94. Comment #178693 by Artful_Dodger on May 11, 2008


Popping briefly back to page 2...

Isn't that what the Jesuits used to say? Sounds like a very "rational" project! The premise of course is that atheism is the default "mechanism". Gradgrind would be proud of you. "Let's set up schools where children will be exposed to facts, pure and simple. We will have to careful of the reading material we admit onto the shelves! Encyclopedias and text-books with spadefuls of information. Fiction which depicts kids acceding to glory in sport and setting an example of achievement and supremacy. But at all costs we must keep them from reading the kind of fantasy that might encourage them to feel deep down that there might be more to existence than can be accounted for by the empirical sciences. No Lord of the Rings or anything of that ilk, unless it be heavily anotated by scholars who will be able to explain away any longings that such literature might awaken!

Not at all: quite the opposite in fact.

As long as they are taught to distinguish between fact and fiction.

I love LOTR, but I don't waste much time arguing that while Anduril, Lothlorien & Rivendell undoubtedly exist, the rings of power are metaphorical.

Your book is a poorly written collection of Bronze age myths, stories and superstitions, with less relevance to real life than Aesop's fables.