Engaging in Action as Brights
A Bright has a choice with regard to how he or she engages in personal actions at any place and time. Here are some broad ideas for you to consider.
You have a naturalistic worldview, free of supernatural. You support the civic aims on the home page. So, how can you best act as a Bright to advance the egalitarian vision of the Brights initiative?
Focus on Beliefs? (Religion Arena)
There is a broad spectrum of familiar religion-referenced identities. Ideas range from broad systems of belief (the world religions) down to narrow sects. There are numerous two-part contrasts centered on deity-belief (e.g., religious vs. nonreligious; believers vs. nonbelievers; religiously-affiliated vs. "the nones").
In general, when you have a naturalistic worldview you are accustomed to viewing it narrowly in terms of dominant religion and deity-belief. But is this the way to go?
Recall that there is no real congruence between a person's affiliation based on religion (religion/nonreligion) and the nature of one's actual worldview (brights/supers). The Religion frame, with its cultural assumptions and historical baggage of assumptions and prejudices, puts many constraints on anyone who has a naturalistic worldview and is engaging with fellow citizens who draw on supernatural explanations.
It is important that Brights recognize the availability of another framework. Besides the Religion/beliefs frame, there is the Civics frame. As a Bright, there is value in pursuing constructive activities that are grounded strongly in an overall civic vision.
Focus on Society? (Civics Arena)
As an alternative to the more familiar religion/beliefs-based framing, a civics framework enables a different “game” to be played.
The Civics framework places brights and supers in a common frame. It also offers many supportive civic concepts. It is worth your consideration as the primary frame within which to pursue individual and collaborative actions as Brights.
This diagram sketches the two different frameworks for engaging fellow citizens and illustrates the close kinship of the naturalistic worldview to scientific views.
The civics arena offers grounds in which one can stress human commonalities and civic rights. Brights in pluralistic democracies can point out the ideals of fairness and equality of opportunity that should be shared by all citizens, brights as well as supers. Citizens with talents should not be held back by bigotry. Also, there is close kinship to scientific understanding that is advantageous for Brights. Human morality is natural, after all. In this arena, there is opportunity to play on the strong relation of the naturalistic worldview to a factual grounding.
Versatility
Just as a person can be bilingual and use more than one communication language (fitting terminology and grammar to the circumstance), a person can choose which frame is best in any circumstance.
As with actual games (ping pong and soccer and archery, for example), some individuals are adept in multiple endeavors. They can develop skills and attitudes that are supportive of success in different games. They can implement the different rules at the appropriate times. It is important to recognize, however, that actions highly useful to employ in one game (at one time) may not contribute to success in another (or at another time) and, in fact, may be counterproductive. The playing fields, like the terminology and rules, are different.
In most circumstances, the civics frame offers the citizen who holds a naturalistic worldview better opportunity and "ammunition." There is a better chance to build upon the strengths of citizens who hold naturalistic perspectives and a pathway less prone to engendering discord.
