (HSS) (Hungarian: Szkeptikus Társaság Egyesület) is a skeptic organisation based in Hungary. Founded in 2006, it has been a member of the European Council of Skeptical Organisations (ECSO) since 2007. Its current president is Gábor Hraskó, who also serves as the chairman of the ECSO since 2013.

After the political changes in Hungary, pseudoscientific claims started to proliferate in the beginning of the 1990s. There was a group of scientists from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, led by the late professor of anatomy János Szentágothai who, along with science writers at the journal Természet Világa (the World of Nature) and columnists of the time, who formed a group called Tényeket Tisztelők Társasága ("Society of the Respecters of Facts", also called 'Hungarian Skeptics'). However, this was not an officially existing body, only a fellowship of like-minded scholars and journalists, including internationally recognised SETI astronomer Iván Almár, TV host István Vágó and many others (i.e. professor of Chemistry Mihály Beck, professor of physiology György Ádám). Also, the approach of this group was fairly different from that seen in other skeptical organisations around Europe and the world, lacking grassroots activism and focusing on high-ranking scholars, expressing their opinion to a wider audience.

In the second half of 2006, skeptical activists, brought together by the annual Conference of Hungarian Skeptics in Székesfehérvár, teamed up with critically thinking individuals and small groups who had frequently shared their ideas on the internet or other channels. On 15 December 2006 the Hungarian Skeptic Society was founded with 19 participants. As of 2015^[update], it has around 100 members from across Hungary. The Hungarian Skeptics originally began with the atheist movement, but they discovered that the two groups had different strategies, Hraskó explains that both are important, but the atheist group is more philosophical and has already reached the conclusion that God does not exist, no need to investigate. Whereas skeptics are more focused on the scientific method.