The Bright Stuff. (Don't trust God to save humanity from its follies)

[Merlin]

A really good OpEd from Saturday's NYT

The Bright Stuff
By DANIEL C. DENNETT


BLUE HILL, Me.
The time has come for us brights to come out of the closet. What is a bright? A bright is a person with a naturalist as opposed to a supernaturalist world view. We brights don't believe in ghosts or elves or the Easter Bunny — or God. We disagree about many things, and hold a variety of views about morality, politics and the meaning of life, but we share a disbelief in black magic — and life after death.

The term "bright" is a recent coinage by two brights in Sacramento, Calif., who thought our social group — which has a history stretching back to the Enlightenment, if not before — could stand an image-buffing and that a fresh name might help. Don't confuse the noun with the adjective: "I'm a bright" is not a boast but a proud avowal of an inquisitive world view.

You may well be a bright. If not, you certainly deal with brights daily. That's because we are all around you: we're doctors, nurses, police officers, schoolteachers, crossing guards and men and women serving in the military. We are your sons and daughters, your brothers and sisters. Our colleges and universities teem with brights. Among scientists, we are a commanding majority. Wanting to preserve and transmit a great culture, we even teach Sunday school and Hebrew classes. Many of the nation's clergy members are closet brights, I suspect. We are, in fact, the moral backbone of the nation: brights take their civic duties seriously precisely because they don't trust God to save humanity from its follies.

<<more>>
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/12/opinion/12DENN.html

[ixion]

1. this is a great read

it's really refreshing to hear people speak out about BushCo's push to return to the Demonic perspective. I wouldn't say I don't believe in magic or ghosts, but I agree with what this writer has to say, and will probably sign up as a 'bright' because it reflects a sense of realism that is really missing these days.

here's a link to their site. looks like it's the alpha version, but hey, give them time ;-)

http://www.the-brights.net/

27 Million... that's a nice demographic segment that has been disenfranchised by chimpy. Seems like a group that Dean should be able to reach.

[hatrack]

2. Gee it's nice to see something like this published occasionally!

After being bombarded with "God Is Watching Us", Precious Moment NYFD dolls, Thomas Kinkade paintings and prints in every waiting room in the land, "God Bless America" at baseball games, and a pResident who gets his putative political marching orders from God, it's nice to see that at least some people are prepared to at least LOOK at the possibility that we are not going to get our collective final species exam answers faxed in from some undefined Great Beyond.

[Athame]

3. It's about time we had a name

Here's my comment to the Brights after signing up to be counted, (and referencing this DU forum):
I am a longtime teacher of earth-based religion, researching and practicing natural spirituality. I do teach goddess mythology, not as object of worship, but to counteract the prevailing God mythology and as a way of imagining a different social structure. I am working on a philosophy I call "Awarian" that honors insight and awareness of all avenues of learning: intellectual, as well as sensual and intuitive. Your efforts to define the Brights as those who come to their understandings not by faith, but by observation and careful thought are encouraging to me.
Best wishes on your endeavors. I will pass this site along.
XXXX Ma

[dback]

4. OK, who's seen "Bubble Boy?" "BRIGHT! (clap)...and Shiny!"

This may not be the best name for this movement.