Richard Dawkins breeding atheists?

June 28, 8:41 PMAtheism ExaminerTrina Hoaks

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Is Richard Dawkins really breeding atheists? Of course, he isn't. But some writers have slanted their recent reports about the UK kids' camp to give that impression.

Richard Dawkins is reportedly helping to subsidize a UK version of Camp Quest, designed for children of parents of no faith or any faith. The purpose of the camp is to offer an alternative to religious summer camps where children can learn how to think rather than what to think. It will teach children about evolution and the like. Richard isn't trying to create atheists - his goal, as he makes abundantly clear all the time, is to raise consciousness and give children the tools to be critical thinkers.

One report, titled "Dawkins sets up kids’ camp to groom atheists," leads in with, "Give Richard Dawkins a child for a week’s summer camp and he will try to give you an atheist for life." A bit further in it says "Budding atheists will be given lessons to arm themselves in the ways of rational scepticism."

Now, anyone who knows anything about Richard Dawkins' stance on labeling children according to their parents' religion or lack thereof or political affiliation and the like, knows how insulting and slanted these statements really are. Richard has made it clear in print and video that he abhors the notion of children being identified in such ways.

In The God Delusion, Richard said:

I think we should all wince when we hear a small child labelled as belonging to some particular religion or another. Small children are too young to to decide their views on the origins of the cosmos, of life and of morals. The very sound of the phrase 'Christian child' or 'Muslim child' should grate like fingernails on a blackboard.

He goes on to say:

Our society, including the non-religious sector, has accepted the preposterous idea that it is normal and right to indoctrinate tiny children in the religion of their parents, and to slap religious labels on them.... Please, please raise your consciousness about this, and raise the roof whenever you hear it happening. A child is not a Christian child, not a Muslim child, but a child of Christian parents or a child of Muslim parents.

It would be nice if reporters could deliver the message about the camp without trying to taint the efforts of those involved. It is not about creating or nourishing atheists. It's about freeing the mind to think. And if thinking happens to lead to atheism, so be it. But it is not the goal of Camp Quest organizers, anywhere, to create atheists or teach atheism.

And, by the way, children of atheists are not atheist children. They are children - period. The path they choose as they grow is, and should be, up to them - just as it should be for all children, no matter what their parents' religious beliefs are.