British? 8-17 years old? Able to disprove invisible (possibly pink) unicorns?

[Heradel]

Ahem:

Dawkins funds atheist summer camp
Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist and author of The God Delusion, has helped launch an atheist summer camp for children. Alongside the more traditional activities of tug-of-war, swimming and canoeing, children at the five-day camp in Somerset will learn about rational scepticism, moral philosophy, ethics and evolution.

Camp-goers aged eight to 17 will also be taught how to disprove phenomena such as crop circles and telepathy. In the Invisible Unicorn Challenge, any child who can prove that unicorns do not exist will win a £10 note - which features an image of Charles Darwin, the father of evolutionary theory - signed by Dawkins, Britain's most prominent atheist.

[wakela]

This kind of confuses me.  I've often said that children need to be taught critical thinking, and here is an example of that happening.  But something about it seems like propaganda and endoctrination.  But can it be propaganda if they are teaching critical thinking? 

Teaching evolution seems like it's in there because it's a hot button issue.  Evolution is a branch of science like star formation or particle physics, but fundamentalist Christians don't fight over those, so they're not begin taught.  I know, I know.  The critical thinking kids are likely to have an argument about evolution with a fundie, so the camp is preparing them.  It's one of the fronts the battle is being fought on.  Still, seems a little politically motivated somehow. 

It annoys the athiests that Christians send their kids to Christian summer camps, so someone decided they should make their own atheist summer camp.  That's fine, but there are plenty of camps are are just camps and have no religious aspect at all.

And you can't prove a negative.  Unicorns might live inside black holes.  No one gets the 10 pounds.

[Russell Nash]

I went to several different summer camps and none of them were "christian" camps.  None of them had any stated religious belief.  Every single one of them had at least one counselor who tried to evangelize our group.  Maybe I was unlucky or maybe the only way to get around it is to put a big sign on the front that says, "religion is crap!". 

[Boggled Coriander]

And you can't prove a negative.  Unicorns might live inside black holes.  No one gets the 10 pounds.

I think that's the point.  Sure, the theists say you can't prove God doesn't exist.  But you can't prove fire-breathing squid, Santa Claus or Marvin the Martian don't exist either.

[lowky]

And you can't prove a negative.  Unicorns might live inside black holes.  No one gets the 10 pounds.

I think that's the point.  Sure, the theists say you can't prove God doesn't exist.  But you can't prove fire-breathing squid, Santa Claus or Marvin the Martian don't exist either.

Marvin the Martian doesn't exist!

[Russell Nash]

And you can't prove a negative.  Unicorns might live inside black holes.  No one gets the 10 pounds.

I think that's the point.  Sure, the theists say you can't prove God doesn't exist.  But you can't prove fire-breathing squid, Santa Claus or Marvin the Martian don't exist either.

Marvin the Martian doesn't exist!

He does; he's a bud of mine.

[Portrait in Flesh]

Marvin the Martian doesn't exist!

He does; he's a bud of mine.

I thought Fudd was your bud.

[lowky]

And you can't prove a negative.  Unicorns might live inside black holes.  No one gets the 10 pounds.

I think that's the point.  Sure, the theists say you can't prove God doesn't exist.  But you can't prove fire-breathing squid, Santa Claus or Marvin the Martian don't exist either.

Marvin the Martian doesn't exist!

He does; he's a bud of mine.

Whew was scared for a minute there.  I thought those animated documentaries were made up or something when they said you couldn't prove that Marvin didn't exist.  Those animated documentaries were awesome when I was a child.  That's where I learned that rabbits could speak English, ate carrots, and like to dress in drag.

[Russell Nash]

And you can't prove a negative.  Unicorns might live inside black holes.  No one gets the 10 pounds.

I think that's the point.  Sure, the theists say you can't prove God doesn't exist.  But you can't prove fire-breathing squid, Santa Claus or Marvin the Martian don't exist either.

Marvin the Martian doesn't exist!

He does; he's a bud of mine.

Whew was scared for a minute there.  I thought those animated documentaries were made up or something when they said you couldn't prove that Marvin didn't exist.  Those animated documentaries were awesome when I was a child.  That's where I learned that rabbits could speak English, ate carrots, and like to dress in drag.

I've been to one of those rabbit drag clubs.  That was a weird ass scene.

[lowky]

And you can't prove a negative.  Unicorns might live inside black holes.  No one gets the 10 pounds.

I think that's the point.  Sure, the theists say you can't prove God doesn't exist.  But you can't prove fire-breathing squid, Santa Claus or Marvin the Martian don't exist either.

Marvin the Martian doesn't exist!

He does; he's a bud of mine.

Whew was scared for a minute there.  I thought those animated documentaries were made up or something when they said you couldn't prove that Marvin didn't exist.  Those animated documentaries were awesome when I was a child.  That's where I learned that rabbits could speak English, ate carrots, and like to dress in drag.

I've been to one of those rabbit drag clubs.  That was a weird ass scene.

So Eeyore hangs out there?

[oddpod]

And you can't prove a negative.  Unicorns might live inside black holes.  No one gets the 10 pounds.

I think that's the point.  Sure, the theists say you can't prove God doesn't exist.  But you can't prove fire-breathing squid, Santa Claus or Marvin the Martian don't exist either.

Marvin the Martian doesn't exist!

He does; he's a bud of mine.

Whew was scared for a minute there.  I thought those animated documentaries were made up or something when they said you couldn't prove that Marvin didn't exist.  Those animated documentaries were awesome when I was a child.  That's where I learned that rabbits could speak English, ate carrots, and like to dress in drag.

I've been to one of those rabbit drag clubs.  That was a weird ass scene.

So Eeyore hangs out there?

eeyore and the gang like hanging out in the woods and being all "natural"

[Raving_Lunatic]

Hmm. I'd say that logically at least disproving the existance of anything is impossible, due to the Black Swan rule of logic;

the statement that all swans are white may seem true, but it would just take one black swan to disprove it. It's perfectly possible that in an "infinite" universe such creatures do in fact exist.

and yeah, there's certainly a point to be made about not indoctrinating children with atheism either. I've read The God Delusion, and agreed with most of it, but people should still have the right to make their own choice. If they want to believe it's fine by me as long as it doesn't intefere / involve stoning those of other religions...

plus I've always been highly skeptical of the education system when it tells us (and in the UK at least this is all the time) to THINK FOR OURSELVES... i mean, how can you tell someone to think for themselves and be independent? It's practically a contradiction in terms. Besides, the decisions are made for us. They're a part of the system... like one of those lopsided debates = we think for ourselves and all happen to come to the same conclusion, which happens to be the one we would have if they just told us what to think/believe/dream

i've gone a bit OT here sorry