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According to Mr. Mooney virtually all the feedback he has received regarding the Brights Movement from [[Philosphical skepticism|skeptics]] and atheists has been negative.<ref>http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_2_28/ai_114090211/pg_3</ref>
According to Mr. Mooney virtually all the feedback he has received regarding the Brights Movement from [[Philosphical skepticism|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> However, notable skeptics/atheists 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 listed as Brights are notable skeptics/atheists such as [[Richard Dawkins]], [[Daniel Dennett]], [[Margaret Downy]], [[James Randi]], [[Mel Lipman]], [[Bobbie Kirkhart]], [[Herb Silverman]], [[Michael Shermer]], [[Matt Cherry]], and [[Babu Gogineni]].<ref>http://www.the-brights.net/people/enthusiastic/index.html</ref> However, Michael Shermer may not be a "enthusiastic Bright" as he stated in 2003 the following: "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>
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> However, notable skeptics/atheists 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 listed as Brights are notable skeptics/atheists such as [[Richard Dawkins]], [[Daniel Dennett]], [[Margaret Downy]], [[James Randi]], [[Mel Lipman]], [[Bobbie Kirkhart]], [[Herb Silverman]], [[Michael Shermer]], [[Matt Cherry]], and [[Babu Gogineni]].<ref>http://www.the-brights.net/people/enthusiastic/index.html</ref> However, Michael Shermer may not be a "enthusiastic Bright" as he stated in 2003 the following: "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>
The Brights Movement has not been immune from religious [[conservative]]s' criticism. [[Gary Demar]] the President of [[American Vision]] wrote the following:
{{cquote|While the “official” site of “The Brights” espouses “a level civic/civil playing field for all worldviews [that] does not include demeaning the worldview of religious individuals,” Dawkins and Dennett are demeaning and anything but civil when it comes to contrary worldviews. Here are two examples:
Dennett: “ If you insist on teaching your children falsehoods—that the Earth is flat, that ‘Man’ is not a product of evolution by natural selection—then you must expect, at the very least, that those of us who have freedom of speech will feel free to describe your teachings as the spreading of falsehoods, and will attempt to demonstrate this to your children at our earliest opportunity. Our future well-being—the well-being of all of us on the planet—depends on the education of our descendants.”
Dawkins: “ It is absolutely safe to say that if you meet somebody who claims not to believe in [[theory of evolution|evolution]], that person is ignorant, stupid or insane (or wicked, but I'd rather not consider that).”
As one would expect, the co-directors of “The Brights” argued that the views of some Brights do not represent the views of all Brights. But Dawkins and Dennett are not just “some Brights.”<ref>http://www.americanvision.org/articlearchive/08-16-06.asp</ref>}}
Demar sees the Brights Movement as an attempt to soften the image of [[Secular Humanism|secular humanist]] and states the following:
{{cquote|In an effort to repackage themselves, some groups began softening their image. The secular humanists, for example, revised the Humanist Manifesto, replacing its anti-God statements with anti-supernaturalism statements. This was done, interestingly, the same year the Brights movement was founded.<ref>http://www.americanvision.org/articlearchive/08-11-06.asp</ref>
Demar also offers the following criticism of the Brights Movement:
{{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>
==References==
==References==
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