By LOIS ROGERS - TIMESONLINE
Added: Sat, 27 Jun 2009 23:00:00 UTC

UPDATE: 18 July 2009 cartoon from "The Week"


UPDATE: Response from Richard Dawkins:

The Editor
The Sunday Times
London

Sir

The duplicity of Lois Rogers' title, "Dawkins Sets up Kids' Camp to Groom Atheists" (Sunday Times, June 28th), is exceeded only by its Jesuitical opening line, "Give Richard Dawkins a child for a week's summer camp and he will try to give you an atheist for life." I had nothing to do with the setting up of Camp Quest, and it is not, in any sense whatever, inspired by me, or influenced by me. The British version, run by Samantha Stein with no help from me, follows the admirable American model founded some years ago by Edwin and Helen Kagin, of Kentucky.

Lois Rogers asked me for a quotation, and she thanked me warmly for the following: "Camp Quest encourages children to think for themselves, sceptically and rationally. There is no indoctrination, just encouragement to be open-minded, while having fun." Isn't that about as far from Jesuitical grooming as you could imagine? One of my dominant motivations, passionately expressed in The God Delusion, is an abhorrence of childhood indoctrination, of atheism just as much as of religion. It is in this spirit that the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science has made very modest contributions to Camp Quest. Lois Rogers' traducing of both Camp Quest and me is, alas, par for the course for religiously motivated journalists. Fortunately, I am not the litigious type, but an apology would be nice.

Richard Dawkins
Oxford

Other links:
Times Online & Sunday Times in print:"Dawkins sets up kids' camp to groom atheists"

Times Online: "There'll be no tent for God at Camp Dawkins"

Times Online: "Final Word: Let's have atheist jokes around the campfire"

Guardian: "Richard Dawkins backs atheist camp to give children 'godless alternative' "


Daily Mail Online: "Richard Dawkins launches children's summer camp for atheists"

The only one that doesn't mention Dawkins: BBC Online: "New atheist summer camp launched"

Telegraph: "Richard Dawkins launches summer camp for atheists"

The First Post-The Week Magazine: "Dawkins funds atheist summer camp"

Examiner.com Atlanta - Evangelical Examiner:"Brainwashing kids the Richard Dawkins Way"

Examiner.com Atlanta - Atheism Examiner: "Richard Dawkins Breeding Atheists?"

Repost of Guardian article on E Science News

Robert Bonnett's Blog: "School of Atheism"

Buttle's World blog

The BEattitude blog

Pleiotropy blog

Above Top Secret: discussion of Guardian article

Discussion of Times print article on Republican Newsvine

Discussion on Science Blips

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Thanks to LWS for the link.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6591231.ece

WHEN schoolchildren break up for their summer holidays at the end of next month, India Jago, aged 12, and her brother Peter, 11, will be taking a vacation with a twist.

While their friends jet off to Spain or the Greek islands, the siblings will be hunting for imaginary unicorns in Somerset, while learning about moral philosophy. The Jagos, from Basingstoke, Hampshire, are among 24 children who will be taking part in Britain’s first summer camp for atheists.

The five-day retreat is being subsidised by Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist and author of The God Delusion, and is intended to provide an alternative to faith-based summer camps normally run by the Scouts and Christian groups.

Crispian Jago, an IT consultant, is hoping the experience will enrich his two children.

“I’m very keen on not indoctrinating them with religion or creeds,” he said this weekend. “I would rather equip them with the tools to learn how to think, not what to think.”

While afternoons at the camp will involve familiar activities such as canoeing and swimming, the youngsters’ mornings will be spent debunking supernatural phenomena such as the formation of crop circles and telepathy. Even Uri Geller’s apparent ability to bend spoons with his mind will come under scrutiny.
...
Continue reading
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article6591231.ece

TAGGED: CAMPAIGNS, COMMENTARY, RICHARD DAWKINS

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