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Český klub skeptiků Sisyfos (English: Czech Skeptics' Club Sisyfos) is a Czech skeptical nonprofit organisation founded in 1994, headquartered in Prague. Its primary goal and mission is to spread and defend the findings and results of contemporary science, to promote rational, critical thinking, to acquaint the public with the principles of scientific method, to speak out against the spread of paranormal ideas and unproven procedures, to ensure that universities, scientific societies and institutions are actively responsible for defending science and critical thinking, to investigate controversies and false claims, to provide assistance to citizens in protecting against fraudulent products and ineffective or dangerous alternative medicine products and healing methods. In line with mission and goals, the club refuses to interfere with religious, moral and political issues.

Organization
SisyfosS was founded in the spring of 1995 on the initiative of a couple of rationally thinkink persons. In 2020 it had almost 400 members of various professions, education and age. Two thirds of the membership are university graduates, with a high proportion of natural scientists, technicians and doctors. Almost half of the members are from Prague and its surroundings, there is a branch in Brno, many members are from Ostrava.

Club is a partner of the American Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and is a member of the European Council of Skeptical Organisations (ECSO). Since 2000, it is a member of the Czech organisation Rada vědeckých společností České republiky (The Council of Scientific Societies of the Czech Republic). Some of the leading members include the astronomer and science communicator Jiří Grygar and the publicist Věra Nosková. The name of the organization refers to mythological Sisyphus and it symbolises the founders' belief that Labors of Sisyphus (long and ultimately unsuccessful work) await them.

The club has three sections:
 * Physics Section of the Skeptics Club (section leader Lukáš Jelínek).
 * Medical Section of the Skeptics Club (section leader Michal Křupka)
 * Skeptics' Club Science Popularization Section (section leader Jelena Příplatová)

Executive Committee
The Skeptics Club is led by an Executive Committee, which as of 2018 had eighteen members.
 * Chairman: Jaromír Šrámek
 * Vice-Chair: Jelena Lenka Příplatová
 * Vice-Chairman: Leoš Kyša
 * Vice-Chairman: Lukáš Jelínek
 * Secretary: Aneta Pierzynová
 * Secretary: Zdeněk Jonák
 * International Contact: Claire Klingenberg

Chairpersons

 * MUDr. Ivan David, CSc.
 * prof. MUDr. Jiří Heřt, DrSc.
 * Věra Nosková
 * doc. RNDr. Čeněk Zlatník, CSc.
 * Bc. Leoš Kyša
 * MUDr. Jaromír Šrámek

Sisyphus and religion
According to its constitution, Sisyfos refuses to interfere in the religious sphere.1 Sisyfos members are both atheists and religious believers.2 Several articles have been published in the Sisyfos newsletter on the topic of the relationship between science, skepticism and religion.3[4][5] There has been a debate among Sisyfos members about whether to address the issue of religion, a topic that was raised at the Sisyfos plenary meeting on 21 December 2000. The relationship of Sisyfos to religion was discussed by the club's board on 15 February 2001, and in its resulting opinion it agreed, among other things, that for practical reasons it was not appropriate for Sisyfos to intervene in the religious field.[8].

Miloslav Král
It is interesting to note that one of the founders of the Sisyphus Club was the natural scientist Miloslav Král, who spent his entire adult life devoted to refuting scientifically unsubstantiated theories, but when he was seventy he is said to have had a direct encounter with God. This experience resulted in a total reversal of Miloslav Král's views, his resignation from Sisyphus, and the creation of a new website, Věda a víra (Science and Faith), through which he attempted to prove God at least partially scientifically (the site has not been updated since M. Král's death).9 He also wrote a number of books related to this experience, and regularly gave lectures on the subject.

Sisyfos Newsletter
The Sisyfos Skeptics' Club has been publishing Zpravodaj Sisyfos, a non-periodical newsletter of the Sisyfos civic association three or four times a year since 1995 (the zero issue was published on 7 February 1995 ). It contains articles by domestic and foreign skeptical experts, as well as information about current events in the Club and its activities. In 2019, a special edition was published for the 2019 Science Fair.

The Sisyphus newsletter is freely available on the association's website starting with the 2000 edition.

Science versus Irrationality
The lecture series Věda kontra iracionalita (Science versus Irrationality) is the main lecture activity of the Skeptics Club. The lectures are held once a month, every third Wednesday of the month, in the building of the Czech Academy of Sciences on Národní třída in Prague. There are no lectures in June, July and August. In September, there is the usual shorter lecture followed by a meeting of the club members to elect new leadership for the coming year. This series focuses on skeptical topics, especially irrational claims in medicine, biology, or physics. The lectures are also the basis for the traditional proceedings of the same name.

The Skepticon
Sisyphus Club organizes a lecture conference once a year, which takes place in various locations in the Czech Republic. The last Skeptikon was held in 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Friday Men
The lecture series Pátečníci (Friday Men) is organized by the Science Popularization Section (until recently the Social Science Section) and its leader Jelena Lenka Příplatová.[13] Lectures are held every Friday, including holidays, except Christmas and public holidays. Thus, around 50 lectures are held during one year. The series focuses less on skepticism and more on popularizing science. The papers may also cover topics on which the club as a whole does not comment, such as religion and atheism, global climate change or politics.[13].

The Fridays have been meeting since 2000, when Rudolf Battěk took over the leadership of the section. The venue was first the Pavel Vachtel antiquarian bookshop (Universum - a centre for specialist literature), then the PEN Club room,[13] and since 2016 the Faculty of Science of the Charles University.

Since 2020, the lectures can be viewed on a separate YouTube channel Pátečníci.[14]

Lectures in Kladno and Brno
A regular lecture series is also organized in Kladno, where Milan Urban is in charge. The local lectures are held once every two months in the building of the local gymnasium. Occasional lectures are also held in Brno at the Moravian Library.

10:23 Campaign
For related information, see also the 10:23 Campaign article. On 6 February 2011, members and supporters of the Sisyphus Club joined the second annual 10:23 Campaign, in which volunteers "overdose" themselves with homeopathic remedies to highlight their ineffectiveness.[15][16] Since 2015, Sisyfos has organised the 10:23 Campaign campaign annually.[17][18] Until 2019, the event took place in Prague, Brno and Ostrava,[19] with the last one taking place online in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[20]

Paranormal challenge
On October 1, 2012, the Belgian-Flemish skeptical club SKEPP, in cooperation with the European Council of Skeptical Organizations, announced "The Sisyphus Prize". A prize of 1 million euros would be paid to the one who could prove his paranormal abilities under controlled conditions. The Czech Sisyphus Skeptics Club signed up for the prize on January 1, 2013, and ended the opportunity to test in the national contest after half a year (if the national candidate was successful, there would not be enough time to prepare and implement the final test in Brussels)[21]. Since the first of January 2014, however, Sisyfos has followed up the "The One Million Euro Sisyphus Prize" with its Czech Skeptics Club Paranormal Challenge. The club has pledged to pay anyone who demonstrates paranormal abilities CZK 10.000 and to publish the results of the experiment.[21]. As of 2021, no one has won the prize, which has already amounted to CZK 3.400.000 (about USD 154.000 in 2020).[22][23]

COVID-19 challenge
Paranormal Challenge, headed by hypnotist Jakub Kroulík, journalist and author Leoš Kyša and science popularizer Claire Kroulík Klingenberg, announced the so-called COVID-19 challenge in 2021. A prize of CZK 3.415.000 will be awarded to the person who demonstrates the ability to identify a person vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine.

March for Science
The March for Science is a global event. The Czech version of the march is organized by the Czech Sisyphus Skeptics Club and aims to "draw attention to the apolitical, scientific topics and the importance of quality education."[24] Participants meet at the statue of St. Wenceslas on Wenceslas Square in Prague. The march then heads to the Czech Academy of Sciences, where a series of lectures by world-renowned experts follow.[25] The Czech March for Science was held in 2017, 2018 and 2019.[25] No further editions were held due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Erratic Boulder award
The organisation issues an anti-award called Bludný balvan (Erratic Boulder) "to highlight the contribution of individuals and societies in misleading the Czech public and the development of a muddy way of thinking." It is awarded every year, always for the previous year. The first edition was held in 1999.[28] The Erratic Boulders are awarded in individual and team categories,[4] with a maximum of three Erratic Boulders awarded in each category in each year, with a different ranking, in ascending order from bronze, to silver, to the winning gold. In 2007, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the awards, the club awarded an extra special prize, the Jubilee Diamond Erratic Archboulder.[26][30]

Jiří Heřt Award
Since 2021, the Sisyphus Club has been awarding the annual Jiří Heřt Prize, a prize named after a leading member of the club. The intention of the award is ″to highlight the laureates' contributions to the use, dissemination and popularization of methods of critical scientific thinking, which constitute a bulwark against the epidemic of false and untruthful news polluting the public space.″[31] The first prize was awarded on November 15, 2021[32] to the editorial staff of Czech Television's Hyde Park Civilization[33].

Events
In 2017, Český klub skeptiků Sisyfos and Klub Sceptyków Polskich organised the seventeenth European Skeptics Congress (ESC). The ESC has been held every two years since 1989, each time hosted by a different member of the European Council of Skeptical Organisations (ECSO). The Congress included lectures and panels, and involved discussion on topics such as science and religion, exorcisms and genetically modified organisms. Speakers included Amardeo Sarma, Gerald Ostdiek, Holm Gero Hümmler and Mark Lynas as well as many others. Also, Massimo Polidoro interviewed James Randi on the topic of paranormal investigation. Free, public workshops also ran during the Congress on topics like "Quantum Mechanics vs Common Sense", "What can we infer from children's drawings", and "Mission to Mars".