The evolutionary biologist and professional atheist Richard Dawkins has suggested reading fairy tales to children could be harmful.
Speaking at the Cheltenham Science Festival, Dawkins suggested fairy tales could instil a false belief in the supernatural from a young age. Also, somewhat ironically, the scourge of Creationism took particular umbrage at the idea that a prince could possibly mutate into a frog.
Here’s what he 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?
I think it’s rather pernicious to inculcate into a child a view of the world which includes supernaturalism – we get enough of that anyway.
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.
And not satisfied with his extensive work to argue against the existence of God, the author of The Selfish Gene and The God Delusion lashed out at another omnipotent mystery man: Father Christmas.
My mother has recorded in her notebook that I was at a Christmas party and there was a man called Sam who came as Father Christmas, all ‘ho ho ho’. All the children were enthralled by this. Then he left, I piped up much to the consternation of the adults, ‘Sam’s gone’.
However, amid a flurry of reporting of his comments, Dawkins has taken to Twitter to contextualise his argument. He insists he was simply asking a question, rather than condemning fairy tales outright:
It IS pernicious to inculcate supernaturalism into a child. But DO fairytales do that? It’s an interesting Q. The answer is probably no.
— Richard Dawkins (@RichardDawkins) June 5, 2014
But he’ll be all right, he’s apparently now off to snorkel near New Guinea. Let’s hope he doesn’t come across any ugly ducklings.
Oh, and for balance, read His Dark Materials author Philip Pullman writing for the New Statesman in defence of fairy tales.
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