Please Tell Me He's Funning Us

When fundies go nutty about the ill effects of books like the Harry Potter series, because they indoctrinate kids into magic and witchcraft, the sane among us rightly laugh them off. It's just fiction, after all. Indulging in suspension of disbelief for the sake of entertainment is a long way off from actually believing the stuff is real. So why does Richard Dawkins, of The God Delusion fame sound like he's channeling those loons:

Prof Dawkins will write a book aimed at youngsters where he will discuss whether stories like the successful JK Rowling series have a "pernicious" effect on children.

The 67-year-old, who recently resigned from his position at Oxford University, says he intends to look at the effects of 'bringing children up to believe in spells and wizards'.

I think it is anti-scientific – whether that has a pernicious effect, I don't know,' he told More4 News.

'Looking back to my own childhood, the fact that so many of the stories I read allowed the possibility of frogs turning into princes, whether that has a sort of insidious affect on rationality, I'm not sure. Perhaps it's something for research.'

I'm hoping either he's just having some fun or there's some broader context for this (given the source, it's entirely possible), 'cause otherwise it would really add to that image of "militant" atheism that so many people have.