Irenaeus, Siteadmin, Check users, oversight, Administrators
351,516
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 11:
Line 11: − + − Chris Mooney wrote in his Skeptical Enquirer article the following: − {{cquote|..a recent attack on the Brights movement in The Wall Street Journal by the conservative thinker [[Dinesh D'Souza]] confirms my worst fears (D'Souza 2003). The article blithely ignores a key caveat that the Brights defenders have explicitly laid out-namely, that the label isn't meant to suggest that religious doubters are smarter than everyone else. But I actually think this misrepresentation ought to be blamed more on Dennett, Dawkins, and the original founders than on D'Souza--for reasons I will explain. − − In his original New York Times op-ed announcing the Brights label, Dennett wrote, "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." That's certainly nice in principle. But who did Dennett think he was kidding? How could anyone hear the label Bright and think anything but that atheists were claiming to be smarter than everyone else? As [[ABC News|ABC]] Richard Dawkins News.com commentator John Allen Paulos remarked of the Brights campaign, "I don't think a degree in public relations is needed to expect that many people will construe the term as smug, ridiculous, and arrogant" (Paulos 2003).<ref>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_2_28/ai_114090211/pg_2</ref>}} − − According to Mr. Mooney virtually all the feedback he has received regarding the Brights Movement from skeptics and atheists has been negative.<ref>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_2_28/ai_114090211/pg_3</ref> − Atheist author and columnist [[Christopher Hitchens]] expressed his "annoyance at Professor Dawkins and Daniel Dennett, for their cringe-making proposal that atheists should conceitedly nominate themselves to be called "brights".<ref>http://www.slate.com/id/2165033/entry/2165035/</ref> − Line 37:
Line 29: − According to a 2004 ''Psychology Today'' article the Brights’ Web site launched in 2003 and has subsequently signed on tens of thousands of Brights from more than 84 countries.<ref>http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20040209-000016.html</ref> The Psychology Today article quotes a founder of the Brights Movement Paul Geisert as stating, "It’s too soon to tell if the movement will really catch on. We just have to empirically wait and see what happens.”<ref>http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20040209-000016.html</ref>
→Criticism
See also: [[Atheism and arrogance]] and [[Atheism and intelligence]]
See also: [[Atheism and arrogance]] and [[Atheism and intelligence]]
==Criticism==
== Christian conservative Criticism==
[[Image:GaryDeMar_main.jpg|thumbnail|175px|right|Gary DeMar]]
[[Image:GaryDeMar_main.jpg|thumbnail|175px|right|Gary DeMar]]
{{cquote|The Brights' Net is peppered with suggestions of second-class citizenship and charges of social discrimination against their ilk, reminiscent of the [[Civil Rights]] days. Yet, unlike Dr. [[Martin Luther King]] who successfully invoked God and God's law for moral authority, the Brights are without any standard higher than the whimsy of populism or the tyranny of [[authoritarianism]].<ref>http://www.americanvision.org/articlearchive/08-11-06.asp</ref> Or, y'know, that stupid "all men are created equal" crap. Who buys that?"}}
{{cquote|The Brights' Net is peppered with suggestions of second-class citizenship and charges of social discrimination against their ilk, reminiscent of the [[Civil Rights]] days. Yet, unlike Dr. [[Martin Luther King]] who successfully invoked God and God's law for moral authority, the Brights are without any standard higher than the whimsy of populism or the tyranny of [[authoritarianism]].<ref>http://www.americanvision.org/articlearchive/08-11-06.asp</ref> Or, y'know, that stupid "all men are created equal" crap. Who buys that?"}}
=== Popular Christian YouTube maker mocks the Brights movement ===
=== Popular Christian YouTube maker mocks the Brights movement ===