Changes

Notable atheists/skeptics may still embrace the Brights Movement and are listed as "Enthusiastic Brights" at the Brights Movement website.<ref>http://www.the-brights.net/people/enthusiastic/index.html</ref>  Examples of individuals who are listed as "Enthusiastic Brights" are atheists/skeptics such as [[Richard Dawkins]], [[Daniel Dennett]], [[A.C. Grayling]], [[Penn Jillette]], [[Penn and Teller|Raymond Joseph Teller]], Steven Pinker, [[James Randi]], [[Michael Shermer]], [[Hemant Menta]], Margaret Downy, Mel Lipman, Bobbie Kirkhart, Herb Silverman, Matt Cherry and Babu Gogineni.<ref>[http://www.the-brights.net/people/enthusiastic/index.html "Enthusiastic Brights" listed at Brights Movement website]</ref>  

Notable atheists/skeptics may still embrace the Brights Movement and are listed as "Enthusiastic Brights" at the Brights Movement website.<ref>http://www.the-brights.net/people/enthusiastic/index.html</ref>  Examples of individuals who are listed as "Enthusiastic Brights" are atheists/skeptics such as [[Richard Dawkins]], [[Daniel Dennett]], [[A.C. Grayling]], [[Penn Jillette]], [[Penn and Teller|Raymond Joseph Teller]], Steven Pinker, [[James Randi]], [[Michael Shermer]], [[Hemant Menta]], Margaret Downy, Mel Lipman, Bobbie Kirkhart, Herb Silverman, Matt Cherry and Babu Gogineni.<ref>[http://www.the-brights.net/people/enthusiastic/index.html "Enthusiastic Brights" listed at Brights Movement website]</ref>  

Contrary to what the Brights Movement website claims, Michael Shermer is no longer an "enthusiastic Bright", as he stated in 2003: "However, when it became apparent to me that the vast majority of people most likely to fall under the "bright" rubric would not use the label, I became, well, skeptical that it would succeed. For the time being I continue calling myself a skeptic."<ref>http://www.sciscoop.com/story/2003/12/31/73740/169</ref>  Shermer also wrote regarding the Brights movement: "The reaction was swift and merciless—almost no one, including and especially nonbelievers, agnostics, atheists, humanists, and free thinkers, liked the name, insisting that its elitist implications, along with the natural [[antonym]] “dim,” would doom us as a movement."<ref>http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/05-01-05.html</ref>

Contrary to what the Brights Movement website claims, Michael Shermer is no longer an "enthusiastic Bright", as he stated in 2003: "However, when it became apparent to me that the vast majority of people most likely to fall under the "bright" rubric would not use the label, I became, well, skeptical that it would succeed. For the time being I continue calling myself a skeptic."<ref>http://www.sciscoop.com/story/2003/12/31/73740/169</ref>  Shermer also wrote regarding the Brights movement: "The reaction was swift and merciless—almost no one, including and especially nonbelievers, agnostics, atheists, humanists, and free thinkers, liked the name, insisting that its elitist implications, along with the natural [[antonym]] “dim,” would doom us as a movement."<ref>http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/05-01-05.html</ref>

The atheist [[Hemant Menta]] is an author, popular atheist blogger and atheist activist. He also served as a chair on the Secular Student Alliance board of directors. His blog is called ''The Friendly Atheist.''  Given the Brights Movement's reputation for smugness, his endorsement of the Brights Movement and his current listing as an "Enthusiastic Bright" on the Brights Movement website, could be seen as a matter of hypocrisy due to the attributes of "friendly" and "smug" being incompatible opposites.(see: [[Atheist hypocrisy]]).<ref>[http://www.the-brights.net/people/enthusiastic/index2.html "Enthusiastic Brights" at the Brights Movement website]</ref>  

The atheist [[Hemant Menta]] is an author, popular atheist blogger and atheist activist. He also served as a chair on the Secular Student Alliance board of directors. His blog is called ''The Friendly Atheist.''  Given the Brights Movement's reputation for smugness, his endorsement of the Brights Movement and his current listing as an "Enthusiastic Bright" on the Brights Movement website, could be seen as a matter of hypocrisy due to the attributes of "friendly" and "smug" being incompatible opposites.(see: [[Atheist hypocrisy]]).<ref>[http://www.the-brights.net/people/enthusiastic/index2.html "Enthusiastic Brights" at the Brights Movement website]</ref>  

According to a 2004 ''Psychology Today'' article the Brights’ Web site launched in 2003 and 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>

=== Pretentious Brights could not sustain their movement ===

After the Brights Movement failed to attract a subsequent significant following and petered out as a movement, the popular YouTube video maker [[Shockofgod]] mocked the movement and the movement's weak website traffic with a video entitled ''Atheism's future not bright at all''.<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgHt7Wt3KMc Atheism's future not bright at all] by [[Shockofgod]]</ref>  See also: [[Global atheism|Decline of global atheism]] and [[Desecularization]]

After the Brights Movement failed to attract a subsequent significant following and petered out as a movement, the popular YouTube video maker [[Shockofgod]] mocked the movement and the movement's weak website traffic with a video entitled ''Atheism's future not bright at all''.<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgHt7Wt3KMc Atheism's future not bright at all] by [[Shockofgod]]</ref>  See also: [[Global atheism|Decline of global atheism]] and [[Desecularization]]