There’ll be no tent for God at Camp Dawkins. Britain’s most prominent non-believer, Richard Dawkins, is backing the first British atheist summer camp scheme for children. Camp Dawkins, the British version of America's Camp Quest, has been founded as an alternative to Christian camps, and will teach children about evolution.
The Camp Quest program was originally founded by Edwin Kagin, an atheist lawyer from Kentucky. Since the initial launching in 1996, Camp Quest now operates at six different US sites, with a new camp due to open in Florida at Christmas.
Amanda Metskas, who currently supervises 71 children at a Camp Quest project in Clarkesville, Ohio holds classes which include a session called Socrates Cafe, which debates issues such as definitions of knowledge, art, and justice. “We teach them that even people like Sir David Attenborough are religious skeptics,” said Metskas.
Kagin, 68, the son of a church pastor, will be visiting the camp [Camp Dawkins] in Somerset later this year. “Richard Dawkins has made a contribution towards the setting up of the camp in England, but I think now the idea has a momentum of its own,” he [Kagin] said.
[So] when schoolchildren break up for their summer holidays this year, India Jago, age 12, and her brother Peter, 11, will be taking a vacation with a twist. While their friends jet off to Spain or the Greek isles, the siblings will be hunting for imaginary unicorns in Somerset, while learning about moral philosophy. The Jagos from Basingstoke, Hampshire are among 24 children who will be taking part in Britain’s first summer camp for atheists. The five-day retreat is being subsidised by Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist and author of The God Delusion, and is intended to provide an alternative to faith-based summer camps normally run by the Scouts and Christian groups. Crispian Jago, an IT consultant, is hoping the experience will enrich his two children.
"Let’s have atheist jokes around the campfire. I’m very keen on not indoctrinating them with religion or creeds,” he [Dawkins] said. “I would rather equip them with the tools to learn how to think, not what to think.”
While afternoons at the camp will involve familiar activities such as canoeing and swimming, the youngsters’ mornings will be spent debunking supernatural phenomena such as the formation of crop circles and telepathy. Even Uri Geller’s apparent ability to bend spoons with his mind will come under scrutiny. The emphasis on critical thinking is epitomised by a test called the "Invisible Unicorn Challenge". Children will be told by camp leaders that the area around their tents is inhabited by two unicorns. The activities of these creatures, of which there will be no physical evidence, will be regularly discussed by organisers, yet the children will be asked to prove that the unicorns do not exist. Anyone who manages to prove this will win a £10 note, which features an image of Charles Darwin, the father of evolutionary theory, signed by Dawkins, a former professor of the public understanding of science at Oxford University.
“The unicorns are not necessarily a metaphor for God, they are to show kids that you can’t prove a negative,” said Samantha Stein, who is leading in another atheist summer camp, Mill-on-the-Brue Outdoor Activity Centre, close to Bruton, Somerset. “We are not trying to bash religion, but it encourages people to believe in a lot of things for which there is no evidence.” A week-long stay at the Mill-on-the-Brue Activity Centre normally costs more than £500, but parents who have booked their children on the Camp Dawkins [Camp Quest] package are paying £275. Next year, Stein hopes to expand operations by running atheist camps at Easter and during school half-term breaks. Stein, age 23, a postgraduate psychology student from London, was inspired to work at an atheist summer camp in America after reading The God Delusion, the best selling book that sealed Dawkins’ reputation as Britain’s most prominent atheist. Stein is [also] now one of the major players who has helped bring the US concept called Camp Quest to Britain as an alternative to faith-based children’s retreats.
[In contrast], the Scout Association, which has 500,000 members who collectively spend 2 nights camping out each year, is Britain’s biggest organizer of children’s camps. All new Scouts, whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim or from another religious background, are required to pledge to do their “duty” to their god or faith. Atheism, however, is not accounted for in the induction oath.
Christian organizations that run summer camps include the Church Pastoral Aid Society, an evangelical group, which operates 100 schemes attended by about 9,000 children. -by Philip Donnally
The Camp Quest program was originally founded by Edwin Kagin, an atheist lawyer from Kentucky. Since the initial launching in 1996, Camp Quest now operates at six different US sites, with a new camp due to open in Florida at Christmas.
Amanda Metskas, who currently supervises 71 children at a Camp Quest project in Clarkesville, Ohio holds classes which include a session called Socrates Cafe, which debates issues such as definitions of knowledge, art, and justice. “We teach them that even people like Sir David Attenborough are religious skeptics,” said Metskas.
Kagin, 68, the son of a church pastor, will be visiting the camp [Camp Dawkins] in Somerset later this year. “Richard Dawkins has made a contribution towards the setting up of the camp in England, but I think now the idea has a momentum of its own,” he [Kagin] said.
[So] when schoolchildren break up for their summer holidays this year, India Jago, age 12, and her brother Peter, 11, will be taking a vacation with a twist. While their friends jet off to Spain or the Greek isles, the siblings will be hunting for imaginary unicorns in Somerset, while learning about moral philosophy. The Jagos from Basingstoke, Hampshire are among 24 children who will be taking part in Britain’s first summer camp for atheists. The five-day retreat is being subsidised by Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist and author of The God Delusion, and is intended to provide an alternative to faith-based summer camps normally run by the Scouts and Christian groups. Crispian Jago, an IT consultant, is hoping the experience will enrich his two children.
"Let’s have atheist jokes around the campfire. I’m very keen on not indoctrinating them with religion or creeds,” he [Dawkins] said. “I would rather equip them with the tools to learn how to think, not what to think.”
While afternoons at the camp will involve familiar activities such as canoeing and swimming, the youngsters’ mornings will be spent debunking supernatural phenomena such as the formation of crop circles and telepathy. Even Uri Geller’s apparent ability to bend spoons with his mind will come under scrutiny. The emphasis on critical thinking is epitomised by a test called the "Invisible Unicorn Challenge". Children will be told by camp leaders that the area around their tents is inhabited by two unicorns. The activities of these creatures, of which there will be no physical evidence, will be regularly discussed by organisers, yet the children will be asked to prove that the unicorns do not exist. Anyone who manages to prove this will win a £10 note, which features an image of Charles Darwin, the father of evolutionary theory, signed by Dawkins, a former professor of the public understanding of science at Oxford University.
“The unicorns are not necessarily a metaphor for God, they are to show kids that you can’t prove a negative,” said Samantha Stein, who is leading in another atheist summer camp, Mill-on-the-Brue Outdoor Activity Centre, close to Bruton, Somerset. “We are not trying to bash religion, but it encourages people to believe in a lot of things for which there is no evidence.” A week-long stay at the Mill-on-the-Brue Activity Centre normally costs more than £500, but parents who have booked their children on the Camp Dawkins [Camp Quest] package are paying £275. Next year, Stein hopes to expand operations by running atheist camps at Easter and during school half-term breaks. Stein, age 23, a postgraduate psychology student from London, was inspired to work at an atheist summer camp in America after reading The God Delusion, the best selling book that sealed Dawkins’ reputation as Britain’s most prominent atheist. Stein is [also] now one of the major players who has helped bring the US concept called Camp Quest to Britain as an alternative to faith-based children’s retreats.
[In contrast], the Scout Association, which has 500,000 members who collectively spend 2 nights camping out each year, is Britain’s biggest organizer of children’s camps. All new Scouts, whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim or from another religious background, are required to pledge to do their “duty” to their god or faith. Atheism, however, is not accounted for in the induction oath.
Christian organizations that run summer camps include the Church Pastoral Aid Society, an evangelical group, which operates 100 schemes attended by about 9,000 children. -by Philip Donnally
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