Dawkins’s warning on fairy tales to children
by Martin Beckford and Urmee Khan
The Daily Telegraph (UK), p. 2
October 25, 2008
Professor Richard Dawkins, the prominent atheist, is to write a book aimed at children in which he will warn them against believing in fairy tales as well as God.
The evolutionary biologist is stepping down from his post at Oxford University and will instead research whether “anti-scientific” novels about spells and wizards such as the Harry Potter series have a “pernicious effect” on young minds.
Prof Dawkins, the author of best-selling The God Delusion who this week agreed to fund a series of atheist adverts on London buses, said his new book would also set out to demolish the “Judeo-Christian myth”.
“The book I write next year will be a children’s book on how to think about the world — science thinking contrasted with mythical thinking,” he told Channel 4.
