I HAVE to write a separate news story about the Sotomayor confirmation hearings this week, so the column will probably be about something non-newsy: a summer camp for the children of atheists in Ohio.

I visited Camp Quest a couple of weeks ago. It's like a regular summer camp—lots of kids sleeping in cabins, exploring the woods, roasting marshmallows over campfires and heaving buckets of water over each other for no particular reason.

But unlike, say, Bible camp, there's a strong atmosphere of scepticism. All the counsellors are secular humanists. The kids are taught to question everything. They also learn about the scientific method while examining bugs in a pond.

Summer camps satisfy a ravening demand. American kids have immensely long summer holidays, while their parents hardly get any time off at all. Solution: send the little blighters to sleep in the wilderness.

Camp Quest offers something more specific. In the most religious parts of America, it is tough being a secular teenager. Many of the kids at Camp Quest say that, at school, they either keep quiet about their lack of belief or are teased for it. What they like about Camp Quest is that no one tells them they are going to Hell.

Plus, of course, summer camp is fun. You get to shoot longbows and stage comedy skits. I listen to an amateur naturalist teaching the older kids something slightly rude about a certain type of toad they find in that pond. You can tell a male from a female because it croaks when you press its back. Why? Because males of this species will try to mate with anything. So when a male feels a weight on his back, he assumes it is another male. He croaks to say: "I'm male, too. Go away."