Brights movement

The brights movement was invented by Paul Geisert in 2003, to give a positive-sounding umbrella term to describe various kinds of people who have a naturalistic worldview. Mynga Futrell defined the word as follows:

A bright is a person whose worldview is naturalistic—free of supernatural and mystical elements. A bright's ethics and actions are based on a naturalistic worldview.

Basis of the idea

Paul Geisert was a biology teacher in Chicago in the 1960s, a professor in the 1970s, an entrepreneur and writer in the 1980s, and the co-developer of learning materials and a web site for teaching religion in the public schools in the 1990s. He also attended the Godless March which subsequently led to the idea of coining the noun bright. Geisert intended his noun coinage to allude to humanity's illumination during the Age of Enlightenment, an optimistic era when science and reason seemed to offer the key to the future. Geisert is now co-director of The Brights Net.

The idea has been publicized by Richard Dawkins in articles for The Guardian and Wired, and by Daniel Dennett in the New York Times.

Part of the inspiration to seed a positively laden term came from the modern usage of the word gay to mean homosexual.

The methodology for establishing the "bright" neologism is mostly derived from memetics.

The term was also used by the main character in "Star Bright," a much-anthologized science fiction story about super-intelligent, telepathic children, published by Mark Clifton in 1952.

Criticisms

Some people have objected to the campaign on the grounds that they believe a usage such as bright must arise organically, rather than through deliberate creation, if it is to stick.

Others (both religious and non-religious) have objected to the term because they read it as implying that the individuals with a naturalistic worldview are more intelligent ("brighter") than the religious. (In his Wired article, Dawkins states "Whether there is a statistical tendency for brights (noun) to be bright (adjective) is a matter for research.") For subsequent research, see Religiosity and intelligence.

Geisert and Futrell staunchly maintain that from day one the neologism had a kinship with the Enlightenment, a time in history when the human impetus toward learning, science, free inquiry, and a spirit of skepticism were highly valued.

The Brights

Geisert and Futrell co-direct an internet network of "Brights" (the upper case usage indicates registration into a constituency with specified aims). The Brights' Net has continuously grown and currently now includes individuals in 138 nations of the world. Persons declaring their naturalistic worldview extend well beyond the familiar secularist categories. Registrations include ex-Mormons and ex-Pentecostals (and other sorts of “ex-es”) as well as clergy in and out of practice (several UU ministers, Presbyterian ministers, a Church History Professor/ordained priest, an ex-Benedictine monk/priest, and an ex-Lutheran minister). Brights' Local Constituencies are found in London, Paris, and several cities in Canada and the United States.

The Brights' Network has a website that serves as the hub of communication and action projects in a civic justice movement. It has three major purposes: (1) Promote the civic understanding and acknowledgment of the naturalistic worldview, which is free of supernatural and mystical elements; (2) Gain public recognition that persons who hold such a worldview can bring principled actions to bear on matters of civic importance; and (3) Educate society toward accepting the full and equitable civic participation of all such individuals.

The Brights' Net states that it is not an anti-religious organization in either principle or action, and that it is working through educational means to create a level social and civic playing field for individuals, whether their worldviews are naturalistic or include supernaturalism.

References

External links

The Brights Net Official Website of the Brights' Movement
The Brights Net Forums — Official Forums of the Brights' Movement
Not Too "Bright" by Chris Mooney - a critical review of the term

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Brights movement

Basis of the idea

Criticisms

The Brights

See also

References

External links