"We Believe in God" -- The Greatest Minds Believed

 Is God Cruel?

PHILIP PULLMAN: CRITICISMS AND REBUTTALS

     Christopher Hitchens just finished having his hour on the anti-Christian stage and now enter Philip Pullman, an admitted Christianity basher and a writer of children books clearly meant to undermine Christianity. I just finished reading Pullman's biography, and it is most enlightening. He lost his father, in a plane crash in 1953, when he was only seven. He went to live with his grandfather, an English "clergyman," soon after. An early loss of a parent can lead to confusion and resentment toward God. Some kids conclude that it was God who took the parent away, thus holding within themselves bitterness that later on may transform itself into full-blown atheism.

     Going to live with an old "clergyman" grandfather "may" have added fuel to the fire, especially if he was the very conservative type that a child would resent. Add the two factors together and you might  have the ideal foundation for resentment toward God and Christianity. Pullman is full of both.

     Should parents allow their children to read his God-undermining books? Secular forces will say "yes." Some liberal pseudo-Christians may actually say "yes" as well. Christians with common sense will instead say, "Don't hand your kids to the lions!"  He is an "admitted" lion who wants to divest your kids of all faith in the Christian God.  Don't let his "fable-framed," "Satanic" Trilogy  get even close to your kids. God demands that we protect our kids from types such as Pullman, and we have the duty to follow His expectations.

Michael C.

Revealing information about Pullman's Trilogy from Chris Weitz, the Director of the movie "The Golden Compass."

"In the second book, "The Subtle Knife," one of the main characters, Will, is told he possesses a magical knife that can "defeat the tyrant,” which is identified as “The Authority. God."

"In the final book of the series, "The Amber Spyglass," “God” is portrayed as a phony and liar. Will is told by two fallen homosexual angels that “The Authority” goes by many names including, "God, the Creator, the Lord, Yahweh, El, Adonai, the King, the Father, the Almighty,” although “he was never the creator.” “God” was just the first angel to be created from “Dust.” By the series’ end, the characters succeed in killing him."

“Whereas ‘The Golden Compass’ had to be introduced to the public carefully, the religious themes in the second and third books can’t be minimized without destroying the spirit of these Golden Compass' Director Pledges Not to 'Water Down' Anti-God Sequels."

Phan, Katherine T.,  '"Golden Compass' Director Pledges Not to 'Water Down' Anti-God Sequels." The Christian Post Web Site, Nov. 21 2007. <http://www.christianpost.com/article/20071121/30172_%27Golden_Compass%27_Director_Pledges_Not_to_%27Water_Down%27_Anti-God_Sequels.htm> (22 July, 2008).

Revealing quotes from the New Yorker about Pullman's outspoken atheistic views.

"...he is one of England’s most outspoken atheists. In the trilogy, a young girl, Lyra Belacqua, becomes enmeshed in an epic struggle against a nefarious Church known as the Magisterium; another character, an ex-nun turned particle physicist named Mary Malone, describes Christianity as “a very powerful and convincing mistake.” Pullman once told an interviewer that “every single religion that has a monotheistic god ends up by persecuting other people and killing them because they don’t accept him.” Peter Hitchens, a conservative British columnist, published an article about Pullman entitled “This Is the Most Dangerous Author in Britain,” in which he called him the writer “the atheists would have been praying for, if atheists prayed.” (Emphasis mine)

"Pullman is a rangy, spirited man in his fifties with a bristling fringe of gray hair; at times, he resembles an intelligent and amused stork. At the lectern, he began, “Quite what prompted you to ask me to talk about religious education I can’t immediately see. . . . Given that I’ve voiced some criticisms of religion in the past, and that various Christian groups have expressed their criticisms of me, it might be that whatever I said on the subject would be hostile in any case.” He smiled. “Well, I hope it won’t be that. But we shall see.” He went on, “I don’t profess any religion; I don’t think it’s possible that there is a God; I have the greatest difficulty in understanding what is meant by the words ‘spiritual’ or ‘spirituality’; but I think I can say something about moral education, and I think it has something to do with the way we understand stories.”

"In “His Dark Materials,” Pullman’s criticisms of organized religion come across as anti-authoritarian and anti-ascetic rather than anti-doctrinal. (Jesus isn’t mentioned in any of the books, although Pullman has hinted that He might figure in a forthcoming sequel, “The Book of Dust.”) His fundamental objection is to ideological tyranny and the rejection of this world in favor of an idealized afterlife, regardless of creed. As one of the novel’s pagan characters puts it, “Every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling.”

Miller, Laura. "Far From Narnia Philip Pullman’s Secular Fantasy for Children."  The New Yorker, December 26, 2005.  <http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/12/26/051226fa_fact>  (22 July 2008).

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