{"id":5051,"date":"2009-07-29T16:05:03","date_gmt":"2009-07-29T20:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anglicansamizdat.wordpress.com\/?p=5051"},"modified":"2009-07-29T16:05:03","modified_gmt":"2009-07-29T20:05:03","slug":"an-example-of-critical-thinking-a-la-dawkins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/an-example-of-critical-thinking-a-la-dawkins\/","title":{"rendered":"An example of critical thinking \u00e0 la Dawkins"},"content":{"rendered":"

Camp Quest is the atheist summer camp for children. The camp prides itself on teaching children to think critically. Hence we have the invisible unicorns<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Astronomy, critical thinking, philosophy and pseudo-science are covered at Camp Quest.<\/p>\n

One of the most popular exercises is the invisible unicorn challenge. The children are told there are two invisible unicorns who live at Camp Quest but that they cannot be seen, heard, felt or smelt, and do not leave a trace. A book about them has been handed down through the ages but it is too precious for anyone to see.<\/p>\n

All counsellors \u2013 as the adults are called \u2013 are said to be staunch believers in these unicorns.<\/p>\n

Any child who can successfully prove that the invisible unicorns do not exist is rewarded with a prize: a \u00a310 note with a picture of Charles Darwin on it signed by Richard Dawkins, or a “godless” $100 bill, printed before 1957 when “In God We Trust” was added to paper currency in the US.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Clearly, the unicorns are supposed to represent God. The purpose of the exercise appears to be to show that the burden of proof lies with the unicorn-believers. The problem is, the councillors don\u2019t actually believe in the unicorns so they obviously can\u2019t give reasons for their pretend belief, the book – the unicorn bible \u2013 is not something that can be read and the unicorns have no discernible effect on reality.<\/p>\n

None of this corresponds to Christianity where God does act, the bible is not only read but has been the inspiration for all that is best in our culture, and people actually do believe and can explain why they do. While this does not offer proof of God’s existence, it does illustrate that a belief in God is no less rational than a disbelief in him; the believer is under no more burden to provide iron-clad proof of his belief than the atheist of his non-belief.<\/p>\n

The unicorn exercise is not one of critical thinking but of constructing and demolishing a straw man: very rational.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Camp Quest is the atheist summer camp for children. The camp prides itself on teaching children to think critically. Hence we have the invisible unicorns: Astronomy, critical thinking, philosophy and pseudo-science are covered at Camp Quest. One of the most … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[2049],"class_list":["post-5051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism","tag-atheism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5051","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5051"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5051\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}