Summertime camps boom: The 'Godless alternative' for non-believers.

[Ian David]

Summertime camps boom: The 'Godless alternative' for non-believers
Even atheists are joining the rush to take the American way and pack off the kids for fresh air holidays. Jerome Taylor reports

Atheists have become the latest group to cash in on Britain's booming summer camp industry by creating the country's first-ever retreat for irreligious children. Billed as a "godless alternative" to traditional religious summer camps, the five-day retreat is being hosted by Camp Quest, an American organisation which uses the advertising slogan "Beyond Belief" and has a growing following in the States.

The existence of a humanist summer camp where religion is approached in a critical and rational manner adds to a growing pantheon of US-style holiday getaways in Britain ranging from evangelical Bible schools to fat camps for obese teenagers.

Camp Quest was founded in 1996 as an alternative to the Boy Scouts of America, which insists on members signing a "Declaration of Religious Belief". In response Camp Quest set up an alternative summer camp for the children of "atheists, agnostics, humanists, freethinkers and all those who embrace a naturalistic rather than supernatural world view".

The organisation has steadily grown in popularity and Camp Quest now holds annual gatherings in five American states and in Ontario, Canada.

More:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/summertime-camps-boom-the-godless-alternative-for-nonbelievers-1675815.html