The Heresy of "His Dark Materials"
"Atheism for kids. That is what Philip Pullman sells". So sayeth the "Catholic League" in disgusted tones. Now this really makes quite angry, and I am not often angry. SO WHAT IF HE IS SELLING ATHEISM FOR KIDS IT'S JUST ANOTHER WORLD VIEW, STOP MAKING IT SOUND LIKE WE ARE SELLING DEADLY DISEASES, WE'RE NOT! Also, lets face it, it's not us that are preaching babies with wings in the sky. If the Catholic League (lets call them CL) dared to say in such horrified tones that they are "selling Islam for Kids" the lot of them would probably be locked up for inciting religious hatred. However, they're insulting atheism so of course it's ok, it doesn't matter, in fact it's quite good so they'll put it on their main site. As long as they can shield the eyes of their religious children away from such obviously demonic films, books and other forms of freedom of expression for those bringers of evil... the a-t-h-e-i-s-t-s.
I'm sorry, I should really explain what the hell I'm going on about before launching into a rant... but I just needed to let it out of my system, sorry. So, in honor of the genre of art about which I base the post, let's have an exposition:
MARY in a delightfully sweet Julie Andrews style voice: Once upon a time there lived an atheist and this atheist's name was Mr Pullman. Mr Pullman was scholar, he attended Oxford and soon after realized much to his delight that he was a rather dab hand a writing. Being an intelligent man and aware of the importance of the littlest in our society Mr Pullman began writing children's books and was soon very successful! After a while it occurred to Mr Pullman to try to combine his love of writing children's books with his interest in the religious and more specifically atheism. Therefore he proceeded to pen a trilogy of books.
CHILD 1: Whats "trilogy"?
MARY: It means a series of three books. The name he gave to this trilogy was "His Dark Materials", rather grand and impressive don't you think?
CHILD 2: It's a wonderful name!
MARY: I'm glad you like it! Anyway, this story was about a wonderful adventure involving a girl called Lyra who crossed between worlds, saw spirits, angels and eventually.. "The Authority"!
CHILD 3: Who's "The Authority?"
MARY: It's the name nice Mr Pullman gave to God. You see he knew it was for children and he knew mummies and daddies would never let their children read it if it was horrible about God. But of course, we know that you're more intelligent than that! Now, where was I? Oh yes, the book published and it was great success! However, there were mumblings of protest among the Catholic church but they were fairly quiet mumblings so people generally ignored them. However, many many years later, a film began to be produced of the books and the mumblings promptly got a lot louder.
CHILD 2: Why were the nice church people complaining?
MARY: Well some of them felt that the films and books were offensive to their religion, in fact they hoped that the film would do badly in the box office. You see, they didn't seem to want their children to read any other points of view apart from their religion. Not even in storybooks. The CL said "no parent who wants to bring their children up in the faith will want any part of these books"
CHILD 4: But it's just a story!
MARY: That's a wonderful point, I think you should tell the CL that. In fact, here's £10 for you to buy it yourself.
THE END
You see another thing that annoys me about this whole lark is that the films are being religiously (in both senses) watered down so as to not offend the religious. In fact I've heard the first film has no reference to God whatsoever. I do wonder however what they are going to do when they get to book 3, which very very obviously deals with religious themes such as angels, heaven, hell, free will, body and soul, consciousness and of course God who is portrayed as a very fragile physical being who in fact dies during the book (spoiler, highlight to read). It will be such a shame if this film turns out not to be all that it could be because of some extreme censorship, it really will.
That was quite a long post so I would like to end properly, with a thought that that you can "take home with you" as it were. It is one of (if not the) last sentences in the book. It is a sentiment expressed by a main character a sums up much of the book, paraphrased it is - let us together build and live in the Republic of Heaven.
Yup, the Republic of Heaven.
Why Christian groups are so intense about this matter is because to them
(and me) it is worse then selling drugs. Selling/Doing drugs is bad, don't
get me wrong, but condemning your soul to eternal damnation is just a
little bit worse.
It's not that I want to "shield" my children from opposing world views, ie
views which aren't Catholic, it's just that there would seem to be some
rather suggestive material in here that are at the core, absolutely
unacceptable and counter to Truth. Now, of course any sympathizer of
atheism is going to respond..."so what?" My purpose is not to argue what
is otherwise obvious. Now, as a Catholic and as a human being, I am aware
of the human condition, and I am also starkly aware of the so-called
freedom of expression umbrella many "artists" like to hide under... Let me
say, it's not true freedom, rather the desire to indulge in self deceptive
forms of play that they're after. Ah, that's all a part of the struggle,
isn't it? Look, all the Catholic League wants to do is inform parents of
the subversive and dangerous nature this sort of "art" cloaked in fantasy
literature presents for their children.
Well, what both your comments seem to be based on is the idea that merely
watching this film/reading the book is somehow dangerous to children (or
perhaps to any god -fearing person). Shannon, you say that the material
covered is contrary to the the truth as you see it, I completely understand
that you would disagree with the views put forth in the books, but just
because they are contrary to the truth, does it mean they are dangerous?
Would you consider it dangerous for you child to learn about Hinduism
because what they believe is the truth is different to what you see as the
thruth? I doubt you would, you would perhaps (in my opinion hopefully)
consider it enriching to your child's life to learn about other systems of
belief and cultures. It's the same with the books/films. Atheist truth =
there is no God, Christian truth = there is a God. And yet I enjoy Bible
stories and also believe I should educate myself about other religions both
for a better world view and out of respect for those religions, and I hope
that in the same way Christians and Christian children (and indeed people
of every faith) can enjoy atheist stories, which really is all this is.
Travis, you compare it to doing drugs, I could perhaps understand that view
when it comes to PRACTICING atheism, but surely, just watching an atheist
film and giving it some thought will not condem your soul!
Gandhi afterall read the bible, he didn't think that reading the teachings
of another belief corrupted his soul, on the contrary, he believed that it
made him a better Hindu.
Well said Mary Kelly. It always appears to me that religious people trying
to warn others about the content of films, plays, books etc - or even
trying to STOP others seeing them - suggests a less than robust faith on
their part. If their faith was strong and genuine, they would be able to
rise above what others might be saying about it. And by the way shannon,
your faith is based on BELIEF - not "truth".
What I LOVE about the story is that it's not even a war against any "real
God" but against an angel who THINKS he is God. (being the very first
angel, he thought he created everything that came after him). If anything
these books can be seen as PRO-religious, for what religion would want to
follow a false God? It also revives (and revitalizes) the myth of Adam and
Eve.