Supporting Camp Quest and Crushing PZ Myers — Round Two

Camp quest logo

Well, well, well. So PZ Myers thinks he has us licked, eh?

As I mentioned here a few days ago, we’ve started a blogging contest to see who can raise more money for Camp Quest, the kids’ camp for children of atheists, freethinkers, humanists, and other non-supernaturalists. On Team Awesome, we have me, Hemant Mehta of Friendly Atheist, Jen McCreight of Blag Hag, and JT Eberhard of WWJTD?.

On Team Evil Cephalopod Overlord: PZ Myers at Pharyngula, all by his lonesome self.

And so okay, fine, PZ kicked our ass. For Round One, anyway. In the rules of the initial contest, whichever team raised more money by June 1, or raised $5,000 first, would be the winner. But PZ cheated. He cheated by getting up early in the morning, and gaining the unfair advantage of many hours of valuable fundraising time before the more civilized late risers among us could get started. He cheated by being in the Central time zone and getting the jump on us West Coast folks. And he cheated by using the patently unfair advantage of having more readers than the rest of us combined. His “team” reached $5,000 just as Team Awesome was closing the gap.

But Team Awesome will not admit defeat. We don’t know when we’ve been beaten. We don’t know when we’re winning, either. We don’t have any sort of sensory apparatus known to man.

So we are doing what any amoral atheists with no reason to care about right and wrong would do: We are moving the goalposts. We are changing the rules in the middle of the game. We are — grudgingly — conceding that PZ has won Round One… and have unilaterally decided that the real winner will be whichever team has raised more money for Camp Quest by June 1, 2011. (The race is not always to the swift, my tentacled friend…) And we’re proving ourselves to be clever and devious beyond PZ’s wildest imaginings — and are adding new members to our fundraising team! Already, Adam Lee of Daylight Atheism has thrown his hat into the ring. And still more reinforcements and secret weapons are being worked on, even as we speak. (Any other bloggers who want to join Team Awesome, drop me an email, at greta at gretachristina dot com.)

So help support Camp Quest… and support Team Awesome when you do! Click on the Chipin widget below, and spend the rest of your day basking in the knowledge that you have not only helped support an eminently worthy and fun cause, but that you have struck a blow for the underdogs. Cute, fluffy, tail-wagging underdogs who want to be your friend.

Oh, right. The actual cause we’re raising money for. You probably want to know a little more about that, don’t you?

If you’re not familiar with them, Camp Quest is the first residential summer camp in the history of the United States aimed at the children of Atheists, Freethinkers, Humanists, Brights, or whatever other terms might be applied to those who hold to a naturalistic, not supernatural world view. The purpose of Camp Quest is to provide children of freethinking parents a residential summer camp dedicated to improving the human condition through rational inquiry, critical and creative thinking, scientific method, self-respect, ethics, competency, democracy, free speech, and the separation of religion and government.

The nontheist community offers many programs for adults, but very few for children. To provide a future for our values we need to provide freethinking families with a place for their kids to find community, develop critical thinking skills, and learn ethics and values. Fortunately, that is what Camp Quest is all about. Well, that, and all of the summer camp fun that you can pack into a week.

Camp Quest builds a community for children and teenagers from atheist, agnostic, humanist and other freethinking families. They provide campers a place to explore their developing worldviews, ask questions, and make friends in an environment supportive of critical thinking and skepticism. Camp Quest is open to campers from all backgrounds. They encourage campers to think for themselves, be comfortable with who they are, and engage respectfully with people who have different views.

And yes, Camp Quest is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, and donations are tax deductible.

You can help support this awesome cause, strengthen the future of the atheist community… and help stave off the crushing arms of PZ’s cephalopod army! Just click on the handy Chipin widget. That number again:

{advertisement}
Supporting Camp Quest and Crushing PZ Myers — Round Two
{advertisement}

4 thoughts on “Supporting Camp Quest and Crushing PZ Myers — Round Two

  1. 1

    Good luck, Team Awesome! May you show the Cephalopod Army what’s what! 😀
    Also, I really wish something like Camp Quest existed when I was young enough to go that. That’s really awesome.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *