More grist for the atheists-as-fundamentalists mill
Alan Jacobs on Richard Dawkins'
suspicion of Harry Potter:
It strains credulity, does it not, that someone of Dawkins's education and intelligence could believe that there is no difference between allowing children to read fantasy stories or fairy tales and "bringing [them] up to believe in spells and wizards" -- or that children who read stories in which frogs turn into princes could thereby be made skeptical of a science that teaches them that such metamorphoses are impossible. This is astonishingly, Gradgrindingly, literal-minded. Children delight in reading about spells and wizards and frog-princesbecause they know such things to be impossible -- that's the fun of it.Good grief.
It's especially noteworthy that Dawkins has precisely the same suspicions of fantasy and fairy tale that many fundamentalist Christians do.
Read it all, commence heavy sighs. Note that Dawkins has not actually read Harry Potter.
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This world has become a scary and seriously dangerous place at times. Children and some adults, need places of safety to go in their heads and dreams. A Diversified mind is one that is more creative, a better problem solver, open minded, more accepting and tolerant. All of these qualities we need to move this generation forward.
To put down the concept of fairy tales and fantasy because it is not real is inane. Read the news paper. Are we sure they are not twisted tales? If we remove all fiction what do we have to base on??
I feel that if children/teens are reading, they are learning and if they can seperate fiction from reality then we should encourage and applaud them and the writers who keep them reading!
Thank you for your blog Patton.
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