Maybe Dawkins just has a serious case of OCD November 1, 2008
Posted by Zack in , trackbackRichard Dawkins just quit his chair for Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University to explore whether fairy tales ruin children.
What’s so funny here is that he is turning even more into the mirror image of angry fundamentalist Christians who want to stamp out any delusion that’s not their own. For them too, unorthodox thinking is forbidden even for children. Dawkins says that scary fantasies are even more harmful than physical abuse for children. Maybe he could make a united front with Christian fundamentalists who would like to ban Harry Potter and cancel Halloween.
John brought up this quote from Dawkins’ Climbing Mount Improbable that shows the extremes to which he goes with this line of thinking. Seriously, doesn’t it seem like this just might be a case of someone who has lost all perspective and become obsessed with stamping his own sense of order on every mind in the world, even six year old minds?
I was driving through the English countryside with my daughter Juliet, then aged six, and she pointed out some flowers by the wayside. I asked her what she thought wildflowers were for. She gave a rather thoughtful answer. “Two things,” she said. “To make the world pretty, and to help the bees make honey for us.” I was touched by this and sorry I had to tell her it wasn’t true. (Pg. 256)
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LOL … he’s turning into a fundy atheist.
I can’t decide … sad, or funny.
Well, sad for his children and anyone who decides to follow him down that twisted path. Funny if it’s just him we’re talking about.
There’s absolutely no harm in letting kids be kids … they grow up and learn about reality soon enough.
There’s a difference between telling fantasy stories to kids and telling the same stories to them but encouraging them to think of them as true. I think the former has great value, but the latter not necessarily.
As for Dawkins himself, atheists are finally starting to seek their public voice and demand recognition as citizens instead of pariahs. Whenever a suppressed or oppressed segment of the population begins to assert itself, there are always aggressive, in-your-face, even militant factions. The modern atheist movement is no different. Being cast as pariahs and second-class citizens builds up rage, and when movements gain momentum, some people funnel that rage to the surface. It’s part of the transformative process of a suppressed group forcing society to accept them as equal citizens.
I’m not a hug fan of Dawkins sometimes (though I am an atheist), but I understand what fuels his passion. The secret to diffusing the extremist in this case is to help the moderate mainstream find their voice. Just as there the Black Panthers faded after the civil rights movement, so too will the “angry atheists” in the media fade when atheism stops being the whipping boy of conservative religious politics.
I think that Dawkins has some good points, but this talk about getting rid of fairy tales is NOT one of them. Children need stories bigger than themselves to imagine the world and learn. Imagination is a major part of the way that students learn. If they were only taught facts and sums this would be a boring world indeed.
dang - i’d hate to hear his version of the purpose of rainbows and sunsets.
he’s fighting an uphill battle though - you can take the fairy tales away from the kids - but not the fairy tale our of the children.
wonder still prevails.
Isn’t Dawkins the one who wants to prove that teaching Christianity (or any religion) is child abuse? Looks like this might be the first step towards that.
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