FreeThought
There is No God, But There is Horseback Riding
I found two really interesting summer camps for little skeptics. One of them is Camp Quest. I had heard of Camp Quest a few years back but I never really looked into it as a parent. There are four camps in the US, one in Canada and a new one in the United Kingdom. This is their mission statement:
Camp Quest is the first residential summer camp in the history of the United States for 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.
The purpose of Camp Quest 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 guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States.
Although, Camp Quest is open to everyone, even those who believe, I think most religious folks would have a hard time with a “Famous Freethinker” lecture after every other meal. Other than the occasional freethinker discussion, it is summer camp. Minus the prayers.
In the process of looking for information on Camp Quest, I stumbled upon Camp Inquiry, run by the Center for Inquiry. There is only one camp, in Holland, New York but this camp is really more of a camp for ‘lil skeptics and less of just a traditional summer camp. This is who they are:
Camp Inquiry is one of many educational initiatives offered by the Center for Inquiry, a research institution devoted to the appreciation of science and reason and their applications to human conduct.
The purpose of the Center for Inquiry is to promote reason, science, and freedom of inquiry in all areas of human endeavor. The Center for Inquiry is a transnational nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that encourages evidence-based inquiry into science, pseudoscience, medicine and health, religion, ethics, secularism, and society. CFI is not affiliated with, nor does it promote, any political party or political ideology.
Camp Inquiry also has special guests every year. This year Nica Lalli, author of Nothing: Something to Beleive In and Lawrence Krauss Foundation Professor and director of the Origins Initiative at Arizona State University. He has also written many books including The Physics of Star Trek.
Both these camps look very good and seems to be a lot of fun. Plus, as my husband has reminded me, there is always Space Camp.
Disclaimer: The views expressed by an individual contributor to this blog are not necessarily shared by all members of FreeThought Fort Wayne. That is what makes this organization so interesting. Commenters on the FreeThought Fort Wayne blog are expected to abide by our comment policy. About the author: I am a full-time mom, part-time book peddler, some-time writer, and an amateur Play-Doh sculptress. Read more from this author
The There is No God, But There is Horseback Riding by Katie, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
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7 comments for “There is No God, But There is Horseback Riding”
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Meh, if you’re into that sort of social thing in the first place. My summer vacations were (mis?)spent getting through Zelda and Starfox and other stuff on my SNES, writing useful little applications in QuickBASIC and Pascal, reading C.S. Lewis (SRSLY), discussing stuff on FidoNet, and sysoping on an (awesome!) local BBS.
Some kids despise the traditional swimmin’-hole and horsin’-around Mayberry fantasy paradigm, atheist or otherwise; they shouldn’t be forced into it if they have something better to do.
Children *should* be forced to do things they don’t want to do (like camp, chores, homework, family events, athletics, summer reading programs, summer tutoring, after school events).
If I don’t force my children to take art classes or go for a hike at Pokagon the will play video games for hours on end. While there is value in video games, after a certain point you get to a point of diminishing returns.
Our job as a parent isn’t to ensure that our children are able to do whatever they want whenever they want. Our job is to prepare our children for life, you know real life. I haven’t fragged Locust or encountered a barrel throwing ape in real life.
There is value in my kids taking out the trash or the recycling, something btw, they despise because it is MORE than doing nothing or they have “something better to do” (i.e., destroying The Covenant).
My kids play soccer, something that they are, to varying degrees, forced to do. There are lessons to be learned in this. If my kid grows up to resent me because I made him attend soccer practice, so be it.
@butter
Do you just let your kids play video games all day?
Do you just let your kids play video games all day?
I see what ur tryin to do there! This is an attempt to get me to say I don’t have kids, at which point you get to say, Aha! Then your opinions don’t count!—ignoring the fact that I never claimed that my opinion on the matter was derived from anything other than my own experience as a kid.
If you’re going to get me to trip up, try harder.
Sure, some days on summer break, a parent can let their kids play video games all day. If they’ve done well in school throughout the year, then why not? It’s fun; they’ve earned it. Unless they don’t want to, and they’d rather go out and play sports, in which case, good for them, and I hope they have a good time.
But forcing kids to continue to play team sports against their will, in such a circumstance that they’ve shown no aptitude nor inclination toward such a pastime, is disgusting. (I haven’t any idea if this is the scenario that applies to you and your kids.) For some kids the rough-and-tumble of superficial interaction with so many peers all at once is overwhelming and intensely unpleasant; compounded with the embarrassment of just not being any good at such arbitrary physical tasks, it can be a nightmare. The same applies to a summer camp.
Beyond that (though that’s bad enough), I think a parent is justified in being warier of team sports than other activities. It’s just a different animal than the other developmental activities and institutions that you want to lump it in with. Even when well-intentioned, sports can (though of course they don’t always) drift into the territory of enforced socialization with arbitrary or superficial values impressed upon the kids, one of the worst of which is undue respect for the sorts of authority figures who enjoy an extracurricular captive audience of young kids. I have witnessed a boys’ basketball team at a public high school be lectured to by a preacher about sexual immorality on school grounds, and I’ve driven by the Youth for Christ complex when all the school-age kids were playing their Upward soccer, no doubt after hearing Jesus lessons. When the evangelicals start proselytizing the chess or academic teams, or even personal fitness classes, let me know.
For the record, yes, I was always picked last for dodgeball.
Thanks Katie for the post. I believe the point was to let others know that these camps exist. If they interest you or your child; you have options.
Yes, to be clear: Thank you, Katie, for the info. For kids who enjoy that sort of thing, I’m glad those options exist.
I’ve looked into volunteering at Camp Quest in Ohio or Michigan.
I got a chuckle out of the staff application for Michigan. It says this:
Anon- Wow, fundies apply to be counselors… anything to save a soul.