Film's dark side

Contrary to film reviewer Roger Moore's hype that "The Golden Compass," based on British atheist author Philip Pullman's like-titled book, is a harmless children's fantasy adventure , Pullman is on the record ...

[Good Grief]

Jeez Louise guy. Give it a rest. It is nothing more than fiction. The book was wonderful and so was the movie. And you don't have to look that far back into history to witness the churches oppression of the common folk. Limiting what scientists could or could not say, burning books and witches and controlling what people could or could read (or think). Oh, and the people had to pay big time to buy their way into heaven.

Besides, I didn't hear of anyone getting their feathers ruffled over the Chronicles of Narnia, which had obvious references to Christianity. Oh, but that kind of bias is ok for you. Plus that was also fictional and a very good book and movie!

[gaw]

This sort of repression is one of the reasons I quit Christianity many years ago. Like Santa and the tooth fairy, I finally realized how much fantasy was in it. The only difference is that Santa and the tooth fairy never repressed or killed anyone.

[2 Funny]

gaw wrote:

This sort of repression is one of the reasons I quit Christianity many years ago. Like Santa and the tooth fairy, I finally realized how much fantasy was in it. The only difference is that Santa and the tooth fairy never repressed or killed anyone.

Good points.

[Islander native]

The author makes a few good references but the reality is that The Compass isn't going to lead people to Satan anymore than Narnia is going to lead someone to God.

If a person is so susceptiple to persuasion that a movie will forever change his life I suggest renting The Jerk, Blazing Saddles, and Airplane. All are monumental classics that won't tax your simple mind.

[wandawhat]

Narnia was written while Lewis was still an atheist. Are people seeing that at all? No. Instead they see a book that they think is about God by a guy who later on became religious instead of a book by an atheist. You believe and infer what you want instead of what really is there.
And who cares if Compass "kills God." No kid is going to get that from the book or movie because it is far over their heads, most of you wouldn't get it if you read the book and were never told about that interview.

[fromNN]

"Lewis has also received criticism from Christians and Christian organizations who feel that The Chronicles of Narnia promotes "soft sell paganism and occultism", because of the recurring pagan themes and the supposedly heretical depictions of Christ as an anthropomorphic lion. Satyrs, fauns, centaurs, dwarves, giants, and even the pagan god Bacchus and the Maenads are depicted in a positive light, although they are distinctly pagan motifs. Even an animistic "River god" is portrayed in a positive light (Chattaway 2005),(Berit 2005). According to Josh Hurst of Christianity Today, "not only was Lewis hesitant to call his books Christian allegory, but the stories borrow just as much from pagan mythology as they do the Bible" (Hurst 2005).

Lewis himself believed that pagan mythology could act as a preparation for Christianity, both in history and in the imaginative life of an individual, and even suggested that modern man was in such a lamentable state that perhaps it was necessary "first to make people good pagans, and after that to make them Christians" (Lewis, Calabria & Moynihan 1998). He also argued that imaginative enjoyment of (as opposed to belief in) classical mythology has been a feature of Christian culture through much of its history, and that European literature has always had three themes: the natural, the supernatural believed to be true (Christianity) and the supernatural known to be imaginary (mythology)."

"In the book Mere Christianity, Lewis famously criticized the idea that Jesus was merely a human being, albeit a great moral teacher:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.(Lewis 1952, p. 43)

Lewis argues that Jesus made many claims to divinity, either explicitly or implicitly. As a result, he said, there are only three possible options:

1. Jesus was telling falsehoods and knew it, and so he was a liar.
2. Jesus was telling falsehoods but believed he was telling the truth, and so he was insane.
3. Jesus was telling the truth, and so he was divine.

Lewis’s argument was used by the Christian apologist Josh McDowell in his book More Than a Carpenter (McDowell 2001). The term "trilemma" (which Lewis did not use) is often used to refer to this argument. Although widely repeated in Christian apologetic literature, it has been largely ignored by professional theologians and biblical scholars.[5]

Lewis' trilemma appeared at a time when scholars such as Albert Schweitzer and Rudolf Bultmann had portrayed Jesus' miracles and resurrection as myths. The concept that Jesus was not God but a wise man had gained ground in academic circles. The trilemma opposes the idea that Jesus was not divine, without relying on miracles for proof. In accepting the premise that Jesus had claimed divinity, he contradicted a viewpoint, popularized by H. G. Wells in his Outline of History, that Jesus had made no such claim.

Lewis restated the trilemma's structure in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, when Professor Kirke advises the young heroes that their sister's claims of a magical world must logically be taken as either lies, madness, or truth."

By the way, Lewis was Pullman's biggest influence.

[Hysterium]

gaw wrote:

This sort of repression is one of the reasons I quit Christianity many years ago. Like Santa and the tooth fairy, I finally realized how much fantasy was in it. The only difference is that Santa and the tooth fairy never repressed or killed anyone.

Well - the Tooth Fairy killed my friend by giving her a heart atack when she (the Tooth Fairy) crept into her (my friend's) room at the age of 85 (my friend's age) to steal her dentures! And, another friend of mine is still afraid of Santa after the time she got up in the middle of the night on Christmas eve and went to the bathroom only to find Santa in there using the commode! HeHeHe

[Good Books]

I recommend everyone read his books. It is great FICTION!

[Wake up]

Since we are supposed to be educated people,why do believe the teachings of a book wrote 2000 years ago by people who swore that the planet was flat and we were the center of the universe and so on?

[Luis J Orozco II]

Thanks for the hint. I had never heard of Philip Pullman, but thanks to all the warnings by the Christian far right, I went down to a local bookstore and bought all three books in his trilogy. I also went to see the movie (Golden Compass.) At last we have a good... No A Great author, who is not afraid to tell it like it really is, although I must say I was sorry they watered down the movie. I found out that he has written 15 books in all, and I for one will be buying every single one of them in hardback, and as many in 1st editions as I can find. This guy is a really great writer. Thanks again the Christian right wing for letting us know!

[Marc]

These are some of the most amazing books ever written. It is bewildering to read all the stupidity floating on the internet about an 'anti-Christian' message in those books. There is absolutely nothing anti-Christian in those books, far from it. Then again, if you believe Earth is flat and at the centre of the Universe, then the entire story might a bit too evolved for you.

[Andy]

What saddens me is that the vast majority of the hysteria is from folks who HAVE NOT READ THE BOOKS or SEEN THE MOVIE! They here a tidbit of something, most likely out of context, and like parrots squawk it up and down the city block.

Instead of entering into a positive dialogue on how Christian principles are different from those espoused in The Golden Compass, folks just rail against it entirely. Besides, while it does question God's usefulness and all by the end of the third book, TGC really takes a stab at organized religion and how it controls all aspects of a society (be it the Catholic Church, as many surmise, or the Church of England - the state-headed church of Pullman's country, England).

[Molly]

Yes, Yorktown John, it's clear who the film's bad guys are because it's clear that the church is the "bad guy" in real life too.

A great irony in this is that the whole point of the series is to make people realize how domineering and controlling the church is. Then what happens? As soon as the movie comes out, the church actually demonstrates how comineering and controlling it is by organizing boycotts, spreading half-truths, and trying to strong-arm the public into demonizing the movie (just as John is unwittingly doing in this post).

A greater irony is that many people who intentionally avoided the Golden Compass went to see Atonement instead, rocketing it up the charts and foisting seven Golden Globe nominations upon it.

Atonement, by the way, was also written by an atheist, and he has publicly stated that the film's main character is an atheist too.

Imagine that: Snubbing the fantasy film in favor of a deeply humanistic film about real-life atheists making moral choices and handling the real human trials of life.

[Bruce in Orlando]

On no! I saw my shadow following me aroung. Light is god and shadow is not light. I am being chased by forces that wish to blot out the light of god.

A thousand christian based movies are going to be blotted out by SATAN!

Write more often. We need the laughs.