Silly atheist, camp is for Christians

I was doing some research yesterday while I trying to think of a clever name for this little experiment, and I found an interesting article. It seems Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist, prominent atheist, and author has helped to set up a summer camp designed for atheistic or free thinking children.

This is, by far, one of the most amazing things I've heard of in a good long while. I grew up as a catholic and went to Girl Scout camp as a young girl. Of course, as a young child, I hadn't yet developed to the point of questioning the things my parents and community taught me, and so, I had no problem at the time with going to a christian camp. Indeed, I loved it. We rode horses, did crafts, sang songs. Thinking back on it, it was mostly the songs that showed that the camp had any christian basis. Sure, we prayed before meals, but rituals like that often lose their meaning for an excited young girl at camp. The songs, however, are what I remember containing the most christian influence. The singing started on the bus, on the trip to camp. I don't know what Girl Scout camp is like in other parts of the nation, but where I grew up, it involved a long bus ride into the mountains. The entirety of the trip was spent singing various song, many of a christian nature, i.e., 'He's got the whole world in His hands'.

I'd never really thought about camp as having a religious undertone. Really, I'd never really thought about the religious undertone of a lot of things... I'm sure to expound on that subject quite a bit throughout this experiment. This religious undertone seems innocent enough on it's own, but when it's compiled with the rest of life in a christian majority, it seems like a kind of brainwashing. That is a topic big enough for it's own post however... perhaps tomorrow.

Reading about this new kind of free thinker's camp engenders a certain amount of jealousy in me. I'm very much a big kid at heart. I still play video games, put together legos and puzzles, watch cartoons, etc. The idea of going to summer camp for atheists makes me a little giddy. Of course, 20-somethings aren't allowed at camps, but besides that, it's full.

There is one item in the article that is a bit of an indignity. It is nothing to do with the camp itself, but, inevitably, the christian response to such a camp.

"We would defend the right for anyone to set up an event like this, as long as the young people are happy to attend, but in his imitation of the type of youth events that religious groups have been running for years, Dawkins makes atheism look even more like the thing he is rallying against."

Well, fuck. The christians don't want us atheists to let our children get together in the wilderness and go hiking, and barbecue over campfires, and do arts and crafts. Why? Because they did it first. Perhaps we shouldn't break bread together either, or get together on Sundays? Perhaps the christans should be doing those things either, since there were people doing them long before they came around. I'm fairly sure camping was a secular activity before christians started running summer camps.

I have a different opinion on the nature of these atheistic activities though. I have no children of my own, but I do have several nephews and a niece, a couple of whom are being brought up by my sister and her husband, both of whom are atheists also. I can imagine what might happen in a few years, when my niece wants to know why she can't go to summer camp like her friends who are in the Scouts. Who knows, perhaps my niece might be independent enough to handle being around a group of girls singing songs about what she doesn't believe in without being uncomfortable. But we all know how mean kids can be, hell, how mean people of all ages can be. They're mean enough about things like looks and accents (which my niece will have) and many more inconsequential things. Maybe my sister won't want her daughter ridiculed and teased.

Of course, a counter to this might be that my sister, or any atheist for that matter might not want their children exposed to a christian summer camp for the sheer fact that it is christian. But, when realizing that children are exposed to christianity so blatantly on a daily basis, why would one more week out of the summer matter. Think about it. I'm sure I'll expand on this more later.

Likewise, in note to my comment about brainwashing above: I hardly think that an atheistic summer camp falls under the same category. While christian camps teach that God exists, this new atheist summer camp teaches children to decide for themselves. Perhaps you might think that it is possible to 'brainwash' someone into thinking for themselves, but there is an inherent contradiction in that. Brainwashing involves some sort of indoctrination, re-education them to a certain set of beliefs. Free-thinkers, however, get to decide for themselves what they want to believe.

In the mindset of the majority, it is easy to wonder why other group set up activities and events so similar to their own. If they're not part of your majority, why do they want to imitate it? Perhaps it is so their own children can go to camp just like the christian kids. Perhaps it's not that those activities are things that just the christians like to do, but things that every group of people likes to do, like getting together and breaking bread, or sharing their ideas, or toasting marshmallows on sticks.