The end-times draw near, as the storied-though-not-yet-released film, The Golden Compass, already has shattered religious beliefs of many and inspired Atheism in so many more.
Or, not really. However, I will see the movie this weekend so you don't have to, and I'll put my own two cents in with a review on Monday. If you happen to catch this epic over the weekend, please join the fray and leave your comments here.
Today, I have a pleasant, thought provoking, and (surprise!) neutral discussion of Philip Pullman's religious "agenda" with respect to the series of novels that inspired the film. Quite similar to the discussion I posted here the other day, the piece mentions the inextricable spirituality inherent in the book (and likely the film).
In other words, Atheism is not equated to devil worship; in fact, a true atheist would scoff at devil worship as much (if not more) than Christianity; that is, if one scoffed at all.
To pick and choose some key points from the article:
"[The Golden Compass] seems to [project] a very spiritual idea. It certainly reintroduces some aspects of God back into the picture. But does that mean that Philip Pullman is really telling a profoundly spiritual story?
Inferring others' motivations is problematic, because we can never really know what goes on in someone else's head. Even statements which apparently announce the motivation may be misleading, as I suggested in my previous article, especially when those statements are inconsistent. Nevertheless, someone's motivation arises out of their worldview, so reflecting carefully on the worldview helps to suggest what motivations are likely or possible."
Summarily, the author of this article suggests that even if Pullman meant to preach Atheism to children, interpretation is up to the reader or the viewer; clearly, there are many spiritual themes at work here, and the people that find this threatening simply fail to recognize that there are other metaphors for human (and universal) life than theirs.
There's nothing wrong (or unique) about trying to understand the world in a specific way (we're very methodical beings), and subjecting ourselves to other viewpoints often confuses the things we perceive to be true. Yet, attempting to ban others from having experiences that are different than ours seems rather like a lot of work for very little gain other than personal satisfaction that you're whitewashing the world (pun only partially intended).
Someone very close to me, who also happens to be a devout Catholic, had this to say on the matter:
"It's only a movie and there are bigger things in life that are more important. If someone does not like, they should not go and not send their kids. It does not interest me, so I will probably not go. Besides I am unimpressed by Nicole Kidman as an actress."
I don't have a specific problem with Nicole Kidman, but otherwise I couldn't have said it better myself.
ADDENDUM: If you're interested, here's an extensive interview with and article on Pullman from The Atlantic Monthly.
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