Camp Quest is like a regular summer camp — campers canoe and swim — except that one of the main activities is trying to prove unicorns do not exist in order to win a ?10 note signed by Richard Dawkins. Dawkins praises the summer camp for atheists,which “encourage[s] children to think for themselves, sceptically and rationally.” [%comments]
Camp Fires and Skepticism
TAGS: religion, Richard Dawkins
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@Sheila
No, agnosticism is hte understanding that we cannot be certain about anything. Atheism is the lack of belief in a god. The two are not incompatible.
Further, some agnostics will say “I don’t know, every answer is equally valid”, but that does not apply to all agnostics. I think it would be a very reasonable position for an agnostic to say “We can neither prove nor disprove the existence of a supernatural entity, but without a compelling amount of evidence, I will not accept any supernatural claims.”
Better would be a camp that tried to prove that Richard Dawkins did not exist.
Caca Fuego @ #10: That would be a very short day camp session, as all he would have to do is show up and wave hello. That’s more than God deigns to do.
Richard @ #6: Excellent entry, thank you for setting things forth so clearly.
If the general run of people understood “you can’t prove a negative,” we would not be bogged down in Iraq, as GWB and his cadre kept insisting that no inspection report that failed to turn up WMD would be acceptable to them.
please, please- it is not a matter of believing in scientific thinking or the scientific method- as if a faith based issue at all. And if you think so- you do not understand science. That kind of thinking is for non-scientists and people not in the know. Such skepticism is a form of Protestant thinking minus protestantism (and I am not Protestant). There is a concept or name in my field for this process whereby religious ideas get separated from their religious origins. The result is what is interesting- hearing people speaking in religious tones who will deny their religiosity or people speaking as if their perspective is of science, when it is clearly religious. Example- was discussing Christmas with a friend back when and the friend said to me- everyone in the US celebrates Christmas, it’s a secular holiday. What I should have said then- but didn’t was– there is a difference between appreciating and celebrating.
Puleeeeze…..!
It is easy in many cases to disprove a negative. The logical requirement is an exhaustive search. In mathematics, computers have been used to simply search all possibilities, and if you find NONE, then the negative is proved. If an exhaustive search is impossible, then okay, but It is easy to state there are no canals on Mars and it is easy to state that there are no mountains on Earth taller than Everest, because we have exhaustively searched.
One can also use physics and the other hard sciences to resolve certain issues. It is easy to say there is no Planet-X on the other side of the Sun. It is easy to say there are no elephants 20-meters tall. Etc….
So Richard: After an exhaustive search, we can say that there are no unicorns. Send me the money.
“After an exhaustive search, we can say that there are no unicorns. Send me the money.”
Clearly you have never heard of the Invisible Pink Unicorn.
“Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can’t see them.”
May her glorious hooves never be shod.
I would imagine that by the end of the camp the children would be able to point out to you, Eric M. Jones, that no one has exhaustively searched the entire galaxy for unicorns.
#14 –I believe Dawkins has something to say about that. Also there is medication that will help.
#15 –We are talking about EARTH unicorns. I reserve the right to exclude extraterrestrial creatures. There are higher mountains than Everest too, just not on this planet.
Send me the money Richard.