THE BRIGHTS

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THE BRIGHTS
AN Internet constituency
www.The-Brights.net
Light! Clear and vivid! The imagery of
brightness speaks to humanity's impetus toward
learning, audacity for open inquiry, and spirit
of skepticism that once characterized an
optimistic time on earth when science and reason
seemed to offer the key to the future.
Will Morris University of Missouri-Columbia
Brights President CivilBrights.net Co-Director

• From the Enlightenment to the Enbrightenment

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Prologue

• Its not that we are so fewits that we dont
  know how to galvanize the many who are already
  with us.
• - Andreas Rosenberg

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What is a Bright?

• 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

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Major Misconceptions
No Arrogant Intentions
The group was named in an effort to put a
positive cultural spin on the minority view that
favors the natural over the supernatural.
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Major Misconceptions
Not all identify as atheists
It is an umbrella group encompassing a wide
variety of philosophical identities.
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Major Misconceptions
Civic Pluralism
Not anti-religious
Pluralism is the condition of society in which
numerous distinct ethnic, religious, or cultural
groups coexist amiably within one nation as
fellow citizens.
Freedom arises from a multiplicity of sects,
which pervades America, and which is the best and
only security for religious liberty in any
society. - James Madison
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Some Background

• Movement recently began in 2003
• Since, constituents have registered from at least
  138 countries
• Founders of the movement inspired two of my
  favorites living thinkers, Daniel Dennett
  Richard Dawkins

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June 2003
Richard Dawkins essay is published inThe
London Guardian
The Future Looks Bright
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July 2003
New York Times publishes Daniel Dennetts essay
The Bright Stuff
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Reason and Purpose 1

• Currently the naturalistic worldview is
  insufficiently expressed within most cultures,
  even politically/socially repressed. To be a
  Bright is to participate in a movement to address
  the situation.

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Reason and Purpose 2

• There is a great diversity of persons who have a
  naturalistic worldview. Some are members of
  existing organizations that foster a
  supernatural-free perspective. Far more
  individuals are not associated with any formal
  group or label.

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Reason and Purpose 3

• Under the broad umbrella of the naturalistic
  worldview, the constituency of Brights can
  undertake social and civic actions designed to
  influence a society otherwise permeated with
  supernaturalism.

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A Civic Umbrella-Term
Uniting a variety of philosophical identities
Etc.
Humanists
Skeptics
Naturalists
Agnostics
Existentialists
Rationalists
Objectivists
Freethinkers
Materialists
Taoists
Logical Positivists

• Utilitarians

Atheists
Igtheists
Secular Humanists
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An ActionOrganization?
humanists
rationalists
atheists
freethinkers
skeptics
naturalists
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The Reality
We need a really broad umbrella!We need more
people with us!
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Current Estimates

• There are an estimated 30 million potential
  brights in the United States.

REAL POTENTIAL FOR CIVIC POWER
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The Civic Scene

• Acceptance
• Participation
• Influence

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Nonbeliever Stereotypes

• No beliefs
• No morals
• No principles

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Civic Attributes
?
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Nonbeliever Attributes
?
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The Nonbelievers

• Negative ramifications
• No holding political office
• No consideration/representation at
• community events
• No social status or visibility
• No civic clout

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Action for Civic Equality
Marginalized
Mainstream
Blacks
Blacks 1960s
Gays
Gays 1970s
Brights 2000s
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Action for Civic Parity
Marginalized
Mainstream
We are labeled Nonbelievers Godless with no
morals
We are seen as moral as others and elected like
others
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Core Idea for Galvanizing

• Develop a positive civic identity that can
  coalesce into a constituency that
• society recognizes
• politicians acknowledge

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Movements Major Goals 1

• Promote the civic understanding and
  acknowledgment of the naturalistic worldview,
  which is free of supernatural and mystical
  elements.

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Movements Major Goals 2

• Gain public recognition that persons who hold
  such a worldview can bring principled actions to
  bear on matters of civic importance.

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Movements Major Goals 3

• Educate society toward accepting the full and
  equitable civic participation of all such
  individuals.

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Toward Identity as Brights
A civic constituency
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New Way to Coalesce
Via the Internet
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The Brights Net
no memberships, no chapters, no postal services
pragmatic connections
An international Internet constituency of
individualswho have a naturalistic worldview
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The Brights Net
A bottom up--not top down--organization
Individual Autonomy
An international Internet constituency of
individualswho have a naturalistic worldview
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The Brights Net
each person decides if s/he is a bright
free of supernaturalism
An international Internet constituency of
individualswho have a naturalistic worldview
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Likely Attractors
Why do people want to be counted in the Brights
constituency?
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Attractors Worldview
No requisite dogma, manifesto, or philosophical
restrictions
Anyone who is free of supernatural beliefs
Naturalistic
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Attractors Organizational
No social structures, potential of lots of
societal power(examples NAACP, NRA)
Everyone who is free of supernatural beliefs
A Constituency
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Attractors
Simplicity of Definition
Internet Constituency that joins all
Non-aggression pact with religion
Clarity of Purpose
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The Role of the Individual

• Openness
• Constituencies vs. Organizations
• Registration

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Openness

• Its a goal of ours to bring more and more people
  out to be open about their naturalistic
  worldviews within THEIR circumstances, whatever
  those may be.

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Constituencies vs. Organizations

• Consequently, the role the individual in a
  constituency differs from that of a typical
  organization.
• Our common action job is to educate for
  understanding about the naturalistic worldview in
  a constructive way, drawing on strengthening the
  civic fabric (and fabric of humanity) as much as
  we can.

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Registration

• Join with us!
• Declare your naturalistic worldview at
• www.The-Brights.net
• With your registration, you add one more voice to
  the growing international constituency of
  Brights.

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Local Bright Spotlights

• New International Community Website
• 1st Brights Conference at MU?
• Stem Cell educational campaign
• Students for a Secular State (SSS) MU Brights,
  MU Philosophy Club, The Karl Marx Reading Group
• Front-page article in local newspaper

CivilBrights.net
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Local Bright Spotlights

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CivilBrights.net

• Provides anyone in the world with the pragmatic
  means needed to start their own BLC. Such as. .
  .
• their own website,
• this presentation,
• flyers, advice,
• no need for capital,
• and OTHER BRIGHTS!
• Each bright BLC can now have their own personal
  homepage that they can do with what they will
  (without the costly fees of MeetUp.com)

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Breaking The Spell

• Religion As A Natural Phenomenon
• Daniel Dennett, 2006

• I am a bright. My essay The Bright Stuff, in
  the New York Times, July 12, 2003, drew attention
  to the efforts of some agnostics, atheists, and
  other adherents of naturalism to coin a new term
  for us nonbelievers, and the large positive
  response to that essay helped persuade me to
  write this book.

HIGHEST RECOMMENDATIONS
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The God Delusion

• Richard Dawkins, 2006

• The-Brights.net is scrupulous in setting out
  the rules for children to sign up The decision
  to be a Bright must be the childs. Any
  youngster who is told he or she must, or should,
  be a Bright can NOT be a Bright. Can you even
  begin to imagine a church or mosque issuing such
  a self-denying ordinance. But shouldnt they be
  compelled to do so? Incidentally, I signed up
  for the Brights, partly because I was genuinely
  curious whether such a word could be memetically
  engineered into the language.

HIGHEST RECOMMENDATIONS
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Bright Regards!
www.CivilBrights.net/US/MO