Brights Movement
From RationalWiki
The Brights Movement describes "brights" as follows: [1]
- A bright is a person who has a naturalistic worldview.
- A bright's worldview is free of supernatural and mystical elements.
- The ethics and actions of a bright are based on a naturalistic worldview or humanism.
As a consequence "The Brights Movement" is naturally open to anyone who has a rationalistic or naturalistic worldview. It is essentially a re-branding of atheism.
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[edit] Aims
The movement describes its aims as:
- To promote the civic understanding and acknowledgment of the naturalistic worldview, which is free of supernatural and mystical elements.
- To gain public recognition that persons who hold such a worldview can bring principled actions to bear on matters of civic importance.
- To educate society toward accepting the full and equitable civic participation of all such individuals.
[edit] History
The term "bright" was coined (or stolen) to be used in this context in 2002 by Paul Geisert.[2] Similar to how the word "gay" came to be claimed by the homosexual community as an attempt to re-brand it as something positive. In that case, "gay" originally meant happy and was nonthreatening, in this case, "bright" is often taken to mean sharp and intelligent in quite a fun way, the complete opposite of what atheist has become in some parts of the world.
[edit] Enthusiastic brights
"Enthusiastic" brights supposedly include Daniel Dennett, James Randi, Steven Pinker, Richard Dawkins, and Penn & Teller.[3]
Some superb artwork and poetry produced by enthusiastic brights can be found here. It may or may not be representative of brights as a group.
[edit] Reception
The brights movement has met with mixed responses. Some, such as Dawkins, actively support the idea and self-declare themselves as a Bright. But there are many negative reactions to the movement, even from those who it would technically include. Its detractors find the choice of the term to be embarrassingly condescending - perhaps useful as snark or psrodt, but not as a name for a broad based umbrella movement. Indeed, this mixed reaction just goes to prove the old phrase about herding cats.
