diyorgasms:

i-am-the-lighthouse:

caramelbaloney:

littlelightx:

vintagehomo:

The five-day camp, based in Somerset, promises to be ‘beyond belief’ - the event’s motto - and will rival traditional faith-based breaks run by the Scouts and church groups. Richard Dawkins is subsidising the camp which will offer children aged eight to 17 the chance to sing along to John Lennon’s Imagine and have lessons in evolution.

As well as traditional camp pursuits such as trekking and tug-of-war attendees will be given lessons in moral philosophy and evolutionary biology as well as debating otherworldly activities such as crop circles and telepathy.

There will even be a £10 prize for the child who can disprove the existence of the mythical unicorn.

And instead of finishing up the day with a toasted marshmallow and round of Kim-bi-ya budding atheists will belt out ‘Imagine there’s no heaven…and no religion too.’ 

Dawkins said the camp was designed to ‘encourage children to think for themselves sceptically and rationally.’

The event has been held in America for 13 years and was set up in the UK by Samantha Stein, a postgraduate psychology student from London.

The 23-year-old said the 24 places available were now taken and she hoped to expand next year after receiving hundreds more inquiries.

She said the camp, to be held from July 27 to July 31, was not intended to convert children but to introduce them to a different way of thinking.

Camp atheist: Children will debunk crop circles and sing John Lennon

‘It is not about changing what they think, but the way that they think.

‘There is very little that attacks religion, we are not a rival to religious camps.

‘We exist as a secular alternative open to children from parents of all faiths and none.’

The theme of the camp is evolution, to coincide with the Darwin 200th anniversary celebrations this year.

The programme includes canoeing, drama, nature walks, singing and swimming.

There will also be philosophical and scientific discussion for children who will be taught about evolution and that ethical behaviour is not dependent on religious belief and doctrines.

Christian organisations which run summer camps include the Church Pastoral Aid Society, an evangelical group which operates 100 holiday schemes ‘giving young people a chance to meet Jesus Christ’.

I WANT TO GO TO THIS.

I hope any kids I may [n]ever have don’t inherit my social anxiety, so I can send them off to this.

Social anxiety is part of introversion, the personality trait that prefers introspection to outward social or physical activity. Because the majority of people are extroverts, society is set up so that being able to talk and make friends quickly and easily becomes the only viable option.

If your children inherited social anxiety, I would suggest it is an essential part of who they are, rather than a crippling disability.

Also, OMG RICHARD DAWKINS CAMP

I think I’m the only one who finds this depressing. ‘A £10 prize for the child who can disprove the existence of the mythical unicorn’? But… but… I mean, personally I believe childhood should be a time of innocence and enthusiasm. The fact that the innocence and enthusiasm has to end at a certain more ‘worldly’ age just shows what an awful world we live in, but I digress. Kids should play act and make up fairytales rather than competing over money to see who can think most like a ‘rational’ adult. And the ‘imagine there’s no heaven…and no religion too’ chant just seems like a way of injecting beliefs straight into children’s brains, just like religious camps. Kids should imagine and dream and believe, and childhood seems like the only time in life where those beliefs are enjoyed for themselves rather than pompously being forced on other people. ‘Sceptical thinking’ is the scourge of the earth. Adults think sceptically when they say ‘yeah, I know poverty and environmental destruction is bad but we can’t really change it and anyway X Factor is on g2g!!’

So yeah, clever guy, Richard Dawkins. Watch out to see if this doesn’t become just as indoctrinating as the christian camps. I hate arrogant humanity.

This is almost as bad as that awful, awful, fucking I-want-to-go-die-in-a-ditch-please-just-kill-me-right-now-no-really-you-think-I’m-joking ITV Junior Apprentice, with sixteen year olds eagerly learning how best to screw everyone else over and get as much for themselves as possible.

I don’t see the value in intentionally lying to children to make them believe in something that they will eventually realize is false. I don’t exactly recall my reaction when I learned Santa Claus was not real, but I imagine there was confusion as to why I had been lied to for so long — it probably would have been worse if my parents had put up the kind of elaborate ruses that some parents do. What kind of example does it set to say it’s perfectly all right to lie as long as you have a “good” reason? Lying to them about things they want to believe in is just as influential as forcing your beliefs onto them.

I don’t think intentionally nurturing falsehoods is at all necessary for imagination. How many authors and filmmakers have dreamed up fantastic ideas and stories, without actually believing any of them to mirror reality? Similarly, a kid can be just as enthusiastic about creating their own myths and stories and dreams, without being led to think they’re real. Why should belief necessarily go hand in hand with imagination?

More over, there is such an untold multitude of beautiful and amazing things in the natural world that adhering to myths like a unicorn seems largely pointless. If you cannot find a fantastic creature that actually exists, I would say you’re not looking very hard — and there’d be no later disappointment, like finding out a unicorn doesn’t exist. If you cannot find some moment of history, some event, some object, some natural process that a kid would be fascinated by, I don’t think the failure lies with the kid. Being capable of higher rational thought can allow children to access higher levels of understanding for the truly remarkable natural world that does exist, which can lead to an altogether different kind of imagination.  

Besides, a lot of the iconography of childhood has been heavily commodified, marketed and pushed out to be sold to impressionable children. Is the child’s fascination with unicorns quite so innocent and lovely if it originated in some toy or ad image?

I really don’t see what skeptical thinking has to do with “yeah, I know poverty and environmental destruction is bad but we can’t really change it and anyway X Factor is on g2g!” That sounds like someone ignoring important issues in favor of their own temporary pleasures. A skeptic or a non-skeptic could easily utter such a line. To say skeptical thinking is the scourge of the earth makes me wonder if you’d prefer a return to the Dark Ages. It was a lot easier for myth to last into adulthood then.