A long time ago, Bob asked

Maybe. I have to learn more about the brights. Is there a good website?

but I did not notice because I had not subscribed to his comments. Let that be a lesson to all of us who do not subscribe to the comments feed in blogs such as this one.

The answer to Bob’s question is

No.

but there is a bad website. It’s at www.the-brights.net.

The Brights did 3 excellent things.

They came up with a rather pleasing logo

that represents a sunrise in a world where north on a map is not necessarily up.

They came up with a definition

A bright is a person who has a naturalistic worldview without supernatural and mystical elements

and an antonym

A super is a person who has a supernatural worldview

to head off the inevitable observation that the opposite of bright is dim.

But then they kind of wandered off into that well-meaning no-man’s land where all liberal causes seem to go once the t-shirts are printed.

They started an entirely admirable campaign to counter the idea that morality can only come from belief in improbable entities. It was originally announced as a two year campaign in 2004. Perhaps they are working up to a big finale? It should come any day now.

They had a number of handy suggestions for what to respond if someone should inadvertently wish you a Merry Christmas or if a theist should unwittingly respond to your sneeze with an unasked for Bless You! (my favourite responses are Merry Christmas and Thank You! respectively) but then they kind of lost their way.

Many would say that they got off to a bad start with the name The Brights but I kind of like it. The world needs a positive term for a positive set of beliefs. For that, I salute them. I also like their handy-dandy definition, their logo and their antonym.

I am a bright. I believe in a naturalistic worldview without supernatural or mystical elements.