Speaking to promote his new memoir An Appetite for Wonder, Dawkins said: ‘Is it a good thing to go along with the fantasies of childhood, magical as they are? Or should we be fostering a spirit of scepticism? Even fairy tales, the ones we all love, with wizards or princesses turning into frogs or whatever it was. There’s a very interesting reason why a prince could not turn into a frog – it’s statistically too improbable.’ Dawkins also claimed to have never believed in Father Christmas, saying he knew the figure who came to his house at Christmas was a friend of his parents.
After an onslaught of criticism in the national press, Dawkins took to Twitter to defend himself, saying: ‘It IS pernicious to inculcate supernaturalism into a child. But DO fairytales do that? It’s an interesting Q. The answer is probably no.’
Ruth Jackson from the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics told Premier Childrenswork: ‘Humans are storytellers. Stories awaken our imagination and help shape our understanding of reality, making sense of who we are. Fairy stories may sometimes paint unhelpful pictures, fostering unrealistic expectations but genre is important – we read these as story not fact. Dawkins’ sentiments are admirable; we should not brainwash children, blindly imposing our views upon them. We must provide space to think about these questions but thwarting their imagination is perhaps not the best place to start.’
Your views
@AmieAitkenMusic: I think even secular kids workers would argue for importance of imaginative stories and play in early years’ development.
@CBentonEvans: Stories are the threads that hold our lives’ fabric together: stories of faith, family stories, fairy tales, fables and all.
@paulmaxim: It’s really shocking that Dawkins makes no connection between his scepticism and his bad childhood experiences. Some Twitter users took Dawkins’ comments as an opportunity to poke a bit of fun. Here’s the best of #Dawkinsfairytales
@Mikecottom77: Hansel and Gretel crushed under the weight of a structurally unsound gingerbread house.
@Icecolbeveridge: However much a wolf huffs and puffs, it is unlikely to blow down a sensibly constructed house.
@Mattgreencomedy: And they lived happily ever after, until they got old, she developed dementia and he died of a heart attack.
