I’ll bet if you pointed out to professional sparkleAthiestsparkle Richard Dawkins that he’s just allied himself with his arch-enemies the Krazy boo!KKKristianboo! fundamentalists with this upcoming project of his —
[…]to write a book aimed at youngsters in which he will warn them against believing in “anti-scientific” fairytales.
…(you know, like — ha-aatcha! — Harry Potter) he would be totally flummoxed. The book promises to be crushingly boring and I’m sure the young folk will avoid it in droves:
“I plan to look at mythical accounts of various things and also the scientific account of the same thing. And the mythical account that I look at will be several different myths, of which the Judeo-Christian one will just be one of many.
“And the scientific one will be substantiated, but appeal to children to think for themselves; to look at the evidence. Always look at the evidence.”
Zzzzz… It may, however, appeal to snarky teenagers as well as those mentally marooned in their teenager years who, like Dawkins, can with a straight face promote the Philip Pullman fantasies while decrying fantasy as a genre. Not to mention, who can be a-okay with taking a bit part in (and thus promoting) Doctor Who, which show despite being classified as “science fiction” has about as much connection with science as Lang’s Fairy Tales. In any case, I am sure that Mr. Dawkins’ real animus against fantasy stories (except for the Pullman novels) is due to the Christian underpinnings, or influences, manifest in works such as the Harry Potter books, Tolkien’s saga, and C.S. Lewis’ Narnia series which happened to be Philip Pullman’s own obsession (and the reason he wrote the openly anti-Christian His Dark Materials series, as a take-that against Lewis).
Not coincidentally, the current run of the Doctor Who series has been heavily influenced, via its Dawkins-fan executive producer, Russell T. Davies,* by the Pullman novels — especially in the heavy use of the deus ex machina to keep the plot moving. Then again, Doctor Who wouldn’t be anywhere without said literary device — the actor playing the lead wants to quit the show? Then we’ll just pull a previously unmentioned alien body-changing magic trick out of the script’s ass! And so on — so maybe Mr. Pullman was just as influenced by the show which after all is a British institution, like tea and crumpets and warm beer and everyone owning an odd-looking small dog.
(*Note the quote at the link — “People were falling at his feet … We’ve had Kylie Minogue on that set, but it was Dawkins people were worshipping.” Insert your own ironic when-man-ceases-to-believe comment. I wonder, though, if he is worshipped by Who fans for his atheism or for the fact that he is married to Lalla Ward, who played the second Romana?)
6 Responses to “The Convergence of the Idiocies”
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October 28th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
What a sad man is Mr. Dawkins. No God, no magic, no happy endings. No Gandalf the White back from the dead to save the day.
Reminds me of something Catholic theologian G.K. Chesterton said…..Fairy tales due not exist to tell children that dragons exist.They already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that the dragons can be slain.
October 28th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
I’m far sadder for Lalla Ward. She was better off with Tom Baker.
October 28th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
The thing about atheists (at least some of them, like Philip Pullman — yes, I have read all three books of the His Dark Materials trilogy) is that they want to have their cake and eat it too; that is, they want the happiness that Christians at least think awaits us after death (that is, if we act right and get to Heaven), but they want it on their own terms — no silly, uncomfortable God stuff. So we get Pullman’s idea of “Dust,” which is the sparkly gold atomic bits we all supposedly dissolve into instead of going to some boring old Heaven, or, as the books put it, into some sort of scary holding tank full of shadows and harpies pulling your hair. (Which is where people in his books go only if they hadn’t completely died — that is, if they were “fooled” by religion into thinking there’s some sort of heaven they didn’t get into and so they ended up in this “hell,” and their way out is to accept that they will become “Dust.” Which involves some sort of fake-o still existing by becoming part of the sun and memories and some other jazz, it’s been years since I read the things so I can’t be sure, it was some hippie bullshit like that.)
Anyway, most people normally regard the idea of their unique selves dissolving into “dust” and merging with everything else with horror, but the atheist who is into this idea tries to make it into a good thing. I have more respect for the atheist who thinks we end, that’s it, and it’s neither bad nor good nor worth bothering about. At least he isn’t simply replacing ideas he finds fantastical with other ideas that are just as faith-based, and then trying to pass those ideas off as “reality-based.”
(Oy. Edited for somewhat more clarity.)
October 29th, 2008 at 8:29 am
Interesting that he has to come up with not only his own straw-man version of christianity but a oh, wow, dude version of material reductionism in order to make his case. His version of material reductionism has talking bears, flying witches, and substantial parts of gnostic cosmology. (It’s been a while for me too, and I’m pressed for time).
October 29th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
I ever wonder if atheists ever work up the courage to admit to themselves that they’re more dependent on blind faith than any Christian, Jew, Hindu, or Muslim. They assert – with no evidence in hand or forthcoming – that there is no God, yet condemn out of hand those who rely on scripture.
For some reason, I read all three books of Pullman’s trilogy (as a general rule I avoid a sequel if the first is poorly written and/or incoherent). Badly written, badly plotted, just badly done all around. If Pullman is the best Dawkins and Co have to put up, I don’t think Tolkien, Lewis, Rowling, etc. are going to be eclipsed any time soon.
October 30th, 2008 at 3:14 am
Don’t look at me, I’m agnostic. I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist. π