About a year ago I received the first of many emails detailing how Philip Pullman's book The Golden Compass was being made into a movie and that it was written to convince children not to believe in God and to forward the email to everyone I knew so that they would stop their kids from reading it and make libraries take it off their shelves and stop the movie from being made. Hmm, first of all, the only one of those goals that actually sounded feasible was the first one. Second, I knew good God-fearing people that had read this book that were, somehow, not atheists after finishing it. Instead of forwarding the email on, I decided to read the book first before passing judgement.
Well it took me a seriously long time to get it done, but I finally finished the book tonight, researched the intentions of the author, etc. and had to come report my findings. First let me say that if Philip Pullman had written this book to turn kids into atheists, he did a really poor job of it. There are many things in the book (witches, souls that live outside the body, etc.) that I don't believe in, but remember, it's a fantasy book. It's not supposed to be real. There are definitely some weird ideas in the book, but nothing that would even suggest to me that God doesn't exist, let alone convince me of it. After reading up a bit on some Philip Pullman interviews (where he is said to have admitted to trying to turn readers into little atheists) I find it more plausible that his aim was, as he stated, to show how when churches become too intertwined with political power, bad things can often result. This has happened throughout our own history, so I don't think it's such a stretch to imagine it happening in a fantasy world.
In the end, the book was interesting, not amazing, but a good story, although be forewarned, it's a trilogy and the "end" of the book was not a very good end if you don't plan on reading them all. I was glad that I gave it a chance though, since it preaches about as much religion as Harry Potter.
3 comments:
Thank you devony! I was wondering how this book/movie would be. I had heard so many mixed reviews and anti-christian things that I was hesitant to get it. Thanks for the review!
Thanks Dev! I had heard all these same things. I also heard that the first book was mild on the anti-God theme to lure kids in and that it was the later books that tried to drill home the point. Maybe I will read it myself so I can make an educated review.
Please let me know what you guys think! And that's good to know about the other books Sarah. I had decided not to read them simply because the story wasn't quite enough to draw me in for 2 more books, but definitely let me know if you guys read them!
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