Return to Camp Quest UK

You may recall that last summer I sent my two children to Camp Quest UK. I also did a number of TV and radio articles to promote the camp; here is a copy of the Times farcicle from 28th June last year featuring my interview.

[click article to embiggen]

And here’s the full version on the Times website, you may have trouble spotting the difference.

Anyway, I’m pleased to say that we have secured a place on one of the two Camp Quests being run again this summer and India and Peter are both really looking forward to attending again.

Oooh just noticed a picture of Indie on the Camp Quest Home Page in a blue helmet. And book up quick if you want to go, places are selling out fast again.

Overwhelming support for Camp Quest UK

Some journalists may not be behind Camp Quest UK but the majority of the public seem to be.

As I write this blog, my children are away at the first ever Camp Quest UK. I’m still somewhat perplexed at the media storm the camp seems to have generated. Today for example we had this update from The Guardian, and this piece from The Daily Mail.

I spoke to Zoe Brenan, the author of the article in today’s Daily Mail, briefly whilst coming home on the train a few weeks ago. In order to try and stir up a bit of controversy or pander to what she perceives as the faithful majority, she's opted for the “Should we be worried what these atheists are up to?” angle.

It’s a fairly lengthy piece that includes a couple of quotes from this blog and the information presented seems pretty accurate, what I found somewhat irksome however was the fact the Zoe seemed to be trying to raise a rabble of Christian apologists against Camp Quest. Believers cages are notoriously easy to rattle and therefore an easy angle to court controversy, but I suspect that Zoe has misjudged the general British opinion.

Looking at the comments left by readers on the online version of the article, numerous people have left messages in support of the rational and scientific approach of Camp Quest. I know a snapshot of a small uncontrolled straw poll is not necessarily and accurate summary of the public perspective, but nonetheless I decided to analyse the comments to gain a quick summary of the overall opinions of the readers.

The comment facility on the Mail Online allows readers to rate all comments with a "thumbs up" agree, or a "thumbs down" disagree. This gives each comment a positive or negative score in support of, or disagreeing with the comment. I sorted all of the comments in a spreadsheet into 2 categories, those offering support and agreement with the Camp Quest philosophy, and those criticising or giving negative comments about the camp. I then added up the total positive and negative votes in each category to give an overall total of the votes cast in favour, or against each type of comment.

The graph below shows the results with a net 2,276 thumbs up in support of the positive comments for Camp Quest and a net result of 426 thumbs down disagreeing with the negative comments about Camp Quest.


I’m rather impressed with that.


In addition to the above articles in today's Guardian and the Mail, I have also spoken on the Radio a bit. Here’s some links

First here’s a link to myself and Samantha Stein talking on the Sunday programme on Radio 4.



And here’s a link to the news item on Radio 4 and Radio 5 live this week.

And here’s an article on the BBC website

And here’s a few previous posts linking to other media appearances:

Crispian Jago: Godless Media Slag
Atheist Summer Camps?
Thanks For Spelling My Name Correctly

Crispian Jago: Godless Media Slag

I’m a little bemused that the fact my children are attending a summer camp that promotes science, critical thinking and philosophy rather than religious indoctrination, should make the news. However seeing has it has, I felt like I should do my bit to continue to raise public awareness, and have therefore been a bit of a media whore. Here’s some TV and radio clips from recent news items:

First of all here's an extract from BBC South Today.

Incidentally, I did a 20-minute interview where I discussed science, critical thinking, logical fallacies, philosophy, the origins of morality and ways of evaluating pseudoscientific and paranormal claims and alternative medicines. However, they chose to just edit me down to a short 20 second clip of me struggling to reel off a load of random religions. And I forgot to mention Muslims. Never mind though, because I thought it was a much more balanced piece than the article in the Sunday Times.



Following the news items, I was asked to do a couple of BBC Radio interviews, so I have uploaded an mp3 recording of these for your listening pleasure.

First radio Interview this morning was with Anne Diamond on BBC Radio Berkshire and also featured Richard Craig from Camp Quest UK. Anne had a clear prejudice in favour of religious based camps so I tried my hardest to not release the mic and get as much in as possible. Anne seemed aghast at the idea of a “Godless” camp, so my advice to anyone who bumps into Anne Diamond would be to shout “I’m Godless” at her as loudly as possible, as its likely to spook the bejezus out of her.




The second interview of the day was BBC Radio Solent, whose presenter, Steve Harris took a much more even-handed approach. I didn’t fully notice until I played it back that he kept referring to me as Christian rather than Crispian, so I never corrected him. Anyway, I liked his phone-in question: “Should parents be allowed to force their religion on to their children?” An alternative view was also presented by their resident “Thought for the day” equivalent speaker, who sounded to be fair and reasonable sort of chap. Although after he explained how his children have not adopted his faith I suspect there was some truth behind his tongue in cheek comment that he wished there was a way to force your beliefs upon your children. I’ve also included a few listeners who rang in. Such topics inevitably induce a number of misinformed Christians whose cages are notoriously easy to rattle to phone in to make their familiar old bleats.



I'm also expecting an article in Saturday's Mail, as the photographer came round yesterday for a photoshoot, I'll add the links when available

Atheist Summer Camps?

Following this article in last weeks Sunday Times about Camp Quest, I was asked by the BBC World Service to talk about my reasons for wanting to send my children to the camp. As the Sunday Times article contained a number of inaccuracies regarding Richard Dawkins' involvement and unfairly portrayed a rather militant atheist camp, the Director of Camp Quest UK and myself where keen to talk to the BBC to try and redress the balance.

The audio file below is an extract from the BBC World Service news on Monday morning and features the Director of Camp Quest UK, Samantha Stein, and myself talking about the upcoming summer camp.



As I am a rather pedantic old fart, I also wrote a letter to the Sunday Times to highlight some of the inaccuracies and emphasise what I hoped my children would gain from the experience. In the unlikely event that it is published I will add a link, otherwise I’ll stick it in a future blog post. In the meantime here are a few more links:

The Guardian
Derren Brown’s Blog
The Independent
My Previous Blog Post

Thanks for spelling my name correctly

So I was at the monthly Skeptics in the Pub meeting in London on Monday evening when I got a phone call from Samantha Stein, the director of Camp Quest UK. She was doing an article with a journalist from the Independent on the upcoming inaugural Camp Quest here in the UK, and asked if the journalist could speak to me to get a perspective from a parent who was sending their children to Camp Quest.

As I fully support the ethos of Camp Quest, I was naturally more than happy to say a few words.

The article appeared on page 13 of Wednesday 29th April’s edition of The Independent and is also available on line here.

All in all I thought it was a fair article that gave a pretty accurate portrayal of the aims and goals of Camp Quest. Not knowing the journalist, I did have a few worries about how the article might have portrayed Camp Quest and my specific reasons for booking my children onto the camp, but my worries were unfounded.

I am of course aware that journalists often take a number of sources and reviews and then distil those down to the story they are interested in, so I was fully prepared to be edited out completely or restricted to a short sentence. Especially as I was only providing a token parental anecdote to give a sample opinion of those signed up to the concept. The quote attributed to me in the article was, I am pleased to say, relevant and accurately reported.

I did think however I want to use this blog to repeat my other reasons for booking my children onto the camp that did not make the final edit.

I did mention that I would be equally happy to send my children on a general summer camp not affiliated to any particular faith purely for the physical activities (which I know my kids are looking forward to). As I suspect a week away from home would help teach valuable responsibility and social skills, as long as I knew there was no hidden religious agenda. If we lived in a world were ancient myths were not afforded such reverence then I would concede that specific non religious camps would not be needed. Sadly we do not yet live in such a world.

I also mentioned the usefulness of learning some basic logical philosophy and critical thinking skills of which I have seen little evidence in their school work. I would hope that the thinking skills taught are applied to a wider set of credulous beliefs to help children evaluate and reach their own decisions on a wide range of topics such as alternative medicines, paranormal claims and conspiracy theories.

The other point I made to the journalist was my belief in the need to teach children how to think, not what to think. From my research on Camp Quest I have confidence that this exactly what they aim to do. I have no more desire to have my children indoctrinated into an Atheist viewpoint than I have to have them indoctrinated into a Jewish, Islamic or Christian viewpoint. I just want them to be able to think for themselves and reach a logical and rational explanation for the world they will inherit from us.