Philosophy | Prudence and Madness

Better A Doubt Than Blind Obedience

It seems that the Christian groups protests again will be increasing as the day for the launch of “The Golden Compass” movie, based on the first book of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Trilogy, gets nearer.

Emails have been circulating, warning Christians to beware of watching the film because it “promotes atheism for kids”.

An example of such email is this:

There will be a new children’s movie out in December called “The Golden Compass”. The movie has been described as “atheism for kids”and is based on the first book of a trilogy entitled “His Dark Materials” that was written by Phillip Pullman. Pullman is a militant atheist and secular humanist who despises C. S. Lewis and the “Chronicles of Narnia”. His motivation for writing this trilogy was specifically to counteract Lewis’ symbolisms of Christ that are portrayed in the Narnia series.

Clearly, Pullman’s main objective is to bash Christianity and promote atheism. Pullman left little doubt about his intentions when he said in a 2003 interview that “my books are about killing God.” He has even stated that he wants to “kill God in the minds of children”. It has been said of Pullman that he is “the writer the atheists would be praying for, if atheists prayed.”

While “The Golden Compass” movie itself may seem mild and innocent, the books are a much different story. In the trilogy, a young streetwise girl becomes enmeshed in an epic struggle to ultimately defeat the oppressive forces of a senile God. Another character, an ex-nun, describes Christiaity as “a very powerful and convincing mistake.” In the final book, characters representing Adam and Eve eventually kill God, who at times is called YAHWEH. Each book in the trilogy gets progressively worse regarding Pullman’s hatred of Jesus Christ.

“The Golden Compass” is set to premier on December 7, during the Christmas season (and staring Nicole Kidman), and will probably be heavily advertised.

Promoters hope that unsuspecting parents will take their children to see the movie, that they will enjoy the movie, and that the children will want the books for Christmas.

Please consider a boycott of the movie and the books. Also, pass this information along to everyone you know (including church leaders). This will help to educate parents, so that they will know the agenda of the movie. I am sending this to those of you who have kids or friends with kids, grandkids or have influence with kids. So many things today are darkness concealed in what appears to be innocent.

Don’t let kids see “The Golden Compass”!

This is reminiscent of the days when Christian groups also protested the publication of two controversial books, the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling and Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Groups protested the Harry Potter books because, according to them, the books makes witchcraft enticing to children. Da Vinci Code earned the ire of the religious groups because of its “heretical” suggestions that Jesus had been married to Mary Magdalene and had a family, whose bloodline still exists today and that this information was being hidden by the early Church leaders because it will discourage the worship of Jesus as a divine being.

I do not understand why the groups have to protest the publication of such books, even to the point of burning it, or the showing of the Golden Compass movie when all they’ve got to do is to engage the public (or their constituents) in a dialogue and convince them that what the books and the movies are implying are not true. I do not even understand why they have to have that much hatred on the books and the authors when they do not claim to be speaking the sole “truth”. Goodness, these are fictional stories!

I do understand the concern for children because they are still at the stage when their minds are “malleable”. After all, if the Church has always been afraid of any perceived “threats” to their “infallible” doctrines (infallible until the Pope decides to change it and then the rest of the group will start to forget it has ever been different), how much more when it’s the “innocence” of their kids that are at stake? Have we not almost always shielded children’s minds from trying to know too much and ask for mere unquestioning obedience? Have we not, from the day they were born, chose what they should believe in for them?

But then, that’s just the whole point of the trilogy: let the children go and search for knowledge and let them have doubts if they will.

Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Trilogy isn’t only about “killing God”. Though he may have been quoted (or misquoted) for saying that, a more important purpose of the book is always ignored, with protesters favoring to highlight a strong, easily misunderstood, easily manipulated statement to push an agenda.

The books are not merely about killing a “God” as we know in this world. Rather, Pullman is more intent on killing what “God” stands for in his book: oppression of free will. He wants to celebrate the quest for knowledge and the use of reason, two values which organized religion have tried to suppress for all time it has existed. And these are two values that we must instill in our malleable children. It is better to have a child who continually ask questions than a child who’s conditioned to take in, without doubt, everything that is fed to him.

It would be futile to compress all discussions about the trilogy in just one post as there are numerous fundamental and philosophical ideas explored in this literary work.

So, for those who chose to give this movie/trilogy a chance and listen to what it is trying to voice out, then maybe I’ll just see you in the movie theaters on December 7 or just wait for you to post about it after reading the books.

For those who chose to close their minds to the alternative views this movie/trilogy is offering out of fear that it may corrupt them and their beliefs, then go protest why you judge this film/trilogy unfit for the human mind. Protest that because you find it offensive, then other people, even those who don’t find it such, should not watch it too and so ban the film. Protest that your faith do not allow you to entertain doubts because it degrades you as less of a believer. Protest that those are lies and say that you know what the truth is.

And while doing all of the above, I’ll leave you an advice to ponder:

“Shake off all fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of God because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.”

- Thomas Jefferson

Postscript:

A little spoiler - I’d like to disagree with what the email said about God being killed in the end. In the last book of the trilogy, the Amber Spyglass, Lyra and Will, while looking for their daemons, found cliff ghasts (mountain ghosts) attacking God in his glass case, as he’s being spirited away by angels to a safer place because the war of Kingdom of Heaven vs. Republic of Heaven had begun. Lyra and Will attacked the cliff ghasts and released God from his glass case, of which he looked at them kindly and dissolved into the wind.

My take on this part of the story is that God, himself, one of the first angels that has been created out of Dust, did not want any part in this war nor would he want the leadership to oppress and manipulate humankind. And when Lyra and Will released him, I imagine that he had been thankful to the two. In my opinion, God, liar though he is for proclaiming that he created all the angels that had been created after him, represents the spirit of the living and by dissolving in the wind, the particles of which he was composed goes back to which he came from: Dust.