November 27, 2007

Golden Compass Author Hits Back

The author of the book on which the new film The Golden Compass is based has hit back at critics who accuse him of peddling "candy-coated atheism".

Philip Pullman dismissed as "absolute rubbish" accusations by the US-based Catholic League that the film promotes atheism and denigrates Christianity.

"I am a story teller," he said. "If I wanted to send a message I would have written a sermon."

The Golden Compass - which stars Nicole Kidman - premiers in London on Tuesday.
Oh noes! An Atheist wrote something! What Is the catholic league so frightened of?

Atheists didn't call for a boycott of Gibson's Smashin' of the christ. We called it self-serving, homo-erotic, bloodthirsty tripe. But we didn't call for a boycott. besides, The Golden Compass isn't even about Atheism. It's a fictional story for Vishnu's sake.

I had to laugh when i found out that parents were calling for the removal of Northern Lights (The book which The Golden Compass is based on) from school libraries in America when they found out that Philip Pullman was an Atheist. None of them read the book and it had been sitting in the library since 1995, A full twelve years , But they only recently felt outraged.

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5 comments:

  1. All of my religious friends are boycotting the movie because "in the final book a boy and girl kill God
    so they can do as they please."
    Such an ignorant interpretation of what the book is really about.

    But it's not surprising that religious parents would boycott the books. Afterall, atheists are just blood-sucking, puppy-smashing, baby-eating heathens that go after young, impressionable children to turn them away from the Lord our God our Savior, Jesus Christ of Nazareth!

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  2. Exactly! Can you imagine the uproar if someone tried to boycott the "Iron Man" film because it "sold Judaism"? I don't remember Christopher Hitchens calling for the head of the Wachowski Brothers when the blatantly Christian "Matrix" stormed theaters.

    And the religious right wonders why the new generation of atheists are so confrontational--perhaps it's because, at even the slightest whiff of atheism, the religious right sics its attack dogs. It's time for America to wake up: Atheists have the right to express themselves too.

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  3. I am a Christian, but I am appalled of how my fellow Christians are behaving about this. The Golden Compass is book and movie, a product on the market, and Christians should leave it up to the public to interpret its message, decide whether or not to buy it, read it, watch it, endorse it, whatever. To lobby to silence this author and his story, just makes Christians look like sniveling, fear-filled theocrats, who cannot handle any other perspective being expressed than their own. It’s such a shame. That is not the way we are called to live.

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  4. It's interesting. In 'The Golden Compass' the children do not kill God.

    The "kill" that the Catholics are talking about happens in the last book of the trilogy, The Amber Spyglass. And it's not even God: it's an angel pretending to be God, and the children don't even kill him: they let him out of his prison and he turns to dust because he was so old.

    So, no God, just an angel, and it happens in the third book. These people need to get their facts straight and should do so by reading the book.

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  5. I've read the first 2 books and about to read the third... i think that if christians are going to boycott something they should know all the facts about it and read it first... i doubt any of the christians have even read this book just in spite of them sinning for reading it because it mentions the killing of god... christians should wake up and realize that maybe they arent always right about religion and maybe they just are the best at convincing others they are... but really i saw the movie and it was great kids would love it and it never mentions a word about the killing of god or even mentioning it... so all u religious people read the book before you become a critic

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