Richard Dawkins ruffled some feathers this week
by questioning the value of reading fairy stories to children. Buried under the
attack in fairy stories is, of course, an attack upon religion, which, for
someone who doesn't believe, Professor Dawkins seems morbidly interested
in. I'm not quite so sure why he wants
everyone to agree with him - safety in numbers perhaps - but he clearly
relishes being controversial
Well, religion is another issue; I don't honesty
think anyone has ever been rationally argued into believing or
disbelieving. You either tend to believe
or not, then find arguments which support your point of view.
Do fairy tales support a belief in
religion? (This is religion in its
broadest sense, a belief in the supernatural and supernatural agencies).
It sounds as if he has a point but... Well, I
don't think so. After all, I learned at an early age that Santa and the Tooth
Fairy weren't real. I never did get to
the Magic Faraway Tree, find Narnia at the back of the Wardrobe (I looked! Often!) however many old oil lamps I rubbed,
no genies appeared, there were no fairies at the bottom of the garden, Middle
Earth was mysteriously missing from history books and by the time Harry Potter
turned up on platform nine and three quarters, I had more than an inkling that
JK Rowling had made up a story and wasn't merely reporting facts
I like dragons. Not for pets, you understand.
By rights I should have rejected the
supernatural in disappointed disgust. It's not true, is it? No.
It's fiction. And the world of
magic and myth isn't true either in the did-it-really-happen sense. But what
actually happened is that I went onto to enjoy a whole world of stories
(fiction means it's made up, after all) such as Terry Pratchett's Discworld and
virtually anything with dragons in it. Readers, even young readers, are more
sophisticated than a straightforward correlation between Real=Respect would
have you believe. And the more you read,
the more sophisticated you become.
Anything can happen between the covers of a
book. Be warned!
And religion?
Well, I still go to church, even though I don't believe in fairies.
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