Hello you all. Welcome to Kentucky and to Camp Quest. My name is Edwin. I am the Director of Camp Quest. You may call me Edwin, or Boss, or Sir, or Your Grace, or Mr. Director, or whatever else you like, but Edwin will do just fine. In fact, you can call all of the adults here by their first names. We were all your age once, we think, and someday you may be our age. The only difference between us and you is that we are older. We have learned some things, and may have some things we can teach you, but we believe you can teach us some things too. We are all equal, because we are all human beings. We are all learning all the time.

I would like to tell you a little bit about Camp Quest, and about why we are here, and why we think you are here, and then maybe you can tell us about why you think you are here. At least we all know we are all here, because everybody has to be somewhere, I think, and we are all here right now to have a wonderful week together.

This is a camp run by secular humanists for the kids, grandkids, and so forth, of secular humanists. It is the first camp for secular humanist kids in the history of the United States, we think, and that is really neat, because we will probably all be in the history books, and you can tell your own kids and grandkids that you went to the very first camp for secular humanist kids.

What in the world are secular humanists anyway? We are going to try to figure that out this week. Maybe you already have some ideas about this that you will want to share with us. We might even come up with some brand new ideas about being a secular humanist that no one has ever thought of before.

That's one thing that's really neat about being a kid--you have a whole lifetime to think up things no one on earth has ever thought of before. Why if someone hadn't thought up the idea of a light bulb, we might all have to watch TV by candlelight. Oh, by the way, we aren't going to watch any TV here at Camp Quest. There are too many other really wonderful things to do. Can you believe there was once a time when there was no TV, or radio, or automobiles, or airplanes, or computers? Why I didn't see a TV until I was twelve years old. Can you believe that? When my mother was your age, cars seemed strange and new and most people got around using horses, and almost no one had a telephone, and the telephones they did have didn't have a dial or buttons, and when you picked up the part called the receiver and held it to your ear, an operator said, "number please" and connected you to the person you wanted. I remember that. When my father was a little boy, there were no electric lights in his house. There were gas lights and oil lamps. His family's Christmas tree had lit candles on it, just like everyone else's did. Sometimes the candles set the tree on fire. Sometimes they burned down people's houses.

Science has made a lot of things a lot safer, and science has helped make many wonderful and amazing new things possible. Computers are really new. They are so new that a lot of adults don't have the slightest idea how they work or how to work them at all. When my son Steve here was in school there were no computers. He has to ask his little sisters about them. They know about them because they were everywhere when they went to school. If a grownup wants to know something about computers, they can ask a kid. When you are grown, there will probably be things so new that if you want to know about them you will have to ask a kid.

New things can seem like magic. They really are magic if you don't know what they are or how they work. Let's say some people who had lived in caves all of their lives and had never been to school or to a city, and who knew nothing about science, suddenly saw an airplane fly over them for the very first time. What would they think? They might think it was magic, or maybe they might think it was a god. They might be very afraid of it. They might even worship the airplane and pray to it. They might make up a whole religion about the airplane, and they might have priests who could teach people to pray to the airplane, and to beg the airplane not to hurt them, and to ask the airplane to do good things for them. They might believe that people could not be good people unless they believed the airplane was a god. They might believe that if people did not believe the airplane was a god, that the airplane god would punish them and cause disease, and cause the crops not to grow, and cause fires to burn down the forests, and cause wars, and cause all sorts of bad things.

Of course they didn't know that bad things were not really caused by the airplane flying over them, but if they didn't know what the airplane really was, and if they were afraid of something they didn't know anything about, they might make up a religion about the airplane. They might teach their children about the airplane god, and their children might believe it was true, and they might worship the airplane and teach their children to worship that airplane.

If there were any secular humanists around, the secular humanists would probably say that things should be proved before people believed them. The secular humanists would want to know what the airplane really was, and they would want to find out what was really causing the bad things to happen. The secular humanists would say the airplane was not a god, and that it was only something in the real world that people didn't understand. The secular humanists would say that if people kept on worshiping the airplane as a god that they could never find out what the airplane really was, or how it worked, or why the bad things happened and how people could keep the bad things from happening. The secular humanists would understand that the belief in the airplane god was a superstition that was harming people and that their belief in the airplane god was wrong and that their wrong belief was keeping them from finding out true things that would make them happier and less afraid of things they did not understand.

Many of you probably have parents and friends who are secular humanists. Secular humanists are people who practice secular humanism. Secular humanism sounds awfully complicated, doesn't it? But it really isn't. Humanism just means believing in human beings, which we all are, doing human things, which we all do. Human beings do human things. Isn't that simple? Secular means believing in this world, and in the real things that are in our real world, and not believing in some imaginary pretend world that no one can prove is real. So a secular humanist is a person who believes that human beings live in a real world, not a make believe one. Secular humanists believe that people have to take care of themselves and that people have to use their minds to make things better for themselves, because no god is going to help them, and that all the praying in the world won't do any good.

Secular humanists believe the real world and the universe the world is in is all there is. But that is quite a bit, really. It is enough to keep human beings very busy. So busy that they shouldn’t waste their time and their lives believing in things that are not true and in worshiping something that does not exist.

Secular humanists do not try to make people think like them. Secular humanists think everyone should make up their own minds about what is real and what is not real, and about what is true and what is not true. But not everyone thinks like secular humanists. In fact most people don't.

That's why there are not as many secular humanists as there are people who believe in this religion or in that religion and who think that their religion is right and that everyone else's religion is wrong. Because there aren't that many secular humanists, the ones there are can feel a little lonely sometimes and they may feel that no one else thinks the way they do. That's why we started this camp. Here you can meet others who may think the same way you do, but who will not try to make you or anyone else think like them.

At Camp Quest we are going to look at the wonderful world we live in. We are going to see how amazing it is, and how wonderful the living things in it are. We are going to look at the stars and wonder and imagine what human beings are and what they can do and what they can become.

We want you to know that it is okay to be a secular humanist. It is alright not to believe in any gods, or angels, or devils, or heavens or hells. It is okay to be a human being living in a real world that can be understood by people and that can be made better by people for people to live in. Not everyone believes this. Some people think that nothing can be done without a god's help. Some people think there is something wrong with people who don't believe the same things they believe. This is as silly as saying the secular humanists were wrong who didn't believe in the airplane god. But some people say it is wrong not to believe in their religion, and that you must be a bad person if you don't believe in their religion. Some people try to force people to believe in their religion. They even try to force kids to pray their prayers in public schools. This is against the law in America, but these people think the law is wrong and that they and their religion are right. They think they have the right to control your minds and to tell you what you must believe.

The Boy Scouts have said that they won't let anyone be a boy scout who doesn't believe in god. I am an Eagle Scout, and I know that this is a bad thing for the boy scouts to do. That is why I agreed to be the Director of Camp Quest. There are some folks who say that human beings can't possibly be good, honest, decent people if they don't believe in their religion. This is not true, and we are going to show those people that this is not true. I bet you were sent to this camp by loving people who know it is not true and who want you to know it is not true. There are a lot of church camps where kids are taught religion. As a matter of fact we are at a camp owned by a church. We are renting it for the week. It is usually a church camp, but it isn't a church camp this week. There have not been any camps for secular humanist kids until now. We are the first. We are making history. We want this first camp for secular humanist kids to be a big success. And it will be a big success if you enjoy yourselves and have a wonderful time. Think you can manage that?

If this camp is a success, we can probably have even better camps with more campers in the future. A lot of people will be watching to see if we can make this camp work. You know what? We think we can.

We are all here to have fun and to learn new things and to make new friends. Now I want you to meet the counselors and staff here at camp. They have all come here without pay to help you have a wonderful week. They are all here for you, so don't be afraid to talk with them and to ask them questions. That is why they are here. And we want to meet you, and we want you to meet each other.

After you learn about our activities at Camp Quest, I am going to give each cabin a little problem for you to work on all week. You are to work on the problem yourselves and tell all of us your answers on the last night of camp. Your counselors may answer some questions for you, but they will not give you any answers to the problem. This is for you to give us.

Each cabin has a different problem, and will qive the whole camp their answers. I am really eager to hear your answers.

Now let me introduce the counselors, who will introduce the campers in their cabins. When they are finished, I will introduce the staff who will tell you about our activities.

Don't be afraid to ask any questions you have as we go along. Questioning is why we are here.

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