UK’s first atheist summer camp

The idea of Camp Quest is really to let the children decide what they think. So we’re going to run some activities on philosophy for children.

‘It’s beyond belief!’ is the motto of the organization, which was set up in the United States to counter the influence of faith-based summer camps run by the Scouts and church groups. But the Director of the camp in the UK, Samantha Stein, says its purpose is not to spread atheism – rather to encourage thinking:

SAMANTHA STEIN

The idea of Camp Quest is really to let the children decide what they think. So we’re going to run some activities on philosophy for children. And we’ll run activities on logical fallacies. So it’s really a way of getting the kids interested in thinking, interested in philosophy and questions of religion and all sorts of scientific and critical thinking.

One of the games played at Camp Quest is called the Invisible Unicorn Challenge. Campers are told that unicorns live in the area around their tents, and are then asked to prove that they don’t exist. The aim is to illustrate the difficulty of proving a negative. But any children who manage the feat will win a ten pound note signed by the author of The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins, whose money also helps fund the camp.

Keith Adams, BBC