Summer Camp For Atheists? Yup.

So wondering what to do with your kids next year? Maybe you want to send them to the atheist summer camp Camp Quest. I have some thoughts below after all this. From their website, Camp Quest is:

…the first residential summer camp in the history of the United States aimed at 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.

Their purpose 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.

Through their programs they seek to:

Build a community for freethinking families
Foster curiosity, questioning, and critical thinking
Encourage reason and compassion as foundations of an ethical, productive and fulfilling life
Raise awareness of positive contributions made by atheists, agnostics, humanists, freethinkers, and other nontheistic people to our society
Promote an open dialogue about metaphysical questions that is marked by challenging each other’s ideas while at the same time treating each other with respect
Demonstrate atheism and humanism as positive, family-friendly worldviews

I watched their training videos for volunteers at the camp. It was interesting to hear them imply that religious people are ‘jerks’. Is that the ‘positive, family-friendly’ worldview they’re talking about? Maybe I heard it wrong, but seems like that’s what I heard in this video.

This is their answer to things like Vacation Bible School. Good for them. I am not afraid of questioning and challenging. But it seems that if you are a person of faith, you are automatically the opposite of all the things they seek to do. That’s simply not true.

Although there are hypocrites on both sides, just because I believe in Jesus doesn’t mean I’m not free-thinking, curious, compassionate, reasoned, open, critical-thinking, or believe in democratic principles. Gimme a break!

Limited thinking like that is like me saying moral relativists can’t have ethics or be moral, logically speaking of course.

Let’s all get over ourselves a little bit.

Go THEISM!

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