The "Giving masculinity a bad name for decades" award goes to Richard Dawkins again this year. Congratulations.

Ironically, it seems that the religious right agrees with him that Harry Potter is not a good thing, albeit for opposite reasons. Heh...

Still, I'm not sure if I like his ideas of it being a problem. Ultimately, it almost seems like he's saying that even talking about something with children is a threat to their development. Again, ironic since the religios right is says the exact same thing about his ideas.

Alas, I admire the guy. He's one of the most eloquent and logical fellows on the planet and I agree with him as opposed to those who think that their religions are "right."

He's attacking the three little pigs, Goldy Locks, and the little mermaid?

I usually agree with Richard Dawkins, I too disdain the idea of committing completely to a conclusion without evidence. If I interpreted what he is saying correctly I do not agree with him here.

There is an important dividing line between religion and fantasy. People are often made happy by both, but most relatively rational people will only make serious decisions based on the former. I don't recall anyone ever justifying a war by quoting the Brothers Grimm.

While some obsessive people may take it too far, fantasy can be a good thing. People use fantasy to explore ideas in ways that their experience or environment is not suited for. People do use fantasy for escape, and that is not always a bad thing in this imperfect world.

As long as children are taught that fantasy is NOT real and they should make decisions based on what they can observe, I don't think fantasy is in any way harmful.

*promote

Promoting this video back to the front page; last published Friday, October 31st, 2008 6:14am PDT - promote requested by jwray.

>> ^BillOreilly:
The "Giving masculinity a bad name for decades" award goes to Richard Dawkins again this year. Congratulations.


I've been on the fence since joining... BillO is either a genuine ass, or a character created solely for the purpose of accumulating the most possible downvotes. Either way, he's good at it.

I think Dawkins missed the boat on the Harry Potter angle. The key difference when children are given any type of "holy scripture" is they are led to believe that it is the truth, I don't think the same can be said about fantasy novels.

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