The Golden Compass

I've seen a bit of noise in the media about an incipient Christian uproar about (and a Catholic League boycott against) the upcoming movie the Golden Compass, based on the first book of the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman. The fundamentalist reactionaries are telling you not to watch this movie or read the book. Which means of course that you should.

Seriously, I've read the first two books of the series. The book can't really be described as an "atheist" allegory. Pullman is no C.S. Lewis. Like most atheists and freethinkers, he isn't interested in "sneaking" atheism or agnosticism past people's radars. In any case, the book has a character called the Authority, against whom a war is waged by the protagonist. So there's the allegory. But it's not an atheist allegory. Because for an atheist there is no Authority.

But Bill Donohue and his ilk aren't interested in these kind of subtleties. Keep your ears open when you hear a "debate" about this issue on CNN (or, god forbid, Fox News). What you will hear, if someone manages to articulate the fact that the content of the movie itself doesn't reflect a particularly atheist agenda, is a retort along the lines of "But Philip Pullman is an outspoken atheist! What do you say to that!? Huh? Huh!?" This is called an ad hominem attack, and it's what you do when you can't defend your position on legitimate grounds, so you just start calling someone names. Listen for it. I guarantee you'll hear it.

Oh, and it should be mentioned how absurd it is that calling someone an atheist counts as an attack. Clearly it does, given that it used as a sort of trump card against someone in a debate when all legitimate ammunition is depleted. I shouldn't have to mention that you didn't see an atheist alliance calling for a ban on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe for its subversive Christian themes. Apparently the atheist parents didn't feel threatened by the possibility that their kids might demand to be taken to church after seeing that poor old lion killed and resurrected. Maybe that's because such parents are thinking along these lines.

Protecting your kids from pornography, from violence, from the general stupidity and inanity that is so pervasive in our popular culture - fine. Good, even. But protecting them from ideas? What are you afraid of? If your beliefs rest on such a fragile foundation that a movie with talking polar bears can destroy them, then I'm afraid it's probably not the movie that you should be blaming.

Update: For the sake of completeness, an interview with Philip Pullman on his agenda and on religion.