Camp Quest

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Founded in 1996, Camp Quest is the United States and Canada's premier summer camp for non-religious children or the children of non-theistic parents.

This includes atheists , new atheists , antitheists , agnostics , secular humanists , evolutionary humanists , scientifically motivated skeptics , non-theistic rationalists , free thinkers , brights , anti-religious and other followers of naturalistic worldviews. The camp is organized as a god-free alternative to religious holiday camps such as holiday Bible schools .

history

In November 1995, the Council For Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH, now the Council for Secular Humanism) held a meeting to discuss how secular humanism could be promoted. Edwin Kagin , member of the Free Inquiry Group of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky (FIG), lawyer and boy scout, presented the idea of ​​a secular holiday camp with the purpose of countering the exclusion of non-theists from the Boy Scouts of America . Although many participants doubted the feasibility and some were fundamentally against it, Paul Kurtz encouraged Kagin and the FIG to do the camp.

The first camp started in 1996 as a FIG project, with Kagin as the camp leader. For the first two years, camp was held at a facility owned by the Bullitsburg Baptist Assembly in Boone County, Kentucky. In the third year the FIG decided to move to the nearby YMCA camp. The Northern Kentucky Baptist Association tried legally to limit the use of their camps based on religious beliefs. At her request, the then MP from Kentucky introduced a law (House Bill 70) that excluded religious organizations from general anti-discrimination requirements for laws governing public institutions. This law was vetoed by the governor in 2000.

In 2002, Camp Quest moved to its current location. It is another facility owned by the YMCA in Hamilton, Ohio , about forty miles north of Cincinnati . The camp has been converted into Camp Quest Inc., an independent non-profit organization. Edwin Kagin and his wife Helen remained co-directors of the camp until they retired after the summer of 2005. The current camp director August Brunsman IV is also managing director of the Secular Student Alliance . Program Director Fred Edwords serves as Director of Communications for the American Humanist Association .

Events and activities

The camp's events and activities are designed to introduce participants to the history and ideas of freethinking. Participants can learn about science, the scientific method , critical thinking , world religions, and the separation of church and state . Bible stories and metaphors are discussed against the background of cultural education. It is explained to the children that ethical behavior does not depend on religious belief and doctrine, that belief and doctrine are sometimes an obstacle to ethical and moral behavior, that non-religious people are also good, and that they can without limitation to live a happy and meaningful life.

The camps include everything that is common in holiday camps: bonfires, canoeing, craft activities, theater, games, hiking, singing, swimming. In addition, suggestions from mystical campfire stories are incorporated or one tries to expose the theories of creationism on hikes or in the search for fossils. Cooperative as well as competitive sports are used.

Unicorn proof

The approach of the camp is to encourage critical thinking and to give an introduction to logical reasoning errors. For this purpose, the story of two inaudible unicorns is often used, who live in the camp together with an invisible green dragon that breathes fire without heat . The participants are told that there are two unicorns living in the camp who are neither visible nor audible, touchable, smell or taste, who cannot hurt them, who do not eat anything and do not leave any signs of their presence. An old book, handed down over countless generations, proves that the unicorns exist, although nobody is allowed to see the book. Anyone who can prove that the unicorns do not exist will win an ungodly one hundred dollar bill (issued before 1957 when the US Congress ruled that “ In God We Trust ” would be printed on the bills should be). Nobody has won it since this award was announced in 1996.

Purpose and identity

The motto of Camp Quest explains that the camp is “designed to improve the human condition through rational research, critical and creative thinking, the scientific method, self-respect, ethics, competence, democracy, free speech, and the separation of Church and State as guaranteed by the United States Constitution ”. The purpose is to provide a holiday camp free from religious dogma to children who are interested, regardless of their personal beliefs. The camp is committed to expanding tolerance, as well as empathy , self-respect, expressiveness, reason, critical and creative thinking, cooperation and ethics.

The camp logo is based on an idea by Edwin Kagin and a work of art by his daughter Kathryn. The letters 'C' and 'Q' are combined to form a kind of infinity symbol. The letters 'CQ' are usually accompanied by their Morse code . In the radio operator language even this means "someone wants to talk about?" .

List of camps

  • Smoky Mountains, an East Tennessee rationalist project, hosted its first camp in 2002.
  • Michigan, founded in 2003, held its first camp in August 2006 after some setbacks.
  • Minnesota, first event in July 2004.
  • Ontario, first event in August 2004.
  • West, an Atheist Alliance International project, held its first camp near Sacramento, California in July 2006.
  • UK
  • Switzerland, the first camp took place in August 2013 in Mundaun, Canton of Graubünden. Since then, a Camp Quest has taken place every summer. It is organized by the Freethinkers Association of Switzerland in cooperation with the Skeptics Switzerland.

In popular culture

The The Colbert Report on Comedy Central was referring to during the show under the heading "Down with the danger" in a satirical way to Camp Quest as a threat to the security and moral identity of the United States of America:

“I'm talking about Camp Quest, a network of holiday camps that provide fun from a strictly atheistic and agnostic perspective. As their catchphrase is: 'It goes beyond faith!'. Although Camp Quest offers common camp activities such as hiking and horseback riding, the Cincinnati Enquirer also teaches children 'the canons of rational thinking, critical thinking, and scientific research'. And in one of the activities 'participants have to try to prove that invisible unicorns, as a metaphor for God, do not exist'. Participants also face unsustainable philosophical challenges, such as proving that tetherball is fun. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2007/jun/27/image/chi-campatheist_27jun27
  2. ↑ cf. Carl Sagan : The dragon in my garage or the art of science of debunking nonsense. Droemer Knaur, Munich 2000, ISBN 978-3-426-77474-8 .
  3. ↑ http://www.edwinkagin.com/Camp_Quest/CQ_Canon.htm
  4. ↑ http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/72089/july-24-2006/threatdown---camp