+A.M.D.G.+

The Atheistic Compass

Comments (2)

• Comment by alessandro — 21 November 2007 at 15:00

  Administrators at Wikipedia have repeatedly removed entries regarding the religious perspectives in The Golden Compass and Philip Pullman’s work. Here’s an entry that I had recently posted:
  

  Northern Lights (aka The Golden Compass) has been controversial with many Christian groups, as they argue that, in it and the other His Dark Materials books, Pullman actively pursues anti-Christian agenda. At first glance, The Golden Compass itself may seem mild and innocent, and an exciting children’s tale. Indeed, it shares much with the Chronicles of Narnia. For example, both The Golden Compass and Narnia feature children facing adult moral choices, talking animals, religious allegories, parallel worlds, and concern the ultimate fate of those worlds. They even begin the same way, with a young girl hiding in a wardrobe. But the similarities end there — as the main plot features a young streetwise girl who becomes enmeshed in an epic struggle to ultimately defeat the oppressive forces of a senile God.

  Each book in the trilogy gets progressively worse regarding Pullman’s militant atheism. Detailed discussion of the religious perspectives in Pullman’s work are present on Pullman’s wikipedia page.

  The Golden Compass book, movie and video game are being boycotted by the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.

  My entries were deleted within two minutes by the administrator. His response:
  

  Please do not add commentary or your own personal analysis to Wikipedia articles, as you did to Philip Pullman. Doing so violates Wikipedia’s neutral point of view policy and breaches the formal tone expected in an encyclopedia. If you would like to experiment, use the sandbox. Thank you. Specifically, the part about Pullman’s “hatred of Jesus Christ.” Same with Northern Lights (novel). Again, you’re going to need to avoid value judgments such as “progressively worse”, and limit yourself to relying on reliable sources rather than your own opinion. NawlinWiki (talk) 17:58, 21 November 2007 (UTC)

  But then why was some pro-Pullman discussion left on the main Pullman page? Consider this:

  Pullman has found support from other Christians, most notably Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury. These groups and individuals point out that Pullman’s negative portrayal of the “Church” in His Dark Materials amounts to an attack on dogmatism and the use of religion to oppress, not on Christianity itself. Dr. Williams has gone so far as to propose that His Dark Materials in schools. Moreover, even authors of works dedicated to critical appraisals of religious themes in his writing have described Pullman as a friendly and generous debating partner be taught as part of religious education[8].

  Other Christian writers, such as Kurt Bruner and Jim Ware, while finding his anti-Christian position troubling, “also uncover spiritual themes within the books, which, like shafts of light, break through an otherwise gloomy universe—despite Pullman’s best efforts to keep them out. In the end, the authors argue that Pullman offers an unwitting tribute to the God he intended to discredit.”[9] in their book Shedding Light on His Dark Materials.

  My response to the admin:

  As you’re an administrator, there’s no way for me to fight you by re-adding this content. However, I feel that your removal of this discussion is biased in the opposite direction and borders on being anti-Catholic. What I wrote was a general statement of the Christian perspective of the book and Pullman’s work in general, with some specific quotes from Pullman himself. I even modified my own entries on the The Golden Compass page to LIMIT discussion to the religious perspectives present in that work itself, while posting a note that religious perspectives of Pullman’s other work were discussed at greater length on the main Philip Pullman page. Instead of just removing what I wrote, why don’t you help me rephrase it so the discussion is still there, but it is referenced appropriately to be accepted. Please don’t abuse your administrative authority.

  I am still waiting for a response.

  Yet another demonstration that secular humanists rule the world and that anti-Catholicism is one of the few biases that is openly tolerated in the U.S./Europe today.

• Comment by alessandro — 21 November 2007 at 15:05

  A few people in the forums at Catholic Answers who have read my (and others’, such as Catholic League’s) stance against The Golden Compass didn’t react very favorably. A usual reply: “Come on, it’s just a novel!” or “You’re over-reacting. Kids are smarter than that! They’re not idiots!” or “Reading Harry Potter isn’t going to turn them into witches!” In response, let me explain.

  Kids are not idiots. I never said that they were.

  But shielding them from secular humanism and militant atheism is really no different from shielding kids from drugs or sex or violence in the media. Obviously most kids are smart enough to know that drugs are bad and that violence is bad and that they shouldn’t have premarital sex. But allowing them to be exposed to movies with gratuitous debauchery can numb their senses and blunt their better instincts.

  Look, reading Harry Potter is not going to make children into witches. Nor is seeing The Golden Compass or playing the video game going to make kids pray to demons. But, that said, each is yet another thing that builds upon the other bad influences to which they are exposed by this Culture of Death.

  Gradually, then, it may build to the point where the balance is tipped, and the ‘natural morality’ of secular humanism becomes more attractive than the ’supernatural morality’ of the Faith. Choosing one’s own way — picking what to believe — is preferable to the duty-laden and difficult way of the Church. So they start to feel that they can be ‘deep’ and ’spiritual’ without going to Mass. They may believe that there is no need for Confession because sin doesn’t really matter; it’s just good or bad choices in life. They don’t need to pray because there isn’t someONE to pray to, just a general sense of spiritual awareness to become attuned to.

  This is how the devil works — not usually by possession or converting people to satanists or occultists or sadists, but by gradually increasing the distance between someone and God.

  Remember The Screwtape Letters? Also a work of fiction, but incredibly insightful. Makes you think…

  Lex orandi, lex credendi. If you take aware the prayer; take away the turning toward God; then the person starts to believe that he has the power, within himself, to run his own life. And that’s the fatal mistake that can doom him to Hell.

  Anyway, this is what the anxiety over these secularist (let alone militant atheist) works is all about. We’re not worried that our kids will start wearing witching hats or shouting spells or what have you. We’re worried that they will fall further from the Faith.

Leave a comment

Search

• Browse Archives
• Browse References

Bookshelf

The Compleat Gentleman
Brad Miner

Transformation in Christ
Dietrich von Hildebrand

About

• About miserere.org
• Contact us
• Guestbook
•