Shaunti Feldhahn (in the Chicago Sun-Times, 12/8) criticizes the new movie The Golden Compass with the following words:
"'Making family friendly movies is laudable, and we are not so concerned with the film, per se, but it poses a bigger problem. Because parents and kids will see this movie and then want the books . . . and the books aren't watered down.'
Parents need to know that this first step will lead to another. And the next books are disturbing. We saw this trend with Harry Potter -- as each book and movie got darker and darker, to the point that many parents would never have let their kids read the last book, had it come out first.
I'm sad that parents even have to worry about this, especially at this time of year, when, as many families celebrate the birth of Christ, a foothold is given to books that want to do anything but."
I don't recall similar cautionary writeups about The Passion of the Christ, or The Ten Commandments--watch out, kids might want to read the books...when in fact the Bible with its angry, genocidal, racist, intolerant god with a penchant for the smell of burning flesh is far more disturbing than any of the Golden Compass books.
So, if your children seem poised to make the increasingly unlikely movie-to-book jump...they are doubtless safer with Philip Pullman's little fantasy than they will ever be with the Book at which he takes a little jab.
3 comments:
Most people who think they are athiest are really just agnostic. To be athiest one must know everything about everything and no one does. One can claim to be athiest but that's all it is -- a claim. If one is agnostic that is at least a little more honest. The Living God is the one folks will have to face in the end and there won't be any excuses. If one doesn't wish to be in His presence they won't be, but I wouldn't wish to be where they are destined to go because of their purposeful rejection of the truth.
Well, tell me Anonymous, just how honest was your search for this "Living God?" Did you carefully compare all available religions and decided on the one that best explained the world as you see it? Are you sure you didn't miss one?
Is there not the chance that the religious environment in which you were raised limited the scope of your "search?" Had you been raised in Sudan, Turkey, or Palestine, would you have found the same "Living God?"
You realize, of course, that you have rejected the God of Islam and countless others who, doubtless, you have not even bothered to learn about. The religious culture of your upbringing has essentially limited your "search for truth" to a single candidate divinity.
I have tried to be honest in my search. I struggled for years with the brainwashing of my upbringing and culture. I rejected your god as intellectually untenable. It was not a casual decision. My apostasy cost me most of my family and friends. I think it is you, not I, who have taken the easy path.
Contrary to your claims, one does not have to know "everything about everything" in order to be an atheist any more than you have to know everything about a religion in order to reject it as false. I could walk you through the logical steps, but would take more time than I have right now--and I doubt that you are seriously interested.
My argument is that atheism is far more intellectually defensible than either deism or theism.
As a side note, I like the appeal to reason at the end of your comment...
Sans all of the religious lingo, your last two sentences boil down to:
"if you don't believe my god, you're going to hell..."
That is a very cool god you have found yourself. I suspect that this is the same god that your ilk tout as the "Loving God." If your murderous god "loves" humanity, surely one could argue Hitler "loved " Jews. How are those of us who are supposedly made in his image supposed to be tolerant of other when our role model parades his intolerance, jealousy, anger, and genocidal tendencies?
Anonymous, I think you need to take a few steps back from your present situation and analyze your beliefs honestly and objectively. Before you do so; however, you should ask yourself whether you would be able to face the consequences of discovering that you were wrong. Could you be as brave as I was? I doubt it.
P
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