‘Tis the Season to be…an Atheist?!
Posted on December 13, 2007
by: Big Jar
Breaking news at this hour! A con-tra-va-see!
Did you know that atheists are trying to infiltrate the holiday season by indoctrinating our Christian youth?
How, you ask? Through the guise of a fantasy holiday movie entitled The Golden Compass. The film has been adapted from a book, which was part of a children’s series entitled His Dark Materials. The author of the series, Philip Pullman, is an atheist who wrote the books in order to construct a sort of counter narrative to C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia. It has some unflattering metaphorical representations of the Church and shares the vision and values of nonbelief to
children.
When the studio adapted The Golden Compass to film, it removed or whitewashed all of those critical elements, rendering the original storyline completely unrecognizable. So why are the demagogues and Christian watch groups frothing at the bit over the film’s release if its anti-religious elements have been abandoned?
Bill Donohue said that while the film itself isn’t objectionable, it could encourage the children who go to see it to read the series, which would denigrate Christianity and promote atheism for kids. As a result, he and his band of monkeys in the Catholic League have organized mass boycotts of the film. It’s a very reasonable position: Other people do not have the right to posit an opinion, narrative, fantasy tale, or any other sort of expression that directly dissents with the opinions that Bill Donohue holds. I’m not sure if you were aware of this, reader, but Bill Donohue is actually God in disguise.
Pullman’s response:
“It causes me to shake my head in sorrow that such nitwits could be loose in the world.”
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6 Responses to “‘Tis the Season to be…an Atheist?!”
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There are a number of preachers I know using the Golden Compass as sermon fodder…in a positive sense. These people claiming the “militant atheist takeover” are bonkers.
http://nachfolge.blogspot.com/2007/12/brainy-stuff.html
To anyone interested in any of the premises of “His Dark Materials” trilogy, read “The Golden Compass” first if you can, then go see it in theaters… I’m not quite as down on the translation to the cinema as some people, but the book is useful to fully comprehend what is happening on screen…
There are several subtle subtexts to the story that were removed from the movie, many theological, and I don’t see how they can keep removing these if they want to finish the trilogy… In the third book removing certain elements (which would have almost any fundamentalist Christian church up in arms) just won’t be possible…
If you aren’t a reader (or prefer to have some things read to you), audible.com has the trilogy, read by a full cast… Highly recommended… (Also available anywhere else audio books are procured (free leech!!)…)
P.S. Great post you linked to Tripp… thanks… good to know not every Christian is flipping out about this wonderful series…
The main reason the Church is in such an upheaval about this movie is not because of the movie itself but the chance that kids will want to read the books.
As noted in comments and in the original post the books had a high theological tone to them. At one point the author stated the book was written to kill god. He was a confirmed atheist and as with any movie that attacks the church they are going to get upset and try to have people not watch it.
Look at Dogma. The Catholic church hates that movie, but for other reasons than this.
I really don;t want to see the movie, but i just wanted to post.
Wow, you really should read that link Tripp posted…
The church (I assume you’re talking Catholic) isn’t in upheaval, it’s divided on this. But, why does the church always want to stop kids from thinking on their own? “Don’t read this book. It will make you evil/wicked or think evil/wicked thoughts”. The church in this series does that to people; We’ll tell you what to think, won’t that be easier? No confusing deep thought needed at all. Don’t worry about any of the stuff you see that disagrees with what we’ve taught you, it must be evil or of the devil if it disagrees with what we say…
The point of this trilogy is that ANYONE who looks at the church in this series of books will think it needs to be taken down… It’s over the top evil… It isn’t any church here in the real world(read:modern world)… IT’S FICTION!!
Tripp, great link. Thanks for posting.
Rob, the Catholic League and Bill Donohue are basically an American Taliban. With them, it’s less about theology or belief and more about controlling people’s thoughts and actions. Arthur Miller once said that Americans like him are really “aching for an Ayatollah,” and I don’t doubt it.
But, I actually consider the Catholic Church relatively progressive in some areas (evolution, for example), so my post wasn’t really a condemnation of them, but instead this particular hideously deformed American mutational offspring.
Also, while the Golden Compass is somewhat anti-religious/anti-Catholic, I think the story strives for a greater point than just “religion is evil.” Instead, I think it’s more about distrusting authority, especially when it falls under unwieldy hands. That could be the current Christiander-in-chief, or it could be a nonbeliever like Josef Stalin. I think that’s the most threatening aspect to people like Donohue–a book that teaches children not to listen to people like him doesn’t grant him much job security.
If a person believes in God, I hardly think that I or Pullman or anyone else sees any harm in that. It’s more about what people do here on earth while justifying their actions through those unseen agents that concerns me (and probably the author as well.)
“Goll-darn-it Mr. Big Jar, you use your tongue prettier than a twenty dollar whore.”