Follow up to the Brights’ meetup

3 December 2006

After attending the Brights’ meetup that I mentioned the other day, I thought that I’d write a small bit about the impressions that I got from it.

I first heard of the Brights movement a number of years ago. When I heard the term, I must admit that I was sceptical about the use of it; it seemed very elitist and exclusionary. I suppose that I did what they advise against: using the term “bright” as an adjective, rather than as a noun. I guess that isn’t an uncommon attitude — in English the word bright is used almost exclusively as an adjective.

However, I went along with an open mind, not quite sure what sort of thing to expect, or what the people that I might meet (if anyone else went!) were like.

I was the first one there, so I got myself a drink and sat down in the place that was apparently the usual meeting place for the group. After a few minutes, the first other person turned up. It turned out this he was the person who organised the meetup. He’s a very friendly chap, and we got on immediately, chatting quite happily for a few minutes about the Brights and meetups in general, before the next person turned up.

This person turned out to be an older gentleman, softly spoken and very polite. He and the organiser were already known to each other. The organiser introduced me to him, and we had a relatively brief chat before the fourth and last person to attend appeared.

This fellow seemed (from his accent) to be some from somewhere else in Europe, but I couldn’t place it (apologies if you’re not!). Again, he was very polite and softly spoken, and we were again introduced. This latter member to the group was also new to the Edinburgh meetup, but had previously attended the (local to him) meetup in Glasgow which, it turns out it, is attended by far more regulars.

Topics of discussion included Dawkins’ new book The God Delusion, James Randi, the local humanist group, Derren Brown, issues with the local council, Schadenfreude over Ted Haggard and Kent ‘Dr Dino’ Hovind, The God Who Wasn’t There film, atheist and humanist podcasts, faith schools, reading habits, The Lord of the Rings and more.

The topics of conversation flowed easily, although I must admit that it seemed to be dominated by myself and the organiser, with the other two adding their own comments, opinions and stories where they felt comfortable.

While the turnout was less than I imagined it might be, the discussion between the people that did attend was lively and not at all as I imagined, so I will definitely be going along again for the next one. Perhaps I’ll be able to take someone else along with me.

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Tags: brights, discussion, Edinburgh, follow-up, meetup, opinion, personal, UK

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