September 2017 Equinox Message
Thank you for reading and considering
this Equinox message.
The Brights’ Network depends on generosity of Brights (there are no “membership” dues). With your financial generosity, you help to sustain and strengthen the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that underlies the Brights’ unique and distinctive endeavor.
Recall that having a greater portion of the citizenry voicing the value of “nonbelief” is but one way to strengthen the movement. Having more citizens who are vocally cherishing a naturalistic outlook is another. It’s a matter of emphasis.
The Brights' Net takes the second approach. Most activities pursued under the Brights' umbrella offer affirmative facets of a naturalistic outlook and take positive actions to advance it.
How far we get in the next six months or year is up to individual Brights such as yourself.
Would you please play a part in these efforts?
Recent Progress in Featured Projects
The home page features two educational efforts undertaken with the support of individuals who donate to The Brights' Net.
From links on the home page, these two featured projects are thoroughly described to site visitors. Both projects share in common the goal of bolstering a naturalistic understanding.
In the past six months, Brights Central has placed special emphasis on the poster project. In the coming six months, we will revert to working on the morality portal project.
Earth and Life: changes over time
This Brights' project is to ensure that students deeply comprehend evolutionary development of both the Earth itself and life upon it, and it relies on the selecting of qualified science teachers working with students at an optimal academic level in high schools.
Status: Brights continue to put a uniquely superb classroom resource into the hands of high school science teachers who commit to integrate it into their teaching. Current dissemination continues now from the fifth poster printing, with an additional 55,500 students benefiting so far. The total number of students having gained from involvement now has clearly exceeded a quarter million (253,680), a count based on survey of teachers who had received the poster, used it, and definitely planned to use it again the subsequent year (additional years of exposure and usage are not being counted in this estimate). The poster has been augmented with carefully screened supplemental informational materials to match the eons/eras, and teachers are being provided with that new site information.
Reason to Support This Project: Brights Central follows up with each teacher who receives a poster to learn of its use and value. Teachers typically immediately see how this expansive (5.5’ wide) but detailed one-off image will better ensures that students can genuinely comprehend the natural story of life on earth. While many utilize it only during a planned unit on evolution, many make more extensive use.
The following rather lengthy comment comes from just such a teacher (Washington state, USA). We provide it here so you get an taste of the gratitude to the Brights that many teachers display as well as the extent to which the poster image facilitates productive learning in the classroom. Just look below the comments, and see some student work examples that illustrate what her students will be able to do because they "get it" !
I love my poster!!... I put it directly under my projection board so students can easily use it as a visual resource in my Earth Science class. It's literally front and center in my classroom. I refer to it frequently to show that Earth isn't a static, predictable world, but rather a planet defined by change.
Last year, the Earth Sci students really enjoyed using it during their Geologic Period Time Travel Project to see easily what was happening before and after their time period. They developed time travel itineraries based on important events, organisms and geologic formations they would want to go back and observe. Having the reminder right there that evolution is a core concept tied into both life science and physical science is very powerful.
I'm very grateful that sound, secular science education has a champion in The Brights - as an independent school science teacher for 12 years now, I've often had to fight to teach critical thinking and evidence-based (read: REAL) science. I am thankful that my current school is fully supportive of my "real science" curriculum!
Students deserve to appreciate the world and all the wonders around them through a lens of discovery and reason, not through a fog of ancient ignorance and pseudo-science nonsense.
Thank you for providing this resource - I'm proud it's the centerpiece of my classroom! (Eryn)
Other Activities by Brights
Brights as Individuals. Supernatural-free individuals can, if they choose, slip out of the limitations of the culturally imposed "nonbeliever" stance. (“Nonbelief” is the usual position taken to advance secular interests.) It is possible to make change within one’s sphere of involvement by way of the positive attributes of “viewing the world as it is, free of supernaturalism.”
Organizationally, as “The Brights”. As a constituency of individuals, the overall approach differs from that of the varied “free thought membership organizations” that work so valiantly to preserve citizens’ rights to their deity-free outlook. The Brights’ Net tends to depart the realm of religion entirely in order to focus on advancing understanding of, and civility to, a naturalistic outlook. It also assumes an upbeat educational pattern.
Examples:
- "Reality about Human Morality" -- the Brights’ project to further public understanding of the natural basis of human morality in numerous countries across the globe
- “A Little Brightness” -- the ALB newsletter that goes out to incarcerated subscribers in 59 American prisons (in prisons, religion reigns supreme; holding onto a naturalistic worldview is far from easy, so this postal mailing of “Brightness” lives up to its name)
- “Brights Central” -- the central communications hub, which is continually enhancing the website and providing other services (monthly bulletins, “BrightenOps” and a modicum of swag), in order to support volunteer initiatives that are informing others or are raising the profile of a supernatural-free understanding of the world.
- "International Forums" -- available for inter-Bright communications on topics of interest
There are multiple routes by which you can support The Brights’ Network financially. We hope you will choose to pursue one of them. Thank you!
Please visit our Donation Page now!
http://www.the-brights.net/funding/donation_page.html
