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WM comment: Christians are all in an uproar over a new movie that is coming out in December.



(From LifeSiteNews.com) - The best selling novels of atheist author Philip Pullman which were written specifically to indoctrinate children with anti-Christian values, have sparked the creation of a controversial new fantasy film to be released this December 7 by New Line Cinema - a Time Warner Company.

Starring Nicole Kidman, "The Golden Compass," is based on Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy, which includes "Northern Lights" (re-titled "The Golden Spyglass" in the United States), "The Subtle Knife" and "The Amber Spyglass." Pullman wrote these books with the intention of indoctrinating children with atheistic values. While the full interpretation and presentation of the movie has not yet been seen, the books' underlying message promotes antagonism towards Christianity.

According to UK's Daily Mail, Pullman has repeatedly stated his belief that God is dead, and the author incorporates this theme into the second book when God dies. In 2000 Pullman also stated before an Oxford literary conference, "We're used to the Kingdom of Heaven; but you can tell from the general thrust of the book that I'm of the devil's party, like Milton. And I think it's time we thought about a republic of Heaven instead of the Kingdom of Heaven. The King is dead. That's to say I believe the King is dead."

He continued, "I'm an atheist. But we need Heaven nonetheless, we need all the things that Heaven meant, we need joy, we need a sense of meaning and purpose in our lives, we need a connection with the universe, we need all the things the Kingdom of Heaven used to promise us but failed to deliver."

Pullman and fellow children's author Michael Rosen produced a course on atheism for schools called 'Why Atheism?' that is designed for children 11-years and older. Pullman told the Independent, "What I fear and deplore in the faith school camp is their desire to close argument down and put some things beyond question or debate. It's vital to get clear in young minds what is a faith position and what is not-so that, for instance, they won't be taken in by religious people claiming that science is a faith position no different in kind from Christianity."

(Read the March 2006 Independent article "Why Philip Pullman Wants to Teach Kids Atheism": http://education.independent.co.uk/schools/article348592.ece ).

The trilogy consistently gives a negative portrayal of the Catholic Church. Priests-one of whom is an assassin-are evil and violent while one positive character is an ex-nun who has lost her faith. There is even a pair of "sexually ambiguous" angels. The main problem, however, as one Amazon reviewer noted, is that "The evil in this story is God". The reviewer stated, "I realized part way through the second book, that the characters Lyra had been fighting against, and I had been rooting against were God, His Angels, and His followers."

According to the Brisbane Times, the Kidman denied that the film is anti-Catholic, stating that her Catholic faith affected her consideration for the film script. She claimed, "I was raised Catholic, the Catholic Church is part of my essence."

She continued, "I wouldn't be able to do this film if I thought it were at all anti-Catholic." According to Entertainment Weekly, the religious elements have been removed from the movie, as Kidman claimed, "It has been watered down a little." Nevertheless, the movie trailer introduces a world that is "dominated by the Magisterium, which seeks to control all humanity, and whose greatest threat, is the curiosity of a child."

In context of the anti-religious books, the movie is making an obvious negative parallel with the Catholic Church. The dark and evil organization called "the Magisterium" in the film has the same name as the body that makes up the Catholic Church's teaching authority - the bishops in union with the Pope. The Magesterium in the film kidnaps children in order to take out their souls, CathNews reports.

Towards the end of the trailer, the voice-over states, "The magisterium seeks to control every world, every universe. Nothing will stop them from trying to take over."

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Comments:
Anonymous Chucky Jesus said...
The truth hurts, doesn't it?

This looks like a wonderful film for me and my family.


Blogger Left of Center said...
My oldest son just finnished the harry Potter series. These look like a good choice for his next.


Blogger Rob. said...
Fine, than I demand the Christians apologize for the Left Behind series and every Jesus movie ever made.

Give me a break.


Anonymous Anonymous said...
I'm with Chucky. Sounds like a great movie my family as well.

My kids are questioning this god thing and I've spent quite a lot of time explaining why people believe in imaginary things. I've also explained the dangers of these superstitions and warned my kids that we don't discuss religion with anyone outside our family. You can probably imagine the kind of reactions we got from acquaintances when my then 5-year old son proudly announced that he doesn't believe in god. (He's a very intelligent boy - I'm so proud)

What we really need is a similar movie showing the dangers of the Muslim religion - those folks are even scarier than Christians.

Anywho, cheers from up here in Canada.

Derrick.


Blogger freethinker05 said...
In the near future, I hope we see alot more anti-religious movies; maybe the next generation will make the world a more securer place to live, if or when religions become extinct. roger...A/A


Anonymous THE ACE said...
I can see why this movie would be considered controversial, but the last time I checked, we still lived in a free country, where we
should be able to show and see any
movies we want to show and see.

Maybe the Bible-beaters should actually see the film before they
start their usual self-righteous
whining and bitching?


Blogger Monk said...
I read these a few years ago and loved them! I'm glad they're making the movies...I just wish that they would NOT water them down!

Having said that, I can see why christians would be worked up if it's even close to the books. What cracks me up is that SOME christian SOMEWHERE has read it, otherwise how would they know about it?

This thing is the complete antithesis to C.S. Lewis, and it is not nearly as subtle. It skips the allegory and makes it EXPLICITLY clear what's going on in terms of good guys and bad.

Religion aside, it's a powerful story, and I'm looking forward to seeing the movie adaptations. These should give Narnia a run for its money!


Anonymous Anonymous said...
I swear, I don't remember anyone picketing "The Passion" or "The Chronicles of Narnia."

I'm Agnostic myself, but if anyone wants to help picket Christian films and aggravate the ever-loving shit out of them when THEY release a film, by all means, LET ME KNOW.

Lee


Anonymous trancelation said...
Just to illustrate the point that Christians have the attention span of a brainwashed gnat, the writer of the article says that the book was retitled "The Golden Spyglass" in North America. Lovely. I wonder what OTHER details they missed in their knee-jerk antagonism.


Blogger Robert said...
Each day that I'm alive on this planet, my hatred for organized religion grows stronger and stronger. I'm an ex-Catholic who didn't believe as a child and don't believe as I'm heading towards 50. This world would be a better place if we all just believed that someone or something has created life but it has no bearing on our lives here. We are on our own and woshiping some imaginary friend is not the asnwer and not why we're here. This is just common sense to me and I don't see how people don't see this. I saw it at the age of 8. Grow up religious fanatics, we are not that important in the scheme of things..We matter while we'er here and alive for those lives we touch, but a supreme being didn't create us for it to be worshiped the entire time we alive..Think about it...


Blogger freethinker05 said...
Robert, it took me approx.48 yrs. of 51 to see the point and truth you speak of. I envy you for being so young to figure out the bullshit of religion. Peace, Roger...A/A


Blogger twincats said...
About damn time! I can’t wait; this will be one of the few films I’ll have to see in the theater.

Of course the religious will have to bitch and moan, they always do! The ones who can’t resist seeing the movie will do so with the excuse that they need to warn the rest of the faithful who will protest it without ever seeing it (or at least claiming they have not and will not see it.)

I thought the comment about “sexually ambiguous angels” was odd considering I never heard anything about the character Gabriel (very sexually ambiguous archangel) in the movie “Constantine.”


Anonymous trancelation said...
Christians have more of a chance than ever to help improve today's world - but instead, they spend their time bitching and moaning about what everybody else thinks of them! And this is the crowd that supposedly believes in a book which tells them to BLESS the people who criticize them! HA!

I hope Christians continue this deplorable behavior. This way, people will continue to be pushed away from the hypocrisy of religion. The fact that this film is headed to theathers - and being put there by such a major studio as New Line Cinema - is a big step in the right direction. Hopefully this will lead the way for more free-thinking films to head into theathers, and continue to urge the public to THINK. Bravo!

I would love to say that Jesus would despise what modern Christians have made of Christianity, but it has been shown time and again that Jesus never existed. And for all we know, he might even be proud of it!


Blogger eel_shepherd said...
trancelation wrote:
"... Just to illustrate the point that Christians have the attention span of a brainwashed gnat, the writer of the article says that the book was retitled `The Golden Spyglass' in North America..."

Probably couldn't bring himself to refer to a tube that grows longer before it's put to use...


Anonymous Styx said...
hhhmmm, almost(from reading description and seeing trailer) the atheist version of TCON...

Yes the double standard of Christianity, they must be pandered to, they must have their ideal respected and above all at that; when something else is expressed, "oh it's christian bigotry, it's an outrage"...
Yes, the arrogance with them is so thick...


Blogger anakin said...
Fuck how the christians. If they don't like this film, they can take it and shove it up their asses!


Anonymous Anonymous said...
The pullman books are are pretty bad-ass, I just hope the film can do them justice.

Also, I object to the term "Indoctrination", "Counter-indoctrination" would be closer to the truth.


Anonymous Anonymous said...
The funny thing is; having read the first book I don't remembe the words "catholic", "christian", "Yahweh" or even "God" anywhere in them. Perhaps the real reason they are so annoyed is that hey see more of themselves in the Magisterium and more of their god in The Authority than they would like to admit.


Anonymous perianwalsh said...
this is a great book-i havent finish yet anyway-and the trailer is one of the best i have ever seen- my 5* for that-and i have no idea the author is atheist-i mean,anyone who read the first line of the book is about God---maybe i just havent finish yet


Anonymous LosingMyReligion said...
I'll mark my calendar for this one. Anything the catholic church hates must be good.


Blogger Mikayla Starstuff said...
That clinches it...I'm buying the book!


Blogger Astreja said...
To Herman: Stop spamming our board with irrelevant Bibliosities. We're discussing Pullman's fiction here, not that silly little anthology of Judeo-Christian folktales.


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