Paul Kurtz, who clashed with the new leadership of organizations he founded for skeptics and humanists worldwide, has separated from those groups to start a venture that will publish a magazine and focus on research into human values.

The University at Buffalo philosophy professor emeritus has attracted dozens of intellectuals to assist with his new nonprofit organization, the Institute for Science and Human Values.

Kurtz, 84, built a reputation around the world as a leader among skeptics and humanists, while promoting science and reason as guideposts for moral living.

He resigned in May from the boards of the Center for Inquiry, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and the Council for Secular Humanism — all organizations he founded in Amherst. He also stepped down as editor in chief of Free Inquiry, the magazine he started in 1980.

“It was very difficult [to resign],” Kurtz said, “but I don’t agree with the new direction of the center.”

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The Institute for Science and Human Values will not compete with the center and its affiliate programs, Kurtz said, adding that he hopes the center prospers.

“I don’t want to demean what they’re doing, but I think our agenda is much broader,” he said.

Kurtz, who raised millions of dollars over the years for the Center for Inquiry, will put those skills to use for his new institute.

His absence already might have had on impact on the Center for Inquiry’s ability to raise money.

The center’s leaders appealed to donors last month, explaining that an anonymous annual gift of $800,000 to the Council for Secular Humanism wasn’t panning out this year — leaving a significant hole in the combined budgets of the three groups.

The gift amounts to a quarter of annual public support for the center and its two affiliates.

The center has been unable to reach the donor, who is a friend of Kurtz. In recent weeks, four employees were laid off to slash costs.

“We were forced to economize, and we were forced to lay off people,” said Richard Schroeder, chairman of the center’s board.

Schroeder had little to say about Kurtz’s departure or its potential impact on the organization.

“Paul chose to leave the board. We accepted his resignation,” he said.

The anonymous donor whose gift has not been extended so far this year didn’t reveal his plans to Kurtz, nor has he agreed to help fund the new institute, Kurtz said.

“I haven’t talked to the donor about this,” he said.

The institute will publish Science and Human Values, a magazine to be edited by Norm Allen, who spent more than 20 years at the Center for Inquiry before being laid off.

Allen said he was disappointed that the center appeared to be backing away from earlier efforts led by Kurtz to expand internationally.

Allen also expressed doubts about the center’s future ability to raise money without having Kurtz on board.

“It’s sad in many respects. He is the most charismatic figure humanism was able to produce,” Allen said.

But Allen was optimistic about Kurtz’s new venture.

“Everything he’s started in the past has succeeded, so I wouldn’t bet against him now,” he said.

Kurtz enlisted longtime friends and colleagues to serve on a coordinating committee and an advisory council for the institute — similar to the setup he established at the Center for Inquiry.

In addition to Allen, the institute plans to hire Toni Van Pelt, another Center for Inquiry employee who was laid off. Van Pelt was the center’s public policy director and chief lobbyist in Washington, D. C.

She will work in a similar capacity for the institute, Kurtz said.

Kurtz resigned nearly a year after he was removed as chairman of the center in a showdown with Ronald A. Lindsay, his successor as chief executive officer.

Kurtz has maintained that under the new leadership, the center has become too overtly focused on promoting atheism, criticizing religion and pushing First Amendment defenses—at the expense of exploring values and morality in a secular society.

“A central question in the United States today is the question of values. Where do you get them? How do you cultivate them?” Kurtz said. “The real question is: ‘Can secularists be moral?’ My answer is yes, but we have to focus on that. We can’t just be libertarians and say, ‘Anything goes.’ ”

Lindsay and Schroeder have maintained that the mission of the center and its affiliates remains the same.

Despite the loss of the large gift, Schroeder said the “center’s in great shape.” He and other board members had “moved on” from the falling out with Kurtz, he added.