Bright rights, bright rights!
Posted on 07/24/2003 4:45:25 PM PDT by Libloather
Meanwhile: Brights of the world, stand and be counted
Daniel C. Dennett NYT
Tuesday, July 15, 2003
BLUE HILL, Maine 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, California, who thought our social group could stand an image-buffing and that a fresh name might help.
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, 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.
As an adult white married male with financial security, I am not in the habit of considering myself a member of any minority in need of protection. But now I'm beginning to feel some heat, and , I've come to realize it's time to sound the alarm.
Whether we brights are a minority or, as I am inclined to believe, a silent majority, our deepest convictions are increasingly dismissed, belittled and condemned by those in power - by politicians who go out of their way to invoke God and to stand, self-righteously preening, on what they call "the side of the angels."
A 2002 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life suggests that 27 million Americans are atheist or agnostic or have no religious preference. That figure may well be too low, since many nonbelievers are reluctant to admit that their religious observance is more a civic or social duty than a religious one - more a matter of protective coloration than conviction.
Most brights don't play the "aggressive atheist" role. The price is political impotence. Politicians don't think they even have to pay us lip service, and leaders who wouldn't be caught dead making ethnic slurs don't hesitate to disparage the "godless" among us.
The assault isn't only rhetorical: The Bush administration has advocated changes in government policies to increase the role of religious organizations, a serious subversion of the Constitution. It is time to halt this erosion and to take a stand: The United States is not a religious state, it is a secular state that tolerates all religions and - yes - all manner of nonreligious ethical beliefs as well. I recently took part in a conference in Seattle that brought together leading scientists, artists and authors to talk about their lives to a group of high school students. Toward the end of my allotted 15 minutes, I tried a little experiment. I came out as a bright.
The result was electrifying. Many students came up to me afterwards to thank me for "liberating" them. They'd never heard a respected adult say, in an entirely matter of fact way, that he didn't believe in God. I had broken a taboo and shown how easy it was.
If you're a bright, what can you do? First, we can be a powerful force in American political life if we simply identify ourselves.
I appreciate that while coming out of the closet was easy for an academic like me - or for my colleague Richard Dawkins, who has issued a similar call in England - in some parts of the country admitting you're a bright could lead to social calamity.
But there's no reason all Americans can't support bright rights. Whatever your theology, you can firmly object when you hear family or friends sneer at atheists or agnostics or other godless folk.
And you can ask your political candidates these questions: Would you vote for an otherwise qualified candidate for public office who was a bright? Do you think brights should be allowed to be high school teachers? Or chiefs of police?
With any luck, we'll soon hear some squirming politician trying to get off the hot seat with the feeble comment that "some of my best friends are brights."
The writer, a professor of philosophy at Tufts University, is author, most recently, of "Freedom Evolves."
"Professing themselves wise, they became fools."
Fair enough. I'm somewhere between agnostic and Deist. I don't think the claim that there is definitely no God is supportable.
Bright rights, bright rights!
Or better yet, what God calls them: fools!
The fool* says in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. Psalm 14:1
[* The Hebrew words rendered [ fool ] in Psalms denote one who is morally deficient. ]
Fascinating - explain.
Didn't know there was a right not to be sneered at. Since I'll be one of the sneering, I won't be able to help out. Sorry.
Behold, the madman...
Daniel C. Dennett, Director
Center for Cognitive Studies
University Professor
Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy
Tufts University
Medford, MA 02155-7059
(617) 627-3297/fax: (617) 627-3952
ddennett@tufts.edu
America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
http://video.ire.org/10650.ram (Requires RealPlayer)
A life without the Easter Bunny is a bummer too.
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