Camp Offers Training Ground For Little Skeptics

[ozone_man]

All Things Considered, August 7, 2008

Camp Inquiry in upstate New York seems at first like an ordinary summer camp: the campfire blazes as camp-goers in shorts and sandals toast marshmallows in anticipation of s'mores. A few yards away, some teenagers take turns squinting into a telescope to see Saturn.

As 12-year-old Chloe Morgan gazes at the stars, she says she does not see the handiwork of God.

"It seems kind of like an accident almost, like the Big Bang that created the universe was an accident," Morgan says. "It was a beautiful mistake or something."

Chloe and a dozen other campers begin discussing God, the planets and humanity's place in the universe. But at Camp Inquiry, which has a secular humanist focus, God takes a back seat to reason. Of course, the camp schedules familiar camp activities like hiking, swimming, and arts and crafts for kids ages 7 to 16; but the thrust of the camp is to teach children to think skeptically about everything, including religion and the supernatural.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93174374&ft=1&f=1001

Has anyone heard of this camp? It looks like a wonderful alternative to the boy scouts and girl scouts.

A very well written article.

[cosmik debris]

1. Small flame war in R/T on this subject.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=214&topic_id=181444&mesg_id=181444

[trotsky]

2. Gee, that idiot again.

Sure seems to have an axe to grind against any atheist who speaks his mind.

[Pale Blue Dot]

4. After the primaries I purged my "ignore" list.

I'm starting to regret that decision now. :D

[moggie]

5. It was obvious flame-bait

Particularly when you look at the poster's past history. And every time, we oblige.

[trotsky]

6. So true...

but it's worth taking the bait when you expose them for the jackass they are.

[moggie]

9. It's not every day you see an evangelical apatheist

"I don't care whether God exists, and I'm going to tell you at great length why you shouldn't care either". I wonder whether they go knocking on doors on a Saturday?

[TZ]

12. That person thinks that his POV is the only correct POV

and anyone who disagrees is obviously an evangelist..either religious or atheistic!
I also loved his sneering attitude towards me that no child would like a science based camp..Sorry dude, I would have loved it! And I did have some camps with science and nature when I was young that was fun...

[onager]

3. The CBC went there and interviewed the kids...

In the documentary The Atheists: Spreading The Word. (I also posted about this in the other thread, but am repeating myself in case you missed it).

The documentary is available on YouTube, or in better quality at the CBC site:

http://www.cbc.ca/national/blog/video/immigrationdiversity/spreading_atheism.html

[ThomCat]

7. I remember the Center for Inquiry from when I lived up in Buffalo.

They're right next to the campus. I managed a department at a research firm they hired. We did a very large, long national survey on religion beliefs for them. I got to go to a few client meetings to meet with them. Nice people.

I can't imagine them running a summer camp. That seemed like a much larger project than I would have expected them to handle, with a much bigger investment. I'm happy to be wrong about this. I hope the camp is doing well and has a good crowd of kids.

[dropkickpa]

8. Wow! Dropkid would love that!

[onager]

10. Argh! I dreamed about that mask! (off-topic)

I hesitated mentioning this because I was afraid it might sound creepy or stalkerish. So to show it really isn't, naturally I will hijack the thread and let everybody know about it.

Here's what happened to me last night:

1. I was reading DU while munching on a large take-out pizza. Yes, Egypt has pizza joints, and a good one is located almost right across the street from my apartment. It's just TOO convenient.

2. A few minutes later I thumped down on the couch to watch a DVD.

3. As usual, the combination of pizza+couch had me snoozing in no time.

4. I dreamed I was in the U.S., at some kind of big public park, where lots of humans were milling around. It couldn't possibly have been an atheist meetup, since it was in America and more than 10 people were attending. :-) It looked like a Fourth Of July party or something similar.

5. I saw two people coming thru the crowd, wearing those skull masks/costumes--a large person and a small person. I'm assuming you and Dropkid.

6. I even yelled "Hey Dropkick!"

7. Then I woke up.

Weird, huh? I'm sure your pic just lodged in some subconscious corner of my alleged brain, since I had just been reading A/A before I hit the couch. And since I've never met you IRL and have no clue what you (or Dropkid) look like.

But if this were only a few short centuries ago, I could have you arrested for witchcraft.

And I'm watching carefully for any newt-like symptoms!

[dropkickpa]

11. Was it scary?

If so, Dropkid would be tickled pink. Her biggest beef that Halloween was that some grown-ups said it was "cute". She'd stomp her foot and yell "AAARRRGH! It's NOT cute! It's scary!".

[onager]

13. Yes, it was scary.

:scared: :scared: :scared:

Only two people in the dream looked like Death eating a cracker, as my grandma used to say. Everybody else was dressed normally, so I wasn't dreaming about a Halloween party.

Tell Dropkid I thought the Grim Reaper was about to carry me away. And brought along her Mom to help.

[dropkickpa]

14. I told her

She was stoked! She doesn't want to be scary this Halloween, she wants to be Wednesday Addams.

[onager]

15. Ha! Good!

BTW, even Miss F'ing Manners agrees with Dropkid, about using the c-word to describe Halloween costumes. That's just NOT DONE. Adults never tell a kid their costume is cute. They should act scared, then give out the goodies.

I always followed that rule myself, even when my neighbors' kid back in the USA was a toddler. And she couldn't have scared anything, except maybe their cat (though that had nothing to do with Halloween).

Sigh. Just another sign that the culture is collapsing, I guess...