Camp Quest

Camp Quest, founded in 1996, is the first residential summer camp in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Norway specifically for the children of nontheistic or freethinking parents (including atheists, agnostics, secular humanists, skeptics, rationalists, and others who hold a naturalistic worldview).[1][2]

Purpose and identity

Camp Quest's mission statement declares that the camp is "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".[1] The camp intended goal is to offer a space where children who are already nonreligious can feel comfortable and accepted.[3] The UK branch of Camp Quest stated in 2009 that the point of their camp was "not a case of being told what to think about concepts such as God, just how to think" about such concepts.[4]

The camp's logo is based on an idea of Edwin Kagin and the original artwork of his daughter, Kathryn. The letters "C" and "Q" are combined into a sort of infinity symbol. The letters "CQ" are usually accompanied by the Morse Code for those letters, CQ being code shorthand for "Does anybody want to talk?". The name Quest is actually an acronym for Question, Understand, Explore, Search, Test. The camp's slogan is, "Camp Quest. It's beyond belief!"[5]

Programs and activities

The camp's programs introduce campers between the age of 8 and 17 to the history and ideas of freethought.[6] Campers also learn about a variety of science topics, critical thinking, philosophy (including ethics), world religions, and mythology.

Most of the camp's activities include traditional summer camp events: campfires, singing, crafts, games, swimming, canoeing, nature hikes, woods lore, and ropes courses. Other activities are less typical for summer camps, such as drama, rocketry, code breaking, crop circle design and construction, and history outings.

One camp tradition involves making the claim that two invisible unicorns inhabit Camp Quest. Campers are told that these beings cannot be seen, heard, touched, smelled, tasted, and that they cannot do harm, do not eat, and leave no mark. An ancient book handed down for untold generations offers proof that the unicorns exist, though no one is allowed to see this book. Any camper who can prove that the unicorns do not exist will win a godless one-hundred dollar bill (issued before 1957, the year the U.S. Congress mandated that "In God We Trust" be printed on American fiat currency.) Since first offering this challenge in August 1996, the prize remains unclaimed.[7] The camp's stated point of the challenge is that it is designed to help the children learn to think critically and rationally.[8]

History

In November 1995, a meeting was hosted by the Council For Democratic and Secular Humanism (CODESH, now the Council for Secular Humanism), focusing on ways to promote secular humanism. A member of the Free Inquiry Group of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky (FIG), attorney and Eagle Scout Edwin Kagin, presented the idea for a secular summer camp to counter the exclusion of nontheists from the Boy Scouts of America. Though many participants were skeptical of the feasibility, and a few opposed it in principle, Paul Kurtz encouraged Kagin and FIG to create the camp.[9]

The first camp began August 11, 1996, as a project of FIG, with Kagin as camp director. Twenty campers attended the first Camp Quest.[10] For the first two years the camp was held at a facility owned by the Bullitsburg Baptist Assembly in Boone County, Kentucky. Despite minor complaints from both Camp Quest and the Baptist group, the sessions went smoothly.

For the camp's third year, FIG had decided to relocate to a nearby YMCA camp in Ohio, Camp Kern. The Northern Kentucky Baptist Association then sought the legal right to restrict the use of their campgrounds based on religious beliefs. At their request, then-Kentucky Representative Tom Kerr sponsored legislation (House Bill 70) exempting religious organizations from the common anti-discrimination requirements of public accommodation laws. That bill passed over the governor's veto in 2000.[11]

In 2002, Camp Quest moved to its third location, another YMCA-owned facility, Camp Campbell Gard, which is located in Hamilton, Ohio, approximately 40 miles north of Cincinnati. That same year, the organization incorporated under the name Camp Quest, Inc., an independent educational non-profit organization, with Fred Edwords as its first president.

Camp Quest, Inc. now serves as an umbrella group for all Camp Quest affiliates in North America. Edwin Kagin, with his wife Helen, continued as co-directors of the original Camp Quest, now known as Camp Quest Ohio or Camp Quest Classic, at its Ohio location until their retirement after the summer of 2005. August Brunsman IV assumed the position of Camp Director at that time; he is also Executive Director of the Secular Student Alliance. That same year, Amanda Metskas became president of Camp Quest, Inc.[12] In 2007, Camp Quest Ohio moved to 4-H Camp Graham in Clarksville, Ohio, its current location.

The first affiliated group to begin operating a second Camp Quest summer camp session was the Rationalists of East Tennessee, which hosted its first camp session in Tennessee under the name Camp Quest of the Smoky Mountains in 2002. Other Camp Quest affiliates in North America, and dates of their inaugural camp sessions, include: Camp Quest Minnesota in 2004, Camp Quest Ontario in 2005, Camp Quest of Michigan in 2006, Camp Quest West (located in California) in 2006, overseas partner Camp Quest UK in 2009, Camp Quest Texas in 2010, and Camp Quest Chesapeake (located in Virginia), Camp Quest Montana, and Camp Quest South Carolina in 2011, Camp Quest NorthWest (in Washington State) and Camp Quest Oklahoma in 2012, Camp Quest Arizona, Camp Quest Kansas City, and overseas partner Camp Quest Schweiz in 2013, and Camp Quest Colorado and Camp Quest New England in 2014.[13]

Camp Quest has also expanded outside North America. Camp Quest UK launched in the United Kingdom in 2009, set up by Samantha Stein. The 2009 camp received a £495 donation from the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. CQUK also received support from the British Humanist Association and many private donators. The prize for the 'Invisible Unicorn Challenge' was changed to a £10 note (all Bank of England £10 notes bear the image of Charles Darwin), which is autographed by Richard Dawkins.[14] This prize also remains unclaimed. In 2010 Camp Quest Ireland held a two-day day session to kick off their program. Camp Quest Norway launched in 2011.[15]

Branches

In popular culture

Comedy Central's The Colbert Report made a satirical reference to Camp Quest as a threat to America's security and moral identity in the "Threat Down" section of the show:[16]

I'm talking about Camp Quest, a network of summer camps dedicated to sunny day fun from a strict atheist and agnostic perspective. As their catch phrase says, "It's beyond belief!" Though Camp Quest provides regular camp activities like hiking and horseback riding, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer, children also "learn about the canons of rational thought, critical thinking and scientific inquiry." And in one activity, "[Campers] must try to prove that invisible unicorns, as a metaphor for God, don’t exist." The campers are also given other untenable philosophical challenges, like proving tetherball is fun. Well Camp Quest, here's another activity. How about canoeing on a lake of hellfire for all eternity!

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Camp Quest Mission". Camp Quest, Inc. 2011.
  2. ↑ "Camp Quest of Minnesota". Camp Quest of Minnesota. 2011.
  3. ↑ "Frequently Asked Questions about Camp Quest". Camp Quest, Inc. 2012.
  4. ↑ Piggot, Robert (29 July 2009). "Atheist summer camp launched". London: BBC News. Archived from the original on 20 March 2013. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  5. ↑ "History". Camp Quest UK. 2011.
  6. ↑ Epstein, Greg (2010). Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe. HarperCollins. p. 237. ISBN 978-0061670121.
  7. ↑ "The invisible unicorn challenge". Camp Quest UK. April 29, 2009.
  8. ↑ The Great Unicorn Hunt by Steven Morris, The Guardian U.K., 2013-08-29.
  9. ↑ "Happy Campers". Council for Secular Humanism. Secular Humanist Bulletin, Volume 12, Number 2. Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ↑ Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids without Religion (Abridged ebook ed.). AMACOM. 15 February 2011. pp. 242–243. ISBN 9780814474266.
  11. ↑ "Camp Quest Lease of Baptist Summer Camp Spurs Legislative Efforts to Exempt Churches from Public Accommodation Laws". Edwin Kagin. 1998.
  12. ↑ Clark, Michael D. (July 21, 2006). "Camp: "It's Beyond Belief"". Cincinnati Enquirer. Retrieved 2013-04-11.
  13. ↑ "Explore Our Camps". Camp Quest, Inc. 2011.
  14. ↑
  15. ↑ "Camp Quest Overseas". Camp Quest, Inc. 2011.
  16. ↑ "Threat Down 5". Colbert Nation. July 24, 2006.

External links