07.26.06
Colbert Report
Monday night, Stephen Colbert ran down his Threatdown list on the Colbert Report. #5 on the list? Camp Quest, the atheist summer camp.
He said:
“I’m talking about Camp Quest, a network of summer camps dedicated to sunny day fun from a strict atheist and agnostic perspective. As their catch phrase says, “It’s beyond belief!” Though Camp Quest provides regular camp activities like hiking and horseback riding, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer, children also, “learn about the canons of rational thought, critical thinking and scientific inquiry.” And in one activity, “[Campers] must try to prove that invisible unicorns, as a metaphor for God, don’t exist.” The campers are also given other untenable philosophical challenges like proving tetherball is fun. Well, Camp Quest, here’s another activity: How about canoeing on a lake of hellfire for all eternity [Graphic of campers canoeing on lake of hellfire]. Sleep tight kids!”
Of course, this is Colbert and he’s joking. But it was nice to see Camp Quest mentioned on his show. Several friends of mine have worked as counselors there and a couple now even run the organization. It’s one of the few places atheist parents can send their children to learn what it means to be non-religious.
The Cincinnati Enquirer article that Colbert cited is here.
Video of Monday’s Threatdown is here. (Sit through the 30 seconds of ads.)
Technorati Tags: Stephen Colbert, Colbert Report, Camp, Quest, Cincinnati, Enquirer, atheist, Threatdown
Popularity: 4% [?]
Devika Keral said,
July 27, 2006 at 8:05 am
Hemant, I really enjoy your blog. You mentioned in a previous post that you were updating your site. Have you done so already? Can you Please crop the tangled mess of a power strip out of your picture at the top of your site? It’s really distracting.
Keep up the good work.
Cheers,
Devika
Karen said,
July 27, 2006 at 11:51 am
Colbert has also been hysterical commenting on the Rapture Ready crowd recently. He’s even hawking “Welcome Jesus” T-shirts for ringing in the apocalypse.
Mike C said,
July 27, 2006 at 12:18 pm
Yeah, given his satirical style, a “negative” mention from Colbert is pretty much a compliment. I saw that episdoe too. It was great. I was hoping you had seen it.
HappyNat said,
July 27, 2006 at 3:32 pm
Anyone see the Daily Show last night? The reporters figured out god was a practical joker because he promised the holy land to the Jews, Muslims, and Christians. They called him a “three-timer”, I’ve been looking for the clip and will post it if I find it. Good stuff.
Hemant said,
July 27, 2006 at 5:34 pm
Devika- I never even noticed the power strip until you mentioned it… but the logo was due for a change. Hope the new one’s a little better!
Friendly Atheist » Stephen Colbert and MAAF said,
August 22, 2006 at 9:53 pm
[…] Posted in Friendly Atheist at 9:53 pm by FriendlyAtheist Recently, I talked about Stephen Colbert mentioning Camp Quest (the atheist summer camp) on his show. Well, last night, he mentioned another wonderful organization: the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers. I couldn’t find a video link, so I copied down the transcript… The other day, I logged onto Beliefnet.com. (I always head there after sinning on the other sites). And anyway, Beliefnet reported that groups like the Military Association of Atheists [sic, though his graphic was that of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers] are upset over a little saying you might have heard… [Clip of Katie Couric saying, “Perhaps you’ve heard the expression, ‘there are no atheists in foxholes’.”] [Clip of Bob Schieffer saying, “In wartime, there are no atheists in foxholes.”] Well, I’m upset, too. Why aren’t there atheists in our foxholes? I say we stuff our foxholes with atheists, then we bring back our Christian boys where it’s safe! Yes… We know atheists are brave. They’re not afraid to go to Hell and be tortured by Satan for all eternity… which is what’s going to happen. They’re not going to be afraid of insurgents. I say we ship ‘em out, let ‘em destroy someone else’s society for a change. And hey, we could get churches to share their membership information with the government. That way, if someone doesn’t go to to church for, let’s say, a year, they’ll get to stand outside a mosque. And as for agnostics, we’ll send them to Afghanistan. That’s a war pretty much anybody can, you know, kinda believe in. […]
Friendly Atheist » Summer Camps said,
February 25, 2007 at 1:44 pm
[…] One of the camps they featured was Camp Quest (CQ), the summer camp for children of atheists. (Stephen Colbert poked fun at it last year.) They interviewed my friend August, the director of one of the regional sites. (Strangely enough, his wife Amanda is the president of the national Camp Quest, overseeing all six CQ sites, but she wasn’t mentioned…) […]
Friendly Atheist » One More Reason to Have Children said,
October 10, 2007 at 10:23 pm
[…] Metskas says that the book, by Steph & Dan Allosso, was a hit at the mini-Camp Quest at the Atheist Alliance International […]
adam said,
May 28, 2008 at 1:08 pm
I guess now they have to move their camp because of the media attention. The good christians don’t want to be linked to *GASP* non-believers.