Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Against Harry Potter?

The Selfish Gene is one of the best non-fiction books I have ever read, but man, Richard Dawkins is turning into a complete ass. First he harangues us with his God Delusion, and now he is campaigning against Harry Potter (and children's fantasy in general)! Apparently all this magic nonsense is turning them away from science. As Alan Jacobs argues, this is suspiciously like the argument of the fundamentalists against whom he regularly fulminates. Jackass.

3 comments:

kwandongbrian said...

I became interested in science at least partially through science fiction and fantasy; for me alchemy turned to chemistry - I repeated history in small scale, I guess.

Anonymous said...

Well, I've long said that the way the "new atheists"--among them Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris--have formed a new religion all their very own, called "I'm Smart and You're Stupid." Evidently Dawkins didn't make enough money on "The Selfish Gene" and now has to keep his name in the news in any way possible to sell more copies of "The God Delusion." And I say that as someone who loves Harry Potter (and fantasy novels in general), loves being Catholic, and also believes in evolution. Suck that, Dawkins.

Tripp said...

I agree with both of you. Fantasy and sf are great imagination stirrers and science certainly benefits from it.