New Term For “Bright” Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins

http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=2454 ^ | William M. Briggs

[mattstat]

What is a “bright”? It is not, as is by now well known to contemporary thinkers, the opposite of a “dim”, a “dark”, or a “slavish, easily led idiot.”

No. A “bright” is a “is a person who has a naturalistic worldview [one which] is free of supernatural and mystical elements.” Further, the “ethics and actions of a bright are based on a naturalistic worldview.”

In plain words: an “atheist,” a label brights reject, for the same reason some feminists despise the term “history”—their enemies form part of the words.

When this merry band of illuminators, these light-bringers to the world first formed, many objected to their appellation, finding it insulting, demeaning, and just too damn cocksure. I cannot agree with these complaints.

Words are not static, their definitions shift with time, mood, culture. Any fully educated person should be able to track the subtle shifts in meanings of simple words. So when brights tell us that they are not to be thought of as “smart-asses who rub their self-awarded superiority in our faces”, it is our duty, not theirs, to understand exactly what they do mean.

But if anything, the relabeling efforts of the brights to distinguish their uniqueness does not go far enough. For one, there is no shade of science in “bright”, a connotation I am anxious to restore. I believe I have found a way.

Now, everybody knows what an “ass” is: an obstinate, stubborn but strong, high-endurance animal. Well, how about let’s define a “hole” as an impenetrable abyss, a place of secrets just waiting to be illuminated by a “bright.”

If we were to concatenate these two words together, we’d have a new creature which is generously defined as “a stubborn seeker, a stalwart investigator, an uncoverer of knowledge.”

[Chode]

bright is a lot like cool, if you have to tell people you are, you aren't...

[Pollster1]

"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who didst rise in the morning? how art thou fallen to the earth, that didst wound the nations?" - Isaiah 14

Should we tell them that Lucifer means light-bearer, very similar to "brights". It looks like they've accidentally taken another name with theological significance. Perhaps these atheist activists would prefer a more neutral name, like "dims".

[daletoons]