The Brights movement is a social movement whose members since 2003 refer to themselves as Brights and have a worldview of philosophical naturalism.
Dirk Verhofstadt is a Belgian social liberal (Rawlsian) theorist and younger brother of former Belgian Prime Minister and former ALDE European Parliament Leader Guy Verhofstadt. He has a keen interest in political philosophy, and his philosophical outlook is influenced by Karl Popper, John Stuart Mill, Cesare Beccaria, Thomas Paine, Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum.
Brother Dr. René P. E. Stockman, F.C. is the Superior General of the Congregation of the Brothers of Charity since 2000. He is a Belgian specialist in psychiatric caregiving.
Massimo Pigliucci is an Italian-American philosopher and biologist who is professor of philosophy at the City College of New York, former co-host of the Rationally Speaking Podcast, and former editor in chief for the online magazine Scientia Salon. He is a critic of pseudoscience and creationism, and an advocate for secularism and science education.
Etienne Vermeersch was a Belgian moral philosopher, skeptic, opinion maker and debater. He is one of the founding fathers of the abortion, euthanasia law, and the Law on Patients' Rights in Belgium. Vermeersch became an atheist after five years with the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). Later he became a philosophical materialist. In January 2008, Vermeersch was chosen by hundred prominent Flemings as the most influential intellectual of Flanders. He died in a hospital in Ghent on 18 January 2019 by euthanasia after a long illness.
The Arkprijs van het Vrije Woord is a symbolic award created in 1951 by Herman Teirlinck and the editorial team of the Nieuw Vlaams Tijdschrift to counteract ideologically driven restrictions on the freedom of expression.
The 10:23 Campaign (stylized as 1023) is an awareness and protest campaign against homoeopathy organised by the Merseyside Skeptics Society, a non-profit organisation, to oppose the sale of homoeopathic products in the United Kingdom. The campaign has staged public "overdoses" of homoeopathic preparations.
Johan Braeckman is a Flemish philosopher. He was professor in philosophy at the University of Ghent and taught at various other institutions e.g. University of Amsterdam. He is editor of the skeptical organisation SKEPP's magazine Wonder en is gheen Wonder. His research, conducted along with a dozen doctoral and postdoctoral researchers, focuses on the philosophical problems associated with the life sciences, in particular the evolutionary theory and neuroscience.
The Unbelievers is a 2013 documentary film that follows Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss as they speak publicly around the globe about the importance of science and reason in the modern world, encouraging others to cast off religious and politically motivated approaches toward what they think to be important current issues. The film includes short statements by influential people and celebrities such as Stephen Hawking, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Sam Harris, Cameron Diaz, Woody Allen, Penn Jillette, Ian McEwan, and David Silverman.
SKEPP is an independent Belgian organization which promotes scientific skepticism. The organization’s name is a backronym for Studiekring voor de Kritische Evaluatie van Pseudowetenschap en het Paranormale.
The Comité Para, in full Comité belge pour l'Analyse Critique des parasciences, is a Francophone Belgian skeptical non-profit organisation. Founded in 1949, the Comité Para regards itself as the originator of the modern skeptical movement. The group's motto is Ne rien nier a priori, ne rien affirmer sans preuve.
The European Council of Skeptical Organisations (ECSO) is an umbrella of organisations defending scientific skepticism in Europe.
European Skeptics Congresses (ESCs) – a series of congresses now supported by the European Council of Skeptical Organisations (ECSO), in which skeptical organisations from many different European countries participate. They have been held ever since 1989. The conferences are often held in the month of September, and may last from two up to four days. The ECSO was formed at the 6th ESC on 25 September 1994 in Ostend, Belgium. Since its foundation, the ECSO co-ordinates in the organisation of new ESCs that take place every other year, and is hosted by a different member organisation each time. Skeptical organisations that are non-ECSO members may also send their delegations. Past ESCs are enumerated below.
Jan Willem Nienhuys is a Dutch mathematician, book translator and skeptic. He taught mathematics at the Eindhoven University of Technology. He is also a board member and secretary of Stichting Skepsis and an editor of its magazine Skepter.
Maarten Boudry is a Dutch-speaking Belgian philosopher and skeptic. He has been a researcher and teaching member of the Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences at Ghent University since 2006. To date, he has published over 30 articles in various philosophy of science journals.
Julia Galef is an American writer, speaker and co-founder of the Center for Applied Rationality. She hosts Rationally Speaking, the official podcast of New York City Skeptics, which she has done since its inception in 2010, sharing the show with co-host and philosopher Massimo Pigliucci and produced by Benny Pollak until 2015.
Marc Depaepe is a professor of pedagogy science at the KU Leuven and was from 2013 until 2017 vice- and campus rector of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
Philippe van Nedervelde is a Belgian virtual reality specialist, public speaker and media communicator with various futurist organizations, and a public advocate of technology and science.
