In a recent blog post, Atheist Climber wrote about an “Atheist Re-Enlightenment”. I thought it was an interesting notion, and he accompanied it by tweeting a link to the Wikipedia page on the Enlightenment.
In the Atheist Climber article there is a discussion of the need for a re-enlightenment – and I certainly agree. What struck me though, was something only touched on there, but that really stood out in the Wiki article on the Enlightenment.
Now first: I’m an uncultured sod, innit? I knew almost nothing about the Enlightenment – and so was very grateful for the link and the prompt to read about it. The thing that struck me was that is wasn’t simply that lots of cool stuff was discovered or done, but that there was a shift towards being inclusive of the public, and widening both the availability of knowledge, and the discussion – of knowledge, of science, of politics, of philosophy …. Coffeehouses sprang up, and became places where the public would meet and discuss these things.
Really I think that’s what we need: inclusion. Getting more and more people discussing all of this. As Atheist Climber noted, the internet can facilitate this; he mentioned atheists and sceptics popping up on his facebook page and so on. I must say that despite having intelligent and thoughtful facebook friends, discussions on serious issues don’t seem to do much more than get ‘liked’. Twitter on the other hand is full of these sorts of discussions. All the time. Everywhere across the world. It’s like a vast network of “virtual coffeehouses” through which I think and hope a Re-Enlightenment really could spread.
So … anyone reading this who isn’t on Twitter: what the hell are you waiting for? 
Turn on, sign up and join in. I’ll make it easy to start: I’ve created a list called Coffeehouse, which comprises those tweeps with whom I tend to have those sorts of conversations. Follow that list, and join in the conversations. You might learn something (I certainly do) and you might impart some knowledge (I hope I do). – And then spread the word further; the more, the enlighteneder. 
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