Not burning but reading

Welcome comment on BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day, from Canon David Winter, which harks back to ‘Book Burning’. He approves almost everything about Harry Potter, from the fact that it has so many millions of children reading books to the sense of wonder and make believe which they encourage.

He does briefly worry that when magic is eventually put aside as childhood gives way to adulthood, so will religion, but then comments that his nine year old daughter (or was it grand daughter?) is perfectly capable of distinguishing between fiction and belief. Although I don't, as a humanist myself, personally see a reality difference between the magic of Harry Potter and the miracles of the Bible, the human difference is immense. It's good to see the value of both being positively asserted by someone like Winter with an strong investment of belief in the second.

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• Winter, Canon David. Thought for the Day. BBC Radio 4, 20 July 2005, 0650Z.