Golden Compass.
Like the release of another show, the Da Vinci Code, Philip Pullman’s Dark material consisting of three books, The Golden Compass (Previously Northern Lights), The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, has raised a uproar in the Christian Community.
Pullman is an atheist with a special hatred for Christianity. He is firmly against the church; his books are about killing God. He is definitely not someone we want our children to read blindly.
But dig a bit deeper. Do we want to bring up a generation of children who cannot think for themselves but need to rely on parents or the church for moral guide on everything? Do we not want them to learn discernment instead of robotic obedience?
The truth is, careful guiding of the children through the books is far better than a outright boycott to the books. Please note, i believe that the nature of Dark Materials is indeed something that Christians need to have discernment, and not a Carte Blanche approach. Especially young children. Perhaps with the really young kids i might advocate not letting them read but for older children, discernment.
The books are what I believe to be far better written than C. S. Lewis much loved Narnia Classics. Lewis is more of a philosopher; his books are arguments construed behind a fictional landscape, put forward by characters. (From another view point: The enticing pagan worlds nurtured by C.S. Lewis and his myth-making friends were not inspired by God's Word or Spirit. Those stories grew out of a lifelong immersion in the beliefs, values, rituals, languages and lifestyles of former pagan cultures. The site portrays Narnia as a pagan book).
As a work of fiction, this is a great book. Narnia unfortunately (or fortunately) does not rank as one of my must reads. I read it once, and never felt like reading it again. So I am NOT bashing Narnia, but I believe it is not in the league of good fiction. Lewis writes superb non fiction books of which many atheists would be hard pressed to measure up.
Let me put forward my thesis: The dark materials, if properly discerned does have excellent teaching materials of truth. The problem with truth, (or the power of truth) is that one cannot escape from it no matter how hard one tries. The power of truth is not in its presence, but in its absence. If there is no truth, there can be no force in any argument. That is, if there is no truth, then every argument automatically fails. Because there is truth, then we can have hope that something we believe in is possible.
So I believe that a careful reading (and I do not mean a careful in the sense of studying but careful in the sense measuring up the book’s teaching against the bible) will reveal some things.
I deal with them book by book because it is easier. The first book, called Northern Lights (I prefer it’s original name) talks about Lyra. She lives in a world where humans have daemons (pronounced demons). These daemons are a person’s best friend, more a soul. If someone were to touch or hurt a daemon, the person would hurt. It is like being able to commune with your soul, in fact in Lyra’s world, only humans have souls.
Lyra, through a series of events, gets thrown into an adventure (or so she believes) to save her friend. She goes all out to save the one she loves, and never gives up. She travels to the north, and never loses sight of her goal; something I believe I need to learn. To never give up.
Lyra finds friends that she never knew, gypsies who are the social outcasts. And they remind her, she is not them; she needs to find out who she is. (identity).
A very powerful scene is that of Lyra talking to the seaman. When the humans are young, their daemons take any form they want. As they age, the daemon settle. The humans learn that as a result, the daemons show them who they are. The kind of person they are. This is a lesson I feel every Christian must learn. They must know who they are. Saying the son of God is not enough. Loving God involves loving Him with your soul, your make up, your spirit, who God made you to be.
The seaman’s daemon is one of a seagull, and he says, “(K)nowing what kind of person you are. Take old Belisaria (his daemon). She is a seagull and that means I’m a kind of seagull too. I’m not grand nor splendid nor beautiful, but I’m a tough old thing and I can survive anywhere…”
The man knows his station. He knows the person that he is, and he is satisfied about it. He does not give up being better, but he knows who he is. The world cheers on those who follow, it stand aside for the one who knows where he is going, it is in awe of one who is confident of who he is.
Subsequently, the man talks about being contented and be satisfied with who one is. Never be dissatisfied with who you are inside, the talents the abilities. Sure learn skills and better yourself; but dun be unhappy with who you are and try to be someone you are not.
Whoa, this scene is so powerful. It breaks my heart. We need to tell our children and our friends, you are loved for WHO you are, not what you can do. And this book tells it.
The truth meter (alethiometer, the Golden Compass) tells the truth. It is valuable not because it is rare, but because it’s ability is important. Even the atheist have to admit that the most valuable commodity is truth. Because if there was no truth at all, then you might as well die now. Because if what you believe is cannot be true at all, why bother? The tool helps Lyra decipher what is going to happen as well, but you know what? She doesn’t want to.
In a scene near the end, she and Roger (her best friend) discusses about asking the meter to find out about what will happen. But instead, they decide, they rather remain in the present and live things as they are. How powerful is that! We want to know our every step till the day we die, when here, the children are interested merely in knowing the next one and to walk step by step till the events unfold slowly.
This is something important. Too many of us want to know what step 100 is when we should be focusing instead on step 1, when t=0 (now).
Subsequently, Lyra talks to Lord Asriel (her dad) about things. In here, Pullman proves something so opposite to his stand. We cannot prove the bible. We cannot prove the existence of God nor the existence of Adam and Eve even. We cannot even prove whether the Solomon existed (because his temple ruins have never been found). But yet listen to this, “…think of Adam and Eve like an imaginary number (the square root of -1)…, you can never see any concrete proof that it exists, but if you include it in your equations, you can calculate all manner of things that couldn’t be imagined without it.”
Exactly that! You want a hard core poof of God, you will not find it. You cannot. If you did prove God’s existence fully, you’d need no more faith. No more faith = no more hope = death. But you can prove that without God, many things that you observe now cannot be imagined, and that is key to Christianity. We cannot prove God’s existence fully; but we can show you that if you take God out of the equation, every equation out there collapses on itself. (btw, imaginary number is not a bad thing; in mathematics it is called so because it cannot technically exist yet it must. It’s proof lies in part due to the fact that without it, you cannot proceed in many cases). In the sense, there exist some proof of God, but the greatest proof of God is simply if you remove God, then you have nothing and everything collapses on itself.
God can use all things, and I believe He can use Pullman (albeit unwittingly). God’s truth comes out everywhere. In books that are blatantly evil (e.g. books of witchcraft, teaching on touching the spiritual realm, pornography etc) avoid them in entirety. Otherwise, read them with discernment.
There is another part I would like to refute. Pullman writes about the church being oppressive and fearful, as being the ultimate authority. I agree with him that such a church deserves to be torn down. And in fact, it did exist one time.
The church that Pullman describes is one that we need to fight against. It is not the church of God, but of man. A power hungry, oppressive unsafe organisation that we cannot allow. Such a church demands that Christians fight against it. And remember, the catholic church USED (not any more) to be like that. Pullman is right in saying church history is ugly; no other religion’s history is as bloody as ours. But it is ugly because of corruption in the church and hence we do need to be careful of such a church. (BTW, if you are a Methodist, Lutheran, Anglican, etc etc, at one point, you were a heretic. We are all born of heretical movements.) What Pullman writes is not heresy, it is truth.
The corrupted church can come, it might have come. We need to prevent it.
“Without exception, Pullman characterizes churches and anyone connected to them as agents of wickedness, oppression, torture, murder and malevolence.” (taken from http://www.pluggedinonline.com/thisweekonly/a0003516.cfm?eafref=1&eafref=1) I agree with the statement, if the church involved is that described in the book. Then the church IS an instrument of torture, inhuman activity, murder and essential a debasement of God’s church. Mind you, such a church is more of a devil’s bastion and not a temple of God.
In the end, I am here merely to say that the Golden Compass, and any other half truth books, must not be put under a blanket ban or boycott but an educated study of the materials is required. To extract the right lessons, refute the lies, explain the ugly truth when necessary.
Pullman is an atheist with a special hatred for Christianity. He is firmly against the church; his books are about killing God. He is definitely not someone we want our children to read blindly.
But dig a bit deeper. Do we want to bring up a generation of children who cannot think for themselves but need to rely on parents or the church for moral guide on everything? Do we not want them to learn discernment instead of robotic obedience?
The truth is, careful guiding of the children through the books is far better than a outright boycott to the books. Please note, i believe that the nature of Dark Materials is indeed something that Christians need to have discernment, and not a Carte Blanche approach. Especially young children. Perhaps with the really young kids i might advocate not letting them read but for older children, discernment.
The books are what I believe to be far better written than C. S. Lewis much loved Narnia Classics. Lewis is more of a philosopher; his books are arguments construed behind a fictional landscape, put forward by characters. (From another view point: The enticing pagan worlds nurtured by C.S. Lewis and his myth-making friends were not inspired by God's Word or Spirit. Those stories grew out of a lifelong immersion in the beliefs, values, rituals, languages and lifestyles of former pagan cultures. The site portrays Narnia as a pagan book).
As a work of fiction, this is a great book. Narnia unfortunately (or fortunately) does not rank as one of my must reads. I read it once, and never felt like reading it again. So I am NOT bashing Narnia, but I believe it is not in the league of good fiction. Lewis writes superb non fiction books of which many atheists would be hard pressed to measure up.
Let me put forward my thesis: The dark materials, if properly discerned does have excellent teaching materials of truth. The problem with truth, (or the power of truth) is that one cannot escape from it no matter how hard one tries. The power of truth is not in its presence, but in its absence. If there is no truth, there can be no force in any argument. That is, if there is no truth, then every argument automatically fails. Because there is truth, then we can have hope that something we believe in is possible.
So I believe that a careful reading (and I do not mean a careful in the sense of studying but careful in the sense measuring up the book’s teaching against the bible) will reveal some things.
I deal with them book by book because it is easier. The first book, called Northern Lights (I prefer it’s original name) talks about Lyra. She lives in a world where humans have daemons (pronounced demons). These daemons are a person’s best friend, more a soul. If someone were to touch or hurt a daemon, the person would hurt. It is like being able to commune with your soul, in fact in Lyra’s world, only humans have souls.
Lyra, through a series of events, gets thrown into an adventure (or so she believes) to save her friend. She goes all out to save the one she loves, and never gives up. She travels to the north, and never loses sight of her goal; something I believe I need to learn. To never give up.
Lyra finds friends that she never knew, gypsies who are the social outcasts. And they remind her, she is not them; she needs to find out who she is. (identity).
A very powerful scene is that of Lyra talking to the seaman. When the humans are young, their daemons take any form they want. As they age, the daemon settle. The humans learn that as a result, the daemons show them who they are. The kind of person they are. This is a lesson I feel every Christian must learn. They must know who they are. Saying the son of God is not enough. Loving God involves loving Him with your soul, your make up, your spirit, who God made you to be.
The seaman’s daemon is one of a seagull, and he says, “(K)nowing what kind of person you are. Take old Belisaria (his daemon). She is a seagull and that means I’m a kind of seagull too. I’m not grand nor splendid nor beautiful, but I’m a tough old thing and I can survive anywhere…”
The man knows his station. He knows the person that he is, and he is satisfied about it. He does not give up being better, but he knows who he is. The world cheers on those who follow, it stand aside for the one who knows where he is going, it is in awe of one who is confident of who he is.
Subsequently, the man talks about being contented and be satisfied with who one is. Never be dissatisfied with who you are inside, the talents the abilities. Sure learn skills and better yourself; but dun be unhappy with who you are and try to be someone you are not.
Whoa, this scene is so powerful. It breaks my heart. We need to tell our children and our friends, you are loved for WHO you are, not what you can do. And this book tells it.
The truth meter (alethiometer, the Golden Compass) tells the truth. It is valuable not because it is rare, but because it’s ability is important. Even the atheist have to admit that the most valuable commodity is truth. Because if there was no truth at all, then you might as well die now. Because if what you believe is cannot be true at all, why bother? The tool helps Lyra decipher what is going to happen as well, but you know what? She doesn’t want to.
In a scene near the end, she and Roger (her best friend) discusses about asking the meter to find out about what will happen. But instead, they decide, they rather remain in the present and live things as they are. How powerful is that! We want to know our every step till the day we die, when here, the children are interested merely in knowing the next one and to walk step by step till the events unfold slowly.
This is something important. Too many of us want to know what step 100 is when we should be focusing instead on step 1, when t=0 (now).
Subsequently, Lyra talks to Lord Asriel (her dad) about things. In here, Pullman proves something so opposite to his stand. We cannot prove the bible. We cannot prove the existence of God nor the existence of Adam and Eve even. We cannot even prove whether the Solomon existed (because his temple ruins have never been found). But yet listen to this, “…think of Adam and Eve like an imaginary number (the square root of -1)…, you can never see any concrete proof that it exists, but if you include it in your equations, you can calculate all manner of things that couldn’t be imagined without it.”
Exactly that! You want a hard core poof of God, you will not find it. You cannot. If you did prove God’s existence fully, you’d need no more faith. No more faith = no more hope = death. But you can prove that without God, many things that you observe now cannot be imagined, and that is key to Christianity. We cannot prove God’s existence fully; but we can show you that if you take God out of the equation, every equation out there collapses on itself. (btw, imaginary number is not a bad thing; in mathematics it is called so because it cannot technically exist yet it must. It’s proof lies in part due to the fact that without it, you cannot proceed in many cases). In the sense, there exist some proof of God, but the greatest proof of God is simply if you remove God, then you have nothing and everything collapses on itself.
God can use all things, and I believe He can use Pullman (albeit unwittingly). God’s truth comes out everywhere. In books that are blatantly evil (e.g. books of witchcraft, teaching on touching the spiritual realm, pornography etc) avoid them in entirety. Otherwise, read them with discernment.
There is another part I would like to refute. Pullman writes about the church being oppressive and fearful, as being the ultimate authority. I agree with him that such a church deserves to be torn down. And in fact, it did exist one time.
The church that Pullman describes is one that we need to fight against. It is not the church of God, but of man. A power hungry, oppressive unsafe organisation that we cannot allow. Such a church demands that Christians fight against it. And remember, the catholic church USED (not any more) to be like that. Pullman is right in saying church history is ugly; no other religion’s history is as bloody as ours. But it is ugly because of corruption in the church and hence we do need to be careful of such a church. (BTW, if you are a Methodist, Lutheran, Anglican, etc etc, at one point, you were a heretic. We are all born of heretical movements.) What Pullman writes is not heresy, it is truth.
The corrupted church can come, it might have come. We need to prevent it.
“Without exception, Pullman characterizes churches and anyone connected to them as agents of wickedness, oppression, torture, murder and malevolence.” (taken from http://www.pluggedinonline.com/thisweekonly/a0003516.cfm?eafref=1&eafref=1) I agree with the statement, if the church involved is that described in the book. Then the church IS an instrument of torture, inhuman activity, murder and essential a debasement of God’s church. Mind you, such a church is more of a devil’s bastion and not a temple of God.
In the end, I am here merely to say that the Golden Compass, and any other half truth books, must not be put under a blanket ban or boycott but an educated study of the materials is required. To extract the right lessons, refute the lies, explain the ugly truth when necessary.
Labels: Dark Materials, life
posted by W | Friday, November 30, 2007
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