The Conservative Cave
Current Events => General Discussion => Topic started by: MrsSmith on June 29, 2009, 04:29:00 PM
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Britain Opening First Atheist Summer Camp for Children
Monday, June 29, 2009
(http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,529398,00.html)
When schoolchildren break up for their summer holidays at the end of July, India Jago, aged 12, and her brother Peter, 11, will be taking a vacation with a twist.
While their friends jet off to Spain or the Greek islands, the siblings will be hunting for imaginary unicorns in Somerset, southwestern England, 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 subsidized 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.
"I'm very keen on not indoctrinating them with religion or creeds," he said earlier this month. "I would rather equip them with the tools to learn how to think, not what to think."
• Click here to read the rest of this story in the Times of London. (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6591231.ece)
From the Times:
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 Saman-tha Stein, who is leading next month’s camp at the 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.â€
"I'm very keen on not indoctrinating them with religion or creeds," he said earlier this month. "I would rather equip them with the tools to learn how to think, not what to think."
“We are not trying to bash religion, but it encourages people to believe in a lot of things for which there is no evidence.â€
Maybe it's just me, but I rather doubt the camp is doing something other than indoctrinating them with the religion of atheism. ::) ::)
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Lame. He doesn't want to teach his kids what to think as long as they think like he does.