So I am back to resting my knee, having torn my ACL ligament yesterday while skiing. I feel angry with myself for not being more careful, but it was a run I had skied earlier in the day without any difficulty. The view from the top was amazing, I'll post a picture once I locate my camera card reader. Clear blue skies with blue ice-capped mountains in the distance, the nearby snow crisp and white like the sheets in a laundry detergent ad. I wanted to cry when I realized I had missed the sunset. My friend skied down behind the stretcher and put his sweater around me when I was shivering in the cable car, it would have been very cold and lonely without him.
On Christmas Day, while browsing the internet, I came across the Brights. They are the proselytes of a new religion, that has Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennet for prophets. The aims of this new religion are to organize around disbelief in any mystical or supernatural elements, and advocate instead a 'naturalistic worldview', to gain public recognition for people who hold this worldview, and 'educate society' toward accepting such people. At first I felt worried about this new religion, that preaches intolerance toward other religions and attempts to convert people to its philosophy. But on second thoughts it is perhaps no worse than many traditional religions. I feel sad that while paying lip service to humanitarian values their website contains no volunteer opportunites or suggestions for doing good in society, either toward other brights or anybody else. All you can do as a Bright is help the Brights by promoting their faith. I worry a little that in a few years time it may become as unacceptable in scientific circles to be non-Bright as it is now in the Bay Area to be a Republican. The following statement, quoted from their website, is one I find particularly disturbing: "The ethics and actions of a bright are based on a naturalistic worldview." It is disturbing because I believe that ethics and actions should come from consideration toward others, both innate and socially sanctioned, and feelings of love, kindness and duty. It is not clear to me how a 'naturalistic worldview' accommodates such concerns, or in fact tells you anything about how to act morally.
My own atheism is pure apostasy. I have no interest in replacing God with a 'naturalistic worldview'. Doubt, curiosity, experiential and rational inquiry seem far more important to me than finding something to believe in.
On the one hand, I am fearful of promoting their cause by the mere fact of writing about them. On the other hand, I am playing with the idea of joining them to see whether there is any openness to change from within by promoting a more humanistic agenda. Thoughts, anyone?
si tu es ce que tu es*
8 years ago
Your comments about "religion", "intolerance" and "organization" sound like you may have misunderstood some of the material on the Brights' site.
ReplyDeleteThe Brights movement is not an organization. In fact, it's not much more than a lot of people stating that they have a naturalistic worldview and want to be accepted as full participants in society in spite of their minority viewpoint.
The Brights' agenda is limited to that. It is not an attempt to convert people, promote a particular morality, or support humanitarian efforts.
As a result, your observation that there are few volunteer opportunities is entirely correct. Whatever you want to do as a Bright, you pretty much have to do yourself, organize yourself, or do as a member of some organization, because there is no Brights staff organizing activities for you.
I did find a small way to participate directly in the Brights movement as a volunteer. I print the Brights newsletter and send it by snail mail to prisoners, who have no access to the Internet. This kind of participation, though, is the exception rather than the rule.
Brights have a wide variety of interests; some are activists, others are not. Many, but not all, describe themselves as humanists. There are very few things I do "as a Bright." Most of my activities are as myself, not "as a Bright."
I think the majority of Brights would completely agree with your statement that "Doubt, curiosity, experiential and rational inquiry seem far more important to me than finding something to believe in."
I hope this helps to clarify things a little.
I also hope your knee is better!