"THE GOLDEN COMPASS" - A movie to avoid

That was my logic. Like he set everything in place and then it happened.

 

Sounds like we have some Deists in our midst. You are in good company however such as Thomas Jefferson and a number of our countries Founding Fathers.

By the way the Big Bang was in the news again yesterday:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071026/sc_nm/universe_defect_dc_2;_ylt=AirZzihHk8ldZaj_24ZpE8UE1vAI

 

I got an email about it yesterday too. I will post it below. I had intentions of posting it here anyway and had I not received the email, I would have appreciated SB deciding to post it. After reading some of the points made in the email I got, I had decided that I would try to locate the first book at a library and read it.


You can real all of what Snopes had to say here: http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp

Here are some of the points I found interesting:


The film is based on Northern Lights (released in the U.S. as The Golden Compass), the first offering in Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy of children's books, a series that follows the adventures of a streetwise girl who travels through multiple worlds populated by witches, armor-plated bears, and sinister ecclesiastical assassins to defeat the oppressive forces of a senile God.

Pullman left little doubt about his intentions when he said in a 2003 interview that "My books are about killing God."


Bill Donohue, president of The Catholic League, has condemned The Golden Compass as a "pernicious" effort to indoctrinate children into anti-Christian beliefs and has produced a 23-page pamphlet titled The Golden Compass: Unmasked in which he maintains that Pullman "sells atheism for kids." Donohoe told interviewer John Gibson on 9 October 2007 why he believes Christians should stay away from the film:

Look, the movie is based on the least offensive of the three books. And they have dumbed down the worst elements in the movie because they don't want to make Christians angry and they want to make money. Our concern is this, unsuspecting Christian parents may want to take their kid to the movie, it opens up December 7th and say, this wasn't troubling, then we'll buy the books. So the movie is the bait for the books which are profoundly anti-Catholic and at the same time selling atheism.

Other critics, however, have described Pullman's works as being more generally anti-religion rather than specifically anti-Christian or anti-Catholic:

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."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This line in particular interests me: "So the movie is the bait for the books which are profoundly anti-Catholic and at the same time selling atheism."
This is what prompted me to look for the book. I am a Christian and I am against allowing my children to take in any movie or book which clearly dishonors or demeans our God. That is, the God of Abraham whose son is Jesus Christ. BUT, I recognize that in the "church" scene today, there are many extremists who seem to think religeon must be praticed the exact way they interpret the Bible to instruct. If any disagree with their interpretations, those people are looked down upon and basically, what I like to call, "spiritually abused" until they either come into line with the church view or become so discouraged that they are disgusted with the very term "church". (I am a church goer BTW).

SO, I can see how it would be possible that the books/movie have been geared towards bashing some of the dogmatic pratices of the church today. And really, I don't have a problem with that part. In fact, I might even welcome some of thet...just as long as it's not bashing Jesus. She can go kill Buddah or Alah or any other fake God and I have no problem with that. Heck, they are already DEAD. Jesus died and rose again though, and He LIVES eternally. And I want to know more about this part: (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.") I would hate to have my kids all into this and us thinking it's about a fake god ( and contributing our $ to this cause) only to have Pullman come out with some book/movie slamming Jesus. The fact that he has "hinted" at "figuring" Jesus into a sequel coupled with the fact that he has stated he is not sure of a God or not causes me to really raise an eyebrow. Again, why I will read the book first.

That being said, I quoted Nevilock because his first statement is exactly what I thought while reading the email I got. I thought, okay, is this MY God she is killing or some fake God. The author does not say. He just says it's about "killing God" (a very poor choice of words I feel). But in my belief of MY God, there is only one world (earth) and no armor wearing Polar Bears (now wath one of you smartie pants go find a pic of an armored up polar bear and post it here:lol: ). Still, the fact that some have expressed concern that the movie has been "dumbed down" for us Christians:roll: so we will buy the, "not so innocent" book, is why I want to read the book before I decide if my children will see the movie or not.

I have seen the movie trailers and I thought the movie looked really fantastic. I can't help but think, the fictional Luke Skywalker travelled through many worlds in persuit of the fictional Darth Vader, Lord of darkness, trying to kill him. All of the Star Wars movies were about Good vs evil. And I have let my kids watch those. I wonder if there is really much difference?? Let her go kill Vader, Alah, Buddah. They are all fictional anyway. Really, all I need to know is how the author plans to "figure" my Jesus in.:mrgreen:

And that's all JMHO - K:mrgreen:

 

Interesting question, and I haven't an answer for you (but I am not a Big Bang Theorist) but I have a similar question where did "God" come from? Or was it always there also? If "God" was always there, why couldn't matter always be here?

Hugh

 

God is spirit, matter is physical.

Don't know if that answers the question. (?)

 

But what is spirit?

 

That would certainly explain his absentee landlord status...

 

Except in Christ's return, three things are for certain within 100 years:

1. All of us will have our bodies returned to the Earth.
2. Many will still be trying to prove God wrong.
3. God's Word will be standing as it has for several thousands of years.

 

Not to be obnoxious, but I thought for most fundamentalist Christians the planet is only a few thousand years old.

 

Well, with all due respect, that's sort of just mincing words. A "few" and "several" are both rather generic terms. Your point is taken, however. One thing that some may point out is that many folks believe differently on this issue. Some believe in literal interpretation. Some believe in various forms of evolution being set forth by God and others consider the "gap theory".
One of which, to my understanding, is the late Reverand J. Vernon McGee of the Through The Bible radio program. Some suggests that between the first and second verses of Genesis allows for a unknown period of time and that it indicates that possibly something existed on the earth prior to what we know of it now.

I don't necessarily prescribe to the notion, but I don't discredit the basis for it either. I do, ultimately, believe in God as Creator and Christ as my Savior and I accept the Bible as God's Word. I also believe that God doesn't necessarily wish to share all of life's greatest mysterious with us just yet and I can content with that. I simply ponder what He has chosen not to reveal.

 

Thank You for the clarification, I was wondering if you were a literalist.