Dawkins sets up kids’ camp to groom atheists

Not only was Richard Dawkins not running the camp (he only made a small donation to it), it most certainly does not “groom atheists.” It encourages them to think for themselves and does not guide them toward a godless conclusion.

Anyway, today, they finally published a rebuttal letter from Dawkins himself:

Your article Dawkins Sets Up Kids’ Camp to Groom Atheists (News, last week) begins with the 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.” Camp Quest, is not inspired by me or influenced by me. The British version, run by Samantha Stein, follows the American model founded by Edwin and Helen Kagin, of Kentucky.

I gave the following quote to Lois Rogers: “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 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.

Richard Dawkins
Oxford

Many of the other letters appear to have been written by people who took the articles at face value and assume Camp Quest is some sort of atheist-indoctrination camp.

At least Dawkins corrected the record. If the paper issued a public apology, that’d be even better.

Each group receives a plaque and a cash reward.

Here are this year’s winners:

Best Service Project: Students for Freethought at The Ohio State University.

… They took the idea to their own group and immediately started planning a similar, week-long trip to help rebuilding efforts in New Orleans. But they weren’t content to stop there! They organized their trip to line up with the [University of Illinois'] trip in the spring of 2009, and the groups met up in New Orleans!

Inspired by the success of their spring break trip, SFF leaders then organized a second service project: a three-day camping trip to help improve and maintain the Pine Mountain Trail: putting up trail markers, installing bear poles (to keep bears from eating campers’ food!), and generally cleaning and maintaining the trail through the Appalachians.

Best Website: Students for A Nonreligious Ethos (SANE) at Berkeley University.

… The overall design is simple and uncluttered, making it easy to zero in on the information you need and navigate the site at a glance. The blog-style main feed features upcoming events and reviews of recent activities, updated almost once a week. From the front page, it’s easy to find upcoming events, get information about meeting times and locations, and quickly navigate to other areas of the site. Contacting the group is handled by a spam-filtering webform, and there’s an easy link to subscribe to their mailing list. The FAQ handles common questions in a light-hearted, fun manner. The site features pictures of the group’s recent activities and links to other organizations, information about the group and more — all while maintaining organization and ease of use.

Best Media Coverage/Letter to the Editor: Pastafarians at the University of South Carolina.

The Pastafarians @ USC have received a wide range of media attention this year. They began with their school newspaper, which covered president Andrew Cederdahl’s Founder’s Scholarship from American Atheists, covered and praised the group’s Darwin Day debate (Dan Barker v. Kyle Butt), and included several opinion pieces regarding the group, its message and tactics, both supportive and critical.  Their media attention spread beyond campus when local news station WISTV featured the group’s sold-out Darwin Day debate.  Another local channel featured the group while discussing the recent ARIS survey results.  ABC Columbia focused on the group in a series called "Hidden Columbia," and group leader Andrew Cederdahl was interviewed on Freethought Radio.  Last — but certainly not least — the group was featured in a front page story in the New York Times, “More Atheists Shout It From the Rooftops“…

Best New Affiliate: American University Rationalists & Atheists:

The American Univereity Rationalists & Atheists (AURA) kicked off its first year with a call-out meeting with over 30 students in attendance. They’ve taken a field trip to see Bill Maher’s Religulous, hosted a well-attended dialogue with a christian student organization, welcomed speakers Dan Barker and Ellery Schempp, fed students at a Flying Spaghetti Monster Dinner and hosted a free comedy show on their campus. They were featured in their school’s student newspaper when they challenged their university’s commencement invocation. These activities, combined with student-led presentations and discussion meetings, are the components of a great year for AURA!…

Best Overall Affiliate: Secular Alliance of Indiana University:

The Secular Alliance at Indiana University started just over a year ago, but you’d never guess it from their numbers. They started their semester with a visit from atheist author John Loftus. They then organized a group field trip to the Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY, and collaborated to make a video of their trip, which you can see on Vimeo. This semester they met with other freethought groups in Indiana and have spearheaded the Indiana Atheist Bus Campaign, which already has “You can be good without God” ads on buses in several cities across the state. They have garnered 200 members in just one school year, have built an effective and eye-catching website, and have applied for office space for their group in the fall!

It’s not too late to support the SSA; your donations will be matched by the Vital Spark Foundation!

I don’t know how much expertise you have when it comes to Islam and the Middle East, but here goes. I’m in the very beginning stages of what I suspect will develop into a relationship with a guy from Saudi Arabia. He spent some time in the U.S. as a child, seems pretty westernized, isn’t super-religious, and is aware of my stance on religion, my feminism, and my Jewish heritage. I’m not going to lie, though. The whole thing still seems like dangerous ground. Am I being insanely naïve by even considering a relationship with this man? And, given how intertwined culture and religion are, even if he professes to be fairly non-religious, am I in for a nasty shock?

-Feminist Jewish Atheist with an irresistible attraction to Middle Eastern men

Dear Feminist Jewish atheist, etc.,

It’s also dangerous ground for me to characterize all people in a category from the few examples with whom I am familiar, because that would be bigotry. So I’ll have to speak about general precautions and the virtue of being circumspect and slow.

There are many scary stories about the outcomes of some cross-cultural relationships. It may be unfair to assume that those stories are typical, but we should not ignore them either. Most of us have heard the story portrayed in the book and movie, Not Without My Daughter, written by Betty Mahmoody, where the American wife of an “Americanized” Iranian traveled with him to Iran for a family celebration, only to find that she would be required to adhere to the dress and customs of the country, and that neither she nor her daughter would be allowed to leave Iran. After an extremely arduous and dangerous journey of many months, she eventually escaped to the West with her daughter.

Almost the exact same thing happened to a friend of mine, who met a man from Saudi Arabia and married him in the United States. Shortly after giving birth to their son, she accompanied him to Saudi Arabia to meet his family. Once there, her husband, who seemed suddenly changed, told her that neither she nor her young son would be allowed to return to the U.S. She immediately fled with her son to the American Embassy, and after some difficulties, returned to the States. She spent the next several years hiding from her husband, who, being from a wealthy family, might have been able to gain custody of their son, one way or another.

Ok, enough of the scary stories, whether they are typical or not. The point is that all new relationships, even those within a single culture, have the potential for disappointment, danger and even disaster. Most of those hazards would be avoidable if the people involved would go into them slowly, with their eyes open, talking and talking and talking about all the issues that will affect their lives as they become more established and committed to each other. They should know well ahead of time their partner’s attitudes and habits around money, sex, religion, children, in-laws, cultural customs, expected roles within a marriage, where they are going to live, diet issues, drug and alcohol issues, their past relationships, how and why those ended and many other things. And they should watch the behaviors, not just listen to the reassurances. There’s nothing wrong with a discreet background check.

Unfortunately, most new couples, their eyes glazed over in their infatuation for each other, make little or no effort to check such matters out early, and only discover the serious problems after they are deeply stuck in the middle of things. Newlyweds often know far more about the personal details of celebrities than their own partners. Many states require “conciliation counseling” before granting a divorce, seeing if there is any way the marriage can be repaired. It would save a lot of money and heartbreak if those states required PRE-marital counseling before granting the marriage in the first place.

The first thing for you to see is if he is even open to such frank discussion. If not, then I would not predict much satisfaction coming from the relationship. Even if you and he are able to talk exhaustively about all those things, there are still at least two possible snags: One, could he be lying, shining you on, telling you whatever you want to hear because he wants something from you? For instance, is immigration status or citizenship a motive that might be behind his pursuing a relationship? Two, even if all that is worked out and he is genuinely sincere about his motives and expectations, and if perchance you end up marrying him, be extremely cautious about going to his native country with him. Even if he is very “Americanized” while in America, the culture and family expectations when he is back in his native land are very powerful. All that westernization can suddenly evaporate. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When in Arabia…

As Shakespeare wrote in A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
“Love and reason keep little company together.”

Somehow, somehow, try to keep some blood flowing to your brain when most of it is flowing to your loins. Men are most notorious for their foolishness in this way, but women do it too. Somehow, somehow, keep your eyes and ears open even when your heart is full. Women are most notorious for their foolishness in this way, but men do it too.

I hope your life goes well.

Richard

…

You may send your questions for Richard to .

“Bob” finds a wallet on the ground. He looks at the license and finds the address.

“Bob” returns the wallet to its rightful owner. No money is missing.

The owner is stunned… and thankful.

The owner tells his wife. Now, both are thankful. Praise God they say.

A child comes in the room. Both parents point to the man, telling their child there are still kind, decent, honest people in the world.

Praise God they all say.

“Bob” doesn’t praise God. The family doesn’t understand. “Bob” tells them he’s an atheist.

Everything gets weird and silent and awkward.

(via WhyWontGodHealAmputees)

Depending on who is doing the asking, and what their motivation might be, you may end up giving 10 different stories to 10 different people. You’re never lying, but you may focus on different elements of the story for each person.

SarahH mentioned the one common thread that she tells during each “Testimonial”:

… The only thing I always share, for sure, is my “breaking point” that essentially made the different between “theist” and “atheist” for me… which was finding out about all the different world religions that other people believe so fervently and realizing that I didn’t have any more proof for my own religion than I did for the ones I’d never heard of.

If someone asks you why you’re an atheist — a stranger, a close friend, a family member — what parts of your story would you tell everyone?

(via Friendly Atheist Forums)

Editor Katrina vanden Heuvel writes about “Rediscovering Secular America” and the Secular Coalition for America is at the center of the piece:

Within a week the Coalition approached Obama. They let him know they had never been part of that “list” [of belief systems] before — never had had a seat at the table — and they would appreciate it if he would continue to include them whenever appropriate.

…

Obama agreed and remained true to his word. And then came the moment approximately 50 million Americans — who identify themselves with terms like agnostic, atheist, materialist, humanist, nontheist, skeptic, bright, freethinker, agnostic, naturalist, or non-believer — will never forget. In his inauguration speech, Obama said, “…Our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and non-believers.” Two weeks later he talked about “non-believers” and “humanists” at the National Prayer Breakfast.

[Secular Coalition Advisory Board Chair Woody] Kaplan gives a sense of both the historical and personal significance of Obama’s words.

“The shock came at the inaugural speech — arguably the biggest speech a President ever makes — and he listed us there” he says. “And he’s continued to do that — he mentioned us twice at Notre Dame. And then he did it [this month] in Normandy. I can’t tell you what a pariah group feels about those statements. For the first time we have a seat at the table. We’re not thought of, evidently, as automatically unethical.”

…

As the Coalition continues to carry out its mission of increasing the visibility of — and respect for — nontheistic viewpoints, and protecting the secular character of our government, it seems to be moving forward with great confidence. This comes as no surprise, given the fact that there are now more nontheists in America than Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Mormons and Jews combined, and the organization itself has made huge strides.

And because it’s the group I work most closely with, I have to point out my favorite part:

The Coalition described the “full spectrum of nontheists it represents” within its nine member organizations. (Now ten, with the recent addition of American Atheists). Among those organizations are the Society for Humanistic Judaism, Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, and the American Humanist Association. The Obama Administration expressed particular interest in reaching out to the Secular Student Alliance. The Coalition also addressed some of the issues of greatest concern to nontheists, including coercive religious proselytizing in the military, faith-based initiatives, and employment discrimination.

And interested they were! I spoke to Associate Director of Public Engagement Paul Monteiro earlier this week to talk about the students the SSA represents, the type of work our groups do (including community service), and how we can work with the administration (in a non-partisan way) in the future.

What a fantastic, uplifting article for atheists and the “movement” as a whole.

A perfect way to begin Independence Day

The setup: Juliane Koepcke is getting aboard a flight with her mother on Christmas Eve in 1971:

The flight was supposed to last for less than an hour and for the first 25 minutes everything was fine, Koepcke recalled.

“Then we flew into heavy clouds and the plane started shaking. My mother was very nervous. Then to the right we saw a bright flash and the plane went into a nose dive. My mother said, ‘This is it!’”

An accident investigation later found that one of the fuel tanks of the Lockheed Electra had been hit by a bolt of lightning which had torn the right wing off.

“We were headed straight down. Christmas presents were flying around the cabin and I could hear people screaming.”

Koepcke fell two miles into the jungle and managed to survive.

In any other article, that’d be called a miracle and someone would be invoking the name of God…

What did Koepcke say?

Koepcke says she is not a spiritual person and has tried to find logical explanations for why she survived.

“Maybe it was the fact that I was still attached to a whole row of seats,” she says. “It was rotating much like the helicopter and that might have slowed the fall. Also, the place I landed had very thick foliage and that might have lessened the impact.”

Wow. Lucky and rational. I love it.

(Thanks to Shawn and Jeff for the link!)

(Thanks to Reed for the link!)

Specifically, I’d like to discuss whether an atheist and theist couple can make things work. Should they consider dating at all? Or should we try to avoid that at all costs?

If you’ve made a theist/atheist relationship work, how did you do it? What advice do you have for others?

If you only date other atheists, why?

You’re welcome to post your thoughts in the comments or send them to me personally.

Personal stories would be ideal

I’ll respect any requests for anonymity.

Thanks in advance!

The situation in that posting was that young teenage girls were duped into having sex with an older man. He worked his way into their lives and used tarot cards to influence them into letting him do what he wanted with them.

The thread among the comments is that all the blame should be on the old man. The young girls were taken advantage of, and even through they willingly did stuff with the man (as opposed to being forced to do it), they shouldn’t be blamed for not having the experience or judgment to know any better. Fair enough.

Let me suggest a slightly different scenario.

Same story. Man dupes women into having sex with him using Tarot cards. But this time, the victims are all 24-years-old.

The old man is still a monster, no doubt. Again, I’m not letting him off the hook by any means. He deserves to be locked away for a long time.

But in this case, how much culpability can be placed on the women?