• Tue, 13th May 2008 4:26am - Edited by the author

I'm glad to hear that the camp is open to everyone and that kids can benefit from a break from what I imagine must be a very stifling atmosphere for many young people.

I do see the unicorn thing as being useful to children in terms of 'it's hard to disprove faith.' It struck a chord as it always gets me when people argue that someone may as well believe in leprechauns and pixie dust if they have a religion. I now realise that this is not the accusation being made with the exercise, but I'd be worried that it could be misinterpreted by children as "believing in gods is like believing in unicorns" rather than the desired lesson ("proving the absence of god(s) is like proving the absence of unicorns"). Hopefully the distinction is made clear to the students. Out of curiosity, what is the age range of the kids who attend Camp Quest?

I was probably a bit out of line with the whole 'being a dick' thing. I certainly didn't mean to imply that you or the counselors were acting in the wrong (apologies if it came off that way), but rather that it's important that the kids don't pick up lessons which lead them to be intolerant. As for Dawkins, I agree with many of his points on religion but feel he is rather heavy handed and sometimes insulting/patronising with them. Maybe it's what's necessary to counter extremism, but I'd like to think it's not.