Camp Quest - Secular Summer Camp For Children

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An atheist summer camp for children is taking place in Somerset, to offer a secular, "godless" alternative to religious camps.

• http://www.youtube.com/bbcworldnews

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Camp Quest - The Secular Summer Camp

Camp Quest is the first residential summer camp in the history of the United States for the children of Atheists, Freethinkers, Humanists, Brights, or whatever other terms might be applied to those who hold to a naturalistic, not supernatural world view.

The purpose of Camp Quest is to provide children of freethinking parents a residential summer camp dedicated to improving the human condition through rational inquiry, critical and creative thinking, scientific method, self-respect, ethics, competency, democracy, free speech, and the separation of religion and government guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States.

Camp Quest was first held in 1996 and until 2002 was operated by the Free Inquiry Group, Inc. (FIG) of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky. The idea for the project originated with Edwin Kagin and he and his wife Helen served as Camp Directors for the first ten years of the original Camp Quest, retiring at the end of the 2005 camp session.

• http://www.camp-quest.org

Camp Quest UK is the first residential summer camp for the children of atheists, agnostics, humanists, freethinkers and all those who embrace a naturalistic rather than supernatural world view.

2009 will be our first year of camp, and we will be the first Camp Quest to operate outside of North America, where there are currently six successful branches.

We aim to provide summer camping holidays and trips that focus on our childrens needs - physical and mental activity, and a lot of fun! As well as the more traditional outdoor activities - canoeing, climbing, zip wire, high ropes - our enthusiastic and knowledgeable counsellors will lead the children on a variety of activities which could concern anything from critical thinking and logical fallacies, to the scientific method and pseudoscience, philosophy, ethics, famous freethinkers and world religions!

Children at Camp Quest aren't required to be atheists. We want to encourage children to think for themselves and to evaluate the world critically and thus draw their own conclusions. However, parents should be aware that we adopt a critical, scientific approach as opposed to a faith-based approach. At Camp Quest, children arent taught that There is no god. Instead, they are taught to come to their own conclusions, but more importantly, that Its OK not to believe in a god.

We believe that the positive influence of Camp Quest UK will help to develop children into happy, healthy and respectful adults.

• http://www.camp-quest.org.uk
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[mysticresistence]

@br006DL I agree 100%. These kids are NEVER taught that philosophy questions what knowledge really is (epistemology) and that, in the end, science is just ONE way of thinking about the world and that it can ONLY ANSWER flat facts & is powerless to ask questions of morality, beauty etc.

I do think that the people who run this camp would be quite angry if a kid started reading Dostoevsky, with his attacks on reason, just like a kid at Jesus camp would be if he read Dawkins.

[br006DL]

Atheists want to indoctrinate their children to their belief system as well. Oh how lovely! Oh they say that religion can hinder morality! Oh how evil religion is! Oh there is no irony in there is there? There is no manipulation in that is there?

[shagoosty]

@mysticresistence You're not debating philosophy, you sound like someone with word salad.

[mysticresistence]

@shagoosty Seriously "dude", learn to debate philosophy. Replying with an Appeal to Ridicule is a fallacy that means you instantly loose the argument.

[shagoosty]

@mysticresistence Seriously dude, smoke less pot. I seriously have no idea what you're saying. You make like 19 different point per comment and none of them make any sense. Is English a second language for you?

[mysticresistence]

@shagoosty Furthermore, science presupposes metaphysical questions that it can't answer: dose the reality in which the experiments take place exist outside of the mind of the scientist conducting the experiment? Was the universe not created 10 minutes ago with an appearance of age? If an experiment gets results 200 times, how can we be sure the 201th time wont get a different results? All those questions science accepts w/out evidence, but w/FAITH. So science too is built on faith

[mysticresistence]

@shagoosty Calling me "stupid" is another fallacy:the appeal to ridicule.

Again, I ask: if these kids are taught that science is the only way to approach questions, than that in itself is thought control just as bad as any religious indoctrination. Science is helpless when it comes to questions beyond those of the natural world: philosophical, moral, ascetic, and metaphysical questions. Those questions are serious questions which science can't answer.

[shagoosty]

@mysticresistence I'm unable to respond because you don't say anything. And there are about 7 straw man arguments in your argument to begin with. If you think that being so stupid and blabbering on like an idiot makes you the winner; then yes, you've won.

[mysticresistence]

@shagoosty Translation: "you've won the argument, leaving me nothing else to do but to employ the fallacy of The Appeal to Ridicule"

[shagoosty]

@mysticresistence I've never seen someone say so little with so many words. It's actually quite baffling.