Anti-religious campaign close to intolerance

The Bishop of Leicester notes the latest idea in Richard Dawkins' drive against God – an Atheist Summer Camp

Several months ago Bendy-buses in London began to appear with the slogan "There's probably no God". The atheist posters were the idea of the British Humanist Association and were supported by prominent atheist Professor Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion. This week, as schools close for the long summer break, the campaign to persuade the public that God does not exist took a step further forward when Prof Dawkins launched Britain's first summer camp for young atheists. The camp is called Camp Quest UK, and is for children aged for eight to 17. The motto of the camp is: "It's beyond belief."

The aim of Camp Quest UK is to rival the many traditional faith-based breaks and holiday clubs run by the uniformed organisations and faith groups over the summer. The biggest organiser of children's camps is the Scout Association which has 500,000 members, who collectively spend two million nights camping out each year. All new Scouts – whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim or from another religious background – are required to pledge to do their "duty" to their god or faith. During the five-day Camp Quest, the children will do many of the usual activities associated with a summer camp, such as canoeing, tug-of -war and singing round the camp fire. But instead of singing songs such as Kumbaya the children will be encouraged to sing along to John Lennon's Imagine, including the famous line, "Imagine there's no heaven, and no religion too".

Dawkins, who is subsidising the camp, said it was designed to "encourage children to think for themselves, sceptically and rationally". In order to encourage rational thinking, a £10 prize is on offer for the child who can disprove the existence of the mythical unicorn

The camp is part of a wider campaign, backed by Dawkins and Professor AC Grayling, the philosopher and writer, designed to challenge Christian societies, collective worship and religious education. However, leading religious leaders, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, are becoming concerned about the intolerance being shown by Dawkins and his supporters towards faith communities.

Alongside churches and chapels, Leicester's skyline includes temples, mosques and synagogues. Tolerance is one of the key values which has enabled this skyline to flourish and help communities to live together in harmony. This harmony was very much in evidence earlier this week when 40 faith leaders of the city and county gathered together at Bishop's Lodge to share food and conversation about many aspects of our city and country life.

A C Grayling writes that an intolerant person is "one who wishes others to live as he thinks they ought and who seeks to impose his practices and beliefs upon them". It could be argues that Camp Quest is seeking to do just that. Grayling also writes that tolerance is "a rare and important virtue". At least this is something on which we can both agree!