Is The Golden Compass an atheist counterpoint to The Chronicles of Narnia? Is it trying to “peddle atheism to kids”?
The author says “no,” now, but according to some Christian media, he sang a different tune a few years ago. Asked about his intent in a press junket for the movie, he said “My point is that religion is at its best – it does most good – when it is farthest away from political power, and that when it gets hold of the power to send armies to war or to condemn people to death, or to rule every aspect of our lives, it rapidly goes bad.” Apparently, there is a character in the movie who calls himself “God” and is killed in the end, after being exposed as a fake. Religionists who have read the book, particularly Catholics, have said there are a lot of anti-Church elements to it, and not having read it myself, I really can’t comment any further. But, I do now have an excuse to post a picture of Nicole Kidman on my blog, which is pretty much always a good thing.
Question: If Christianity (or Islam, or any other kind of theism) is true, why should it fear a fantasy story with atheist elements to it?
Second Question: If Christianity gets all kinds of chances to be peddled to kids, why doesn’t atheism get equal treatment? Shouldn’t kids be at least made aware that there are people who don’t believe in God and get to make up their own minds?
answers:Q1: Me, I don’t care. I actually enjoyed the DaVinci Code. I thought the story sucked, but Tom Hanks did a good job (he’s a great actor). But many people read the book or saw the movie and believed it. The movie (and admitted by the author) was fictional; no truth to it. But many people believed it (just like War of the Worlds on the radio in (?)1933). It is amazing what people will believe; just remember the Clinton years in the White House(too many quotes of BS). So the ‘danger’ of a ficitional story is no quantifiable. Take that any way you like.Q2: I was made aware at a young age, that there are many who don’t beleive in any God. Are th kids of today so wrapped up in their XBoxes and text-messaging that they’re not paying attention in school? And gee, weren’t you allowed to make up your own mind? When I was a lad I was told that there were many religions in the world, but none of those was discussed separately and to this day, I still don’t understand why the Protestants don’t like the Catholics. I think both sides are a few fries short of Supersize….Another thought – you are a fan of constituional law, correct? Isn’t God mentioned someplace in the Constitution? Aren’t all of our laws base on the Ten C’s?? The recognition of God has not much to do with a specific religion or non-religion?
I am a big fan of Constitutional law.Nowhere — not once — is God mentioned in the Constitution.Nothing in the Constitution requires obedience to any of the Ten C’s. Not even the prohibition against murder.Don’t believe me? Here’s the whole thing.
well, I believe you. But I still think that our laws are based on the Ten C’s. No murder, stealing, lying etc. However, there are commandments that do not apply (such as keeping the Sabath, placing no gods before Me etc). So score one for transplanted lawyer regarding the Constitution and God. And the Pledge of Allegiance doesn’t count as the part about one nation under God was added in the 1950’s (I think).I never said the constitution compelled usage of the Ten C’s. I said I thought all law was based on the Ten C’s. So, here’s a challenge (which I understand I’ll possibly lose because I’m a computer geek); Give me an example of a law that I can’t relate back to one of the Ten C’sLet’s do this by email as it likely won’t interest the other readers…..
Obviously, the bulk of procedural law has nothing to do with the 10 C’s. But surely I can do better than that.How about the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended? The 10 C’s don’t say anything about who you do or don’t have to hire for a job and it would be a real long stretch to relate it to property rights and thus to the prohibition against theft.The 10 C’s don’t say anything about the kinds of substances we can or cannot consume, and if so, under what circumstances. The law of the United States, however, has quite a bit to say on that subject.One could make the case that the law of bankruptcy, particularly Chapter 7 is all about using the law to steal, which would be in direct contradiction to the anti-theft commandment. I think that would be a very unsophisticated characterization of what bankruptcy is about, but I have heard intelligent people — lawyers, even — claim exactly that.
Killing God or god is not a good thing period. Unless he’s realy nasty.