The Brights Agenda

There are numerous Christian fundamentalist groups who try to alter the nature of what science is to prove their points about the argument on Creativism. In the interests of doing so, they clearly need to attack the enemy - Atheism. They have done so well in their aim, in certain countries, that atheists have become seriously demonised as morally corrupt, unsympathetic, uncharitable people. Anyone who saw the recent TV series presented by Richard Dawkins on Darwin would have heard him read some of the downright nasty statements made about him by Christians.

This has led the atheist community to produce their own counter-check move, calculated to try to change that perception and throw a more positive light on who atheists are as people. Thus, the term 'Brights' has been coined. The theory behind it is much the same as that of the gay community, who several decades ago, started to use their own positive word to change perceptions.

I applaud this attempt to show the world that atheists are not the negative people they are assumed to be. However, I am not yet entirely convinced about using the word 'Bright'. I fear people will perceive an air of pretentiousness behind the word - as if to say, if I am a Bright, I am more intelligent than any person in the general population. There is a real worry that people may begin to see it as 'A Brights Agenda'. I just don't know yet - the verdict isn't in.

Suffice it so say, I'll be keeping a very close eye on this argument for a while yet!