Camp Quest UK (CQUK) is a British secular humanist summer camp which aims to promote

critical thinking Critical thinking is the analysis of available facts, evidence, observations, and arguments to form a judgement. The subject is complex; several different definitions exist, which generally include the rational, skeptical, and unbiased analysis ...

in children while providing a residential camping holiday to children in the United Kingdom. The camps are designed to encourage children to 'Question, Understand, Explore, Search and Test' and often use a group of philosophical techniques called

Philosophy for Children Philosophy for Children, sometimes abbreviated to P4C, is a movement that aims to teach reasoning and argumentative skills to children. There are also related methods sometimes called "''Philosophy for Young People''" or "''Philosophy for Kids''". ...

(P4C) to develop

reasoning Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, lang ...

and creative thinking skills.

History

Camp Quest Camp Quest is an organisation providing humanist residential summer camps for children in the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Norway. It was first held in 1996 in Kentucky to provide an alternative to the traditional religiousl ...

began in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

as a non-religious humanist summer camp for children in 1996. It was conceived by a small committee of members of the Free Inquiry Group of Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky (FIG) with Helen and

Edwin Kagin Edwin Frederick Kagin (November 26, 1940 – March 28, 2014) was an attorney at law in Union, Kentucky, and a founder of Camp Quest, the first secular summer camp in the United States for the children of secularists, atheists, agnostics, brights ...

acting as directors for the first ten years. In 2000 Camp Quest expanded with independent camps operating throughout the United States with the same mission statement, eventually becoming Camp Quest Inc. in 2007 with

Fred Edwords Fred Edwords, born July 19, 1948, in San Diego, California, is a longtime agnostic or ignostic humanist leader in Washington DC. He served as director of planned giving for the Humanist Foundation, the endowment fund of the American Humanist ...

as its first president. After reading about Camp Quest in

Richard Dawkins Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford and was Professor for Public Understanding of Science in the University of Oxford from 1995 to 2008. An ath ...

' ''

The God Delusion ''The God Delusion'' is a 2006 book by British evolutionary biologist, ethologist Richard Dawkins, a professorial fellow at New College, Oxford and, at the time of publication, the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science ...

'', Samantha Stein became a volunteer for the organisation at a camp in

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

and was prompted to start a similar camp in the UK. Camp Quest UK was started by Stein and a group of volunteers in 2008, supported by a grant from the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, and hosted its first camp in 2009 in

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

for children aged 8-17. Stein, who has a degree in

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

and a Masters in Religion in Contemporary Society, initially fielded a considerable amount of press interest when the ''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...

'' broadsheet newspaper ran a front page article on Camp Quest UK; the headline read 'Dawkins sets up kids’ camp to groom atheists'. The ''Times'' later went on to include it in their ''Best kids camps in Britain'' and ''10 best kids' adventure holidays''. The name originates from the initials "Question, Understand, Explore, Search and Test", reflecting the ethos of Camp Quest UK. Stein was keen to promote a more reason-based, inclusive camp for children from a mix of religions including children with no religion. At the time she set up Camp Quest UK, Christian Camping International estimated that "more than one million Britons attend faith vacations through their affiliates every year." Camp Quest UK has been supported by several secular organisations including

Humanists UK Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious be ...

, Good Thinking Society,

National Secular Society The National Secular Society (NSS) is a British campaigning organisation that promotes secularism and the separation of church and state. It holds that no one should gain advantage or disadvantage because of their religion or lack of it. It was ...

and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. As of 2018 Camp Quest Inc. operates thirteen affiliated camps in the USA and in addition to Camp Quest UK also operates in Switzerland and Norway.

Camp activities

At Camp Quest UK, participants discuss philosophical ideas, learn about subjects such as

astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies astronomical object, celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and chronology of the Universe, evolution. Objects of interest ...

, and take part in traditional camp activities. The camp aims to promote co-operation, tolerance, and empathy, and teaches children how to think for themselves on matters such as religion and ethics. Children are taught and encouraged to use creative thinking and

skills using a set of philosophical techniques known as

(P4C). Children can explore concepts such as

morality Morality () is the differentiation of intentions, decisions and actions between those that are distinguished as proper (right) and those that are improper (wrong). Morality can be a body of standards or principles derived from a code of cond ...

honesty Honesty or truthfulness is a facet of moral character that connotes positive and virtuous attributes such as integrity, truthfulness, straightforwardness, including straightforwardness of conduct, along with the absence of lying, cheating, theft, ...

and

justice Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that which they deserve, with the interpretation of what then constitutes "deserving" being impacted upon by numerous fields, with many differing viewpoints and perspective ...

. At Camp Quest UK children are also encourage to use scientific method and reasoning to problem solve, and activities can also involve investigating

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

, astronomy and

paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

. In recent years there are two camps running at different times and locations divided by the age of participants, junior camp for children aged 7-11, and senior camp for ages 11-17. A central theme is chosen for each year, past themes have included: ''Evolution'' (2009), ''The Mind'' (2010), ''What is Science'' (2011), ''Humanity and Language'' (2012), ''The Future'' (2013), ''Worlds within our World'' (2014), ''Artificial Intelligence'' (2015), ''Space'' (2017), ''Thought'' (2018) and ''Sustainable Futures'' (2019). In addition to reasoning and science based activities Camp Quest UK also hosts traditional camping and

Outward Bound Outward Bound (OB) is an international network of outdoor education organizations that was founded in the United Kingdom by Lawrence Holt and Kurt Hahn in 1941. Today there are organizations, called schools, in over 35 countries which are att ...

style activities such as campfires, learning to canoe, swimming, trekking and cooking. The 2017 camp also included outdoor sports such as "archery, zip wire, climbing, high ropes, rafting, the Great Wall, air rifle shooting, mountain biking, night line, abseiling and the assault course."

Invisible unicorn challenge

During Camp Quest UK attendees are tasked with the invisible unicorn challenge, aimed at showing that a negative cannot be proven. The task is one of the ways used to encourage children to exercise

and explore ideas about the burden of proof and challenges the children to prove that invisible unicorns do not exist. The children are told that two invisible unicorns exist at Camp Quest UK and that there is a valuable book proving their existence which has been passed from generation to generation but no one is allowed to read. Any child who can prove they do not exist stands to win a £10 note signed by Dawkins. The prize has not yet been claimed.

References

{{reflist

External links

Photo gallery at ''The Guardian''
Summer camps in the United Kingdom Secular humanism Skeptic organisations in the United Kingdom Science education in the United Kingdom

History

Camp activities

Invisible unicorn challenge

See also

References

External links