tonight on "nightline," atheist camp. we take you inside a special sleep away camp where kids who say they don't believe say it's okay to think, speak and live as if there is no god. >> i don't believe in him. stripped and banned. tonight, lance armstrong says he gives up on fighting the anti-doping charges. and will be stripped after his medals for life. the mix master. grandaddy of hip-hop. the legend behind hips like the message. tonight, grand master flash

fells us about the my suck that inspired his vision. good evening. i'm cynthia mcfadden. tonight, we look at atheism in america. there are tens of millions of nonbelievers in the country. the number has more than doubled in the past two decades, so little surprise there is a new movement. the separation of church and summer camp. a wave of atheist camps offers a god-free alternative to religious camps. lindsey davis has a look inside. >> reporter: he has a summer ritual. a week away from home in washington state to attend atheist camp. why don't you believe in god?

>> well there is no proof that god exists. >> reporter: to it's actually called camp quest. it's where hundreds of nonbelieving parents send their offspring. to re-enforce their passionate lack of belief in the divine. this is ella, age 9. >> if he were to come down and do something really amazing, i would be able to accept that he exists. >> reporter: heady stuff for summer camps. >> you guys are united here in your unbelief? >> yeah. >> reporter: but it's time to spend time with people like them selves. >> i don't have any atheist friends. i would like have go to a friend's house and have dinner and not have to pray. >> all my friends are christian.

sometimes i do get bullied because of that. because i'm atheist. >> this is really sumer nice to be here and not have to limit yourself. and no that you will not be bullied or hurt. >> reporter: the camp rents the camp from another camp. so masking tape hides the word "lord" or "god" and it replaced by words like flying spaghetti monster to have their belief in god. >> in a lot of ways, religion and science share a motivating force. >> reporter: they are socrates cafe where they are free to discuss whatever is on their mind. and religion is often a topic of conversation. >> i don't need somebody to pray to. i just find a way myself. >> reporter: do you they whatever your parents are, you become? your parents don't believer so

you don't believe? >> my parents, their parents were religious. and they became atheists. >> reporter: but sierra's 12 and she's never believed in god. don't you have to be exposed to it? to decide you don't want it or you don't believer it in or you're against it? >> some of my family is catholic. i have gone to a wedding and funeral. understand why they want to believe in something like that. but i don't really understand it. >> reporter: they are not alone. according to the 2008 census, more than 34 million americans don't believe in god. in just the last two decades, the number has more than doubled. >> reporter: some people say, you guys are brainwashing these kids and we want them to decide for themselves. >> we would encourage them to go to church. the best way to become an atheist is to study the bible. study it very, very closely. >> the best thing we can do is

encourage each child to have their own experience. >> reporter: this woman studies effect of spirituality on children. it. >> been shown that spirituality is associated with health, greater academic achievement and of great importance to teens, more meaning and purpose. >> reporter: it started in 1996 in kentucky with just 20 campers. this is the 13th camp quest location, and this year, they have more than 620 campers. parents like chandler's father matt, who was raised jewish, and his mother, raised christian, both now atheists. >> we want to make our kids have their own decision. if our children want to be jewish, fine, we would love them. we just wanted them to be good, happy people. >> reporter: chandler did admit he is not above sneaking a look at the good book. >> sometimes in hotels they have a bible in the drawer and i think once i have opened it and looked at it.

but just a little curious. what was in it. >> reporter: and elle says she was 3 when her family dropped out of the mormon church. 12450 when i was littler, i was very confused. the first three years of my life i was raised at mormon and they didn't want to go to church anymore. and so we became atheist. >> reporter: but elle said she thought a lot about why people believe in god. >> think they are scared of the unknown. what if something very, very terrible happens and they don't have someone to come in and help things out and make things better. and i think they are scared of not having that. >> reporter: elle, for one, is still working on our secular philosophy. u. >> what is your plan b? what do you hold on to if something bad happened? >> really, i don't know. >> reporter: you are still trying to figure that out? >> yeah.

>> reporter: for "nightline," i'm lindsay davis, in washington. the lates on tonight's breaking news as cycling champion lance armstrong giving up on fighting for his legacy, destroying doping charges. ♪ [ male announcer ] start with a simple idea. think. drink coffee. hatch a design. kill the design. design something totally original. do it again. that's good. kick out the committees. call in the engineers. call in the car guys. call in the nerds. build a prototype. mold it. shape it. love it. give it 40 mpg. no, 41. give it a huge display. give it a starting price under 16 grand. take it to the car shows. get a celebrity endorser. he's perfect. "i am?" yes, you are. making a groundbreaking car. it's that easy. ♪

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breaking news tonight. champion cyclist lance armstrong had until midnight to contest the career shattering dope charges against him by the country's highest court -- sports authority. this evening, armstrong announced he would give up his years-long fight which he called

an unconstitutional witch hunt. one of america's most revered athletes, a cancer survivor and crusader, he will be banned from cycling for life and stripped of his tour de france titles. here is neil carlin ski. >> reporter: lance armstrong, accused of using performance enhancing drugs to work his way to the top. cheat his way to the top, tording coat the u.s. anti-doping agency. armstrong faces a lifetime ban from all elite level sports and the stripping of his tour titles after he announced he would no longer fight the charges. in a statement he writes, enough is enough. today i turn the page. i will no longer address the issue regardless of the circumstances, adding that he is innocent and believes that the process is one-sided and unfair. >> does it say that he knew he couldn't win?

does it say that he knows he is guilty? there are so many questions left unanswered tonight. >> reporter: so if he used drugs as they claim, how did he a former teammate believed to be one of his witnesses confessed his own doping just two weeks ago. writing, when i was racing in the 1990s, the rule wrs circumvented around anything. >> yeah, i had. and i received some from him. rath than go in the detail, yeah, i saw lance armstrong using drugs. >> reporter: armstrong always boasted he was the most tested athlete in sports history. this is his lawyer talking to "nightline" in 2010. >> around 300 separate tests he

er has undergone and he has never had a positive test. as we say in texas, the proof is in the pudding. >> reporter: armstrong retired just two years after that. the attorney doubled the number saying he faced 500 to 600 drug tests without a sing the positive. one of the earliest bits came in a hospital room in 1996 when he was recovering from cancer. a former teammate's wife testified that armstrong told doctors that he used drugs on the bike. >> lance holding down the iv rattled off growth hormone, cortizone, and that was my introduction to performance enhancing drugs in the sport of cycling. >> reporter: the hospital room story is a sore spot for armstrong. wrapped up in litigation in a

civil case by a company that sought to avoid paying him a bonus by accusing him of cheating. >> how could it have taken place when i have never taking performance enhancing drugs? how could that have happened? >> that is my point. you just don't recall -- >> how many times do i have to say it? >> i just want to make your your testimony is clear. >> if it can't be clearer that i have never taken drugs, than incidents like that can't happen. >> reporter: they said that he used fear and coercion to make a code of silence. to that point federal investigators reportedly seized this phone conversation from 2004. >> so many people to protect. it's sickening. >> reporter: it was made by former tour winner greg lamond, he spoke to a former armstrong friend and in public, a supporter. >> the thing that [ bleep ] me off about it, how many people

has has given false hope to. that is the most disgusting thing ever. >> reporter: for some in the real world. since his reign, so many close rivals have been caught up in doping scandals, no one can figure out that who gets the tour de france wins that armstrong may have to forfeit. i'm neil karlinski. just ahead, he is the master of white lines. we hang with grand master flash to find out which songs turned him into a legend. [ female announcer ] caltrate's done even more to move us.

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well, he's the godfather of deejays everywhere. the hip-hop master of the beats

now, grand master flash tells us whose music shaped his own. ♪ ♪ i couldn't get far because the man repossessed my car ♪ ♪ don't push me because i'm close to the edge ♪ ♪ i'm trying not to lose my head >> when i was a preteen, anything that was electrical in the back, i was unskewing the back, trying to learn about it. i'm going to love you just a little more by barry white. my father, he had strict rules in the house. never go touch his records, enough touch his stereo. as soon as he would go to work, i would hear the door slam and listen to his music. i was very intrigued how sound

was coming out of this cabinet. ♪ >> music at that time, you know, the big thing was disco. was the big thing on radio. it wasn't until iconic deejay, cool hurk, not regular music. he would go block parties in the bronx and bring out a monster deejay set and play music that didn't have a brand to it but a great feeling. this is where hip-hop started. ♪ ♪ up jump the boogie and the beat ♪ >> there was a woman named

sylvia robinson and she said, we are a responsible for "rapper's delight" and would you like to see with us? and we signed with her and we went from being the city, touring the world. ♪ it was always a dream ♪ i used to read up word up magazine and hanging pictures on my wall ♪ >> biggie, he said to the world, all right, i'm not a perfect person but i'm trying to do this thing and be a dad. he went from the street rhymer to a huge dynamo. he was very visual at what he said. so you can really relate to what he is. as a deejay, all his stuff was just fun to play. that sit. ♪ this is a heavily samples. when you look for a sample, you

pick your arm up or try to find something. and this song, i let i play. and i was like, this is a nice song and all of a sudden, it got dark. in song scares the crap out of me. and then it was really nice. the way that he designed that song, i think, was genius. >> hands up hands up hands up ♪ ♪ hands up hands up >> you can walk into a room, man versus machine, and through music, have people lose their cool without physically touching them. my main objective, let's lose our cool together. >> grand master flash. thank you for watching abc news. "good morning america" will be waiting here for you in the morning. we are always online at abcnews.com. good nig