Enthusiastic Brights (Page 1)
Daniel Dennett
Daniel C. Dennett is the author of Freedom Evolves, Darwin's Dangerous Idea, and Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon. He is University Professor and Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, and Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University. As a philosopher, he is primarily concerned with providing a philosophy of mind which is grounded in and fruitful to empirical research. He is an avid sailor. Read his New York Times article "The Bright Stuff", visit his home page, and/or see his video ("The Appeal of the Brights Movement") now.
Margaret Downey
After more than twenty years as a First Amendment Activist in the United States, she served most recently as the president of the Atheist Alliance International. In that capacity, Margaret garnered more publicity for the coalition of freethought organizations and led its best attended ever conventions in Washington, DC. (theme: "Crystal Clear Atheism"). She has long been a voice for an inclusive society, having founded a watchdog committee that works to protect liberty of conscience (the Anti-Discrimination Support Network, of which she is president), the Thomas Paine Foundation, and the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia. She is also a secular celebrant: Visit her website.
James 'The Amazing' Randi
He is author of The Truth About Uri Geller, The Faith Healers, Flim-Flam!, and An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural. He is the director of the James Randi Foundation, which for years offered a $1,000,000 prize to anyone able to demonstrate paranormal phenomena under scientifically controlled conditions. No payout was ever necessary. Visit his website.
Steven Pinker
After teaching at MIT for two decades, he became the Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard. Pinker's experimental research on cognition and language won the Troland Award from the National Academy of Sciences and two prizes from the American Psychological Association. He has also received several honorary doctorates and numerous awards for graduate and undergraduate teaching, general achievement, and his critically acclaimed books The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, and The Blank Slate. Pinker has also appeared in many television documentaries and writes frequently in the popular press, including in the The New York Times, Time, and Slate. Books
Richard Dawkins
He is an internationally known evolutionary biologist and the recently retired Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University. Dr. Dawkins has written several books, among them The Selfish Gene, Climbing Mount Improbable, Unweaving the Rainbow, The Ancestor's Tale, and, most widely sold internationally, The God Delusion. Read his Guardian article: "The Future Looks Bright", or visit his web page.
The Kagins of Camp Quest
It was in 1996 that Helen Kagin, M.D. and Edwin Kagin, Esq. founded Camp Quest (Kentucky), the first summer camp for children of secular parents. This "Camp Beyond Belief" welcomes and serves children from any family rearing youngsters with a naturalistic outlook--brights of all types, by whatever self-identity labels or affiliations. One message that a Camp Quest imparts to youngsters: "It is okay to be an atheist." The Kagins retired, but their endeavor continues (Ohio) and has spawned other similar camps in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K., all reachable through www.Camp-Quest.com. Helen died in February, 2010. Edwin serves American Atheists as its national legal director and as its Kentucky state director.
Richard Roberts
Knighted in 2008 for his contributions in molecular biology, Dr. Roberts' interests range from the strictly serious (Research Director at New England Biolabs) to the strictly comedic (one of the real Nobel winners awarding the Ig Nobel awards). Educated in England, with doctoral work at the University of Sheffield in Organic Chemistry and postdoctoral research at Harvard, he worked at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory under Dr. J.D. Watson. Subsequent research involved studying restriction enzymes, developing computer methods of protein and nucleic acid sequence analysis, and conducting varied genetic studies. For their independent discoveries in 1977 that genes could be discontinuous, he and Philip Sharp received the 1993 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine.
Mel Lipman
Mel is an attorney who has taught constitutional law at two Las Vegas Universities. He is also a mediator and arbitrator. In addition to letters to the editor, he has contributed many articles to local and national publications. Most recently, Mel served a full term as a very active and progressive president of the American Humanist Association. Mel has previously been president of the Humanist Association of Las Vegas and the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Las Vegas, and an active member of the Las Vegas Interfaith Council. A Humanist celebrant, he has conducted numerous secular cermonies.
Bobbie Kirkhart
Bobbie, when an independent study teacher, dealt with 38 subjects in the adult division of the Los Angeles Unified School District. (She was once upon a time a Sunday school teacher whose first national article appeared in Christianity Today.) She also served as president of the Atheist Alliance International (2002-2006). Now, as AAI's representative to the Secular Coalition for America, she carries forward to that body the AAI's advocacy of "A Positive Voice for Atheism." Bobbie also travels extensively and participates in programs to strengthen both nationally and internationally the organizational network of freethought.
Herb Silverman
This secular humanist, having legally ‘fought his way to the top’ to reach the 'all-powerful position' of a notary public in his state, is known among freethought organizations as a humorous speaker. Herb even ran for governor in South Carolina as the candidate without a prayer. He now is president of the Secular Coalition for America, an organization he was instrumental in founding. Its mission is "to increase the visibility and respectability of nontheistic viewpoints within the larger culture and to protect and strengthen secular government as the best guarantee of freedom for all."