wordcrush

Though it reads a bit like an Onion article, this NYT piece (RR) means business when it talks about Camp Quest, the first American summer camp for atheist children: "As the camp's official T-shirt announces, it's a place that's 'beyond belief.'" I'll say. I can't think of a single time where religious bullying was a factor in my childhood, but then America is a strange beast.

In the article, parents recall how "their children are often made to feel like outcasts" and one kid talks about being called a "devil-worshipper" at school: "Many of the two dozen campers who attended this year's session last week recounted experiences of being called names and otherwise harassed. For instance, Travis Leepers, 17, from Louisiana, reported that just about everyone he knows has expressed concern to him about his soul and has tried to convert him." Oh fuck, I don't even know what to say. My brain has been short circuited by the layers and layers of stupidity that would create a need for a positive space to express a negative idea. Isn't Atheism just an absence of belief? I suppose it's forced to become a belief when people take it as some sort of direct challenge.

# posted by Lintropy @ 12:56 PM