GreyGhost

I saw in Newsweek that many summer camps now teach creationism or anti-evolution at their camps for children.

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/195/story_19522_1.html

Yes because stories of talking snakes and a 900 year old man cramming millions of animals onto a big boat makes so much sense. I'm sure these kids are being taught the creationist classics like "no transitional fossils", "Hitler was an evolutionist", and "evolution violates the second law of thermodynamics".

At least there are some camps that are fighting back against the nonsense of creationism. Unitarian Universalist Church in Fresno, CA along with Camp Inquiry and Camp Quest, an atheist camp, are all going to teach evolution while on nature hikes. But I have a feeling that many more children will attend the creationist camps than the pro science camps.

It makes me sad that these kids at the creationists camps are being lied to. It also makes me worried because in twenty years when these kids grow up they will be the next generation of anti-evolutionists that we will have to contend with.

Here is a list of some spiratual camps.
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/194/story_19472_1.html

dettus

For some reason I have the feeling that this sort of thing will backfire for the creationists. I've never been to camp but I do remember going to some nature walk park things as school field trips. I don't remember anything that was taught or said to me (well I do remember some things, but not the 'science') but I remember being interested in being outside and at least pretending I was on some sort of scientific adventure. Just being outside and having someone to show me stuff, regardless of what they actually said, sparked (or rather help instill) the quest for knowledge that I still have today.

Age surely matters though. I am talking about when I was young, like second or third grade...way before high school and learning about evolution.

Flint

These camps aren't doing anything more reprehensible than reinforcing the same message these children have had drilled into them by their parents, their churches and Sunday schools, and their private day-care centers since birth.

The playing field for evolution has never been level - evolution has always had to grant creationism a nearly insurmountable head start, being able to get actual exposure only LONG after religious indoctrination has set up permanently - if then (most public schools simply ignore evolution in the interests of administrative tranquility, regardless of state standards).

What's surprising is the number of escapees from the Asylum of Doctrine, following only the tiny (but nutritious) crumbs of evidence. So we have very very few people farming the fields of science, and feeding a vast population most of whom have learned to eat the food and bite the hand at the same time.