‘The Golden Compass’ – Nothing But Atheistic Propaganda!
Don’t let your children watch this upcoming fantasy film, behind it is nothing but Christian bashing and godlessness!
Religious furor over ‘The Golden Compass’Â
Earlier this fall, many Catholics began to receive e-mail messages warning of the “agenda” behind a “new Children’s movie out in December called ‘The Golden Compass.’ ” The film, these e-mails claimed, was intended to serve as bait for the novel on which it is based, the first in a fantasy trilogy collectively titled “His Dark Materials.” Kids intrigued by the film, the e-mails went on, would be tempted to read the trilogy and might thereby fall into the ideological clutches of its author, Philip Pullman, who seeks nothing less than “to bash Christianity and promote atheism.”
The messages had the breathless, marginally literate quality of rumors about spider eggs in bubble gum. Perhaps that’s why the controversy promptly earned itself a page at www.snopes.com, that venerable Internet clearing house for urban legends. Snopes lists this particular rumor as “true,” presumably because the e-mails use a few genuine, if cherry-picked, quotations from Pullman’s writings and press interviews. But that doesn’t keep the whole thing from being fundamentally ridiculous.
Most preposterous, of course, is the idea that anyone would make a $180-million movie with the purpose of tricking children into reading a seditious book. What self-respecting kid ever needed that much encouragement to ferret out whatever the adults are trying to hide?
Also — whoops! — no one’s been hiding “His Dark Materials.” To date, 15 million copies of Pullman’s books have been sold worldwide. “The Golden Compass” won not only the 1995 Carnegie Medal, a prize awarded by British children’s librarians, but also the “Carnegie of Carnegies,” as the public’s favorite book in the prize’s 70-year history. The final novel in the trilogy, “The Amber Spyglass,” won the Whitbread Book of the Year award in 2001, the first children’s book ever to do so. It’s safe to say that copies of the trilogy reside in every decent children’s library in the nation. If there is indeed a “deceitful stealth campaign” afoot to lure children to Pullman’s books — as William Donohue, spokesman for the Catholic League, insists — it’s remarkably short on stealth.
They’ve made announcements at the church job for the last three weekends encouraging the god-fearing catholics from seeing the movie. My husband and I are going to see it next weekend, and I plan to buy extra tickets for the hell of it.
I think that as followers of Christ we should engage the culture and be thoughtful in our criticism and not just reactionary. I think that a boycott of the film is unnecessary and not helpful.
I posted some thoughts about the Golden Compass on my blog here:
http://provocativechurch.blogspot.com/2007/11/power-of-story.html
Also, ChristianityToday posted a helpful piece by Jeffery Overstreet that give a balanced view and addresses questions and concerns Christians have about the books and movie.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/commentaries/fearnotthecompass.html
PHILLIP PULLMAN A PROFESSED ATHEIST,AND AGNOSTIC,WHO IS AGAINST CHRISTIANITY,AND OUR GOD JAHOVA ,DESERVES TO BE PUT DOWN AND REBELLED AGAINST.WAKE UP AMERICA ,PARENTS GRANDPARENTS ,TEACHERS,ADULTS YOU SHOULD BE BOYCOTTING THE BOOKS,AND MOVIES. DO NOT COWER DOWN AND DO NOT STAY SILENT. BOYCOTT THIS MOVIE, DISCOURAGE YOUR FRIENDS AND RELATIVES FROM SEEING IT OR READING THE BOOKS.
Hahaha, good one. ;)
Funny thing is, I’m less likely to enjoy the movie because (according to Pullman himself) they’ve played down the tone as far as going against authoritarian religions like catholicism…but I had hoped that lots of kids will like it and read the trilogy.
Actually, Jeff, it’s really not toned down that much. It’s just a little bit more subtle than I expected. But knowing that it’s anti-dogma and going into the movie with that in mind, it will seem pretty obvious. It’s a pretty neat film, to be honest!
Ruben Tellez, God hates caps lock.
ruben should switch to decaf. asap.
Guys, I didn’t know that we atheists had meetings to help us determine how we were going ot try and make Christians and Christian children especially come over to our side…
Could somebody please direct me to the nearest one in the Metro-Atlanta area?
I see that Rube(n) can’t even spell properly, but that is to be expected from idiots. I live in Europe and will try to see the film as soon as it comes my direction. Atheists don’t try to convert people only xians play that game. In my opinion the U.S. is now suffering from a serious case of fundie- nut- ism and it must reversed somehow
So, folks like RUBEN do read this blog. Wow, and here I was thinking we were just preaching to the choir;)
It’s like guys who read cosmo, sometimes it’s tempting to see what the girls are reading about guys.
Am I the only one that took Ruben’s post as being sarcastic?*Shrug.*
Oooh, somebody said something about Atheist Meetings. Any of those going on in the Boston area?
Well, in Ruben’s defense, Hispanics are loud (I am) so he might have used the caps lock for that purpose, sorry to say that he did not write anything smart!!!! he is playing a crusader in his quest to get rid of all god’s enemies…….
On the other hand, Bill appears to be a well educated and proper guy. I’ll visit your blog sometime.
Any idea for the atheist conversion group in New Orleans? we need them people switching away from them damn religion down here.
So, for Ruben and Bill, as an ATHEIST, I don’t want to convert anyone to anything, I don’t care if you pray to a rock, to a dead jew on a stick (stealing the line from Carlin) to a blue god with 4 arms (my favorite)……. as long as you respect me not believing in anything magical……..
A book burning, followed by a fatwa on Pullman, it’s the only language these people understand. After all this is the dark ages and….. oh bugger, I set the time machine to the wrong date, sorry.
Hey guys,
We have all heard about the new movie the Golden Compass. When I saw a preview I thought it looked awesome. But then my mom told me some disturbing facts she heard on the radio. I looked into it. All true- and more. This movie is based of a trilogy of books called HIS DARK MATERIALS written by Philip Pullman. This man hated C. S. Lewis and his works THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA. He also hated J. R. R. Tolkien. So Philip wrote atheist books because C. S. Lewis included scripture in his works. Now what really ticked me off (I’m a huge narnia fan) is that this guy is hoping that kids will go and see the movie and want the books for Christmas. Pullman says he wants children to read these books and decide against God and the Kingdom of Heaven. The move is toned down but basically all through these books the characters are trying to kill God!! He said my books are about killing God! He is basically trying to convert people to atheist. Now C. S. Lewis was a strong Catholic but did he try to convert people? NO NO NO! He wrote his books out of his love of writing and his experiences in WW 1. He was actually left for dead on the battle field. Pullman is one twisted man to take these beautiful purely written books and go and trash them. This had me going off so now I want everyone to please forward this. I mean parents don’t know what these books are about! If you don’t believe me go on http://www.snopes.com and type in Golden Compass. This is where I found these quotes. Please spread the word abut this seriously sick man. Thank you.
-Molly M
Hahaha, that’s gold.
C.S. Lewis wrote the chronicles of narina after he converted (from being a strong atheist to christianity) and the principle is clear, ‘believe in Jesus’.
I saw the movie, there was nothing wrong with it. Even a very religious friend of mine saw it and found no religious connotation in it. I literally had to spell out the euphemisms for him to see any correlation.
well ian, the first book is toned down but in 2nd or maybe 3rd they acctually kill God but it is not really him. a lot of Christians dont belive this info because of this. actually C.S. Lewis did not write his books to get his “princibles” across. he wrote them becase he, J.R.R. Tolkien, and other friends realized there weren’t the books they wanted to read available. so they wrote their own. and i dont exactly see whats “gold” about this.
Because you’re reaching. There’s nothing about killing god in the golden compass books, you’ve bought in to propaganda that religious groups want you to believe.
Instead, the books focus on freethinking and not being held down by traditions and old ways.
molly’s not insane…she’s right
she has a mind
She has a mind enough to believe a 2000 year old lie? Gotcha.
ian…molly is my friend…do not say things about her…leave us alone
You come to my website and post, then tell me to leave you two alone?
That’s sorta like knocking at my door, telling me about jesus then when i tell you jesus doesn’t exist you tell me to leave you alone…
Are you serious??
You think that Jesus, your lord and savior, doesnt exist?
What a shocker.
You should read: The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors: Christianity before Christ
http://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Sixteen-Crucified-Saviors-Christianity/dp/1602062803/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199936864&sr=8-1
Description: Khrisna of India. Thammuz of Syria. Esus of the Celtic Druids. Mithra of Persia. Quexalcoati of Mexico. All were crucified gods, and all met their fates hundreds of years before Jesus appeared on the scene. In this foundational work of modern atheism, American spiritualist KERSEY GRAVES (1813-1883) breaks the Christ myth down into its component parts and ably demonstrates how the story of Jesus has its roots in the depths of antiquity. Here you’ll read about the surprising prevalence throughout global folklore of: . the miraculous and immaculate conception of the gods . stars that point out the time and place of a savior’s birth . angels, shepherds, and magi visiting an infant savior . the 25th of December as the universal birth date of gods . saviors who descend into Hell . and much more. This is essential reading for students of comparative mythology and modern freethinkers. Also available from Cosimo: Graves’s The Biography of Satan and The Bible of Bibles
Ya know what? I dont care what you have to say anymore.
And by the way your website SUCKS!!!!!!
Golly, that hurts. A christian nutcase thinks my site sucks, so much so in fact, that she decided to come here, spend time on the site, then tell me so.
Do you always spend so much time engaged in frivolous pastimes? Ah, silly me, ‘Church’.
Yea I love church!!!!
I choose to go and hear what GOD
has to say to ME!!!!
I am a christian. I am Catholic. But come on people! the movie was intended to be watched by kids. To be honest with who ever reads this. i dont think its an aethistic movie.
I know some people say they kill god in it. but if you are going to get mad about that you should be mad at Chronicles of Narnia. In the first movie they kill the one that represents god. i dont care if people get mad at me. just so people know i do belive in god, i do go to church and do things for my church, so people better not think i dont. If it really was an aetheistic movie i think the people wouldnt of released it because they would of known that it would make people mad.
im just stating what i think is right.