[In response to a fellow Christian about the author of "The Golden Compass Phillip Pullman]
Shmam—How can you be a christain and support Pullman? He has stated publicly that he does not believe in God. What exactly do you owe him—a congratulations for promoting atheisim? A thank you for sending out a message that their is no God?
24 comments
Philip Pullman does not say that at all. Heres a quote from his website
"His Dark Materials seems to be against organised religion. Do you believe in God?
I don't know whether there's a God or not. Nobody does, no matter what they say. I think it's perfectly possible to explain how the universe came about without bringing God into it, but I don't know everything, and there may well be a God somewhere, hiding away.
Actually, if he is keeping out of sight, it's because he's ashamed of his followers and all the cruelty and ignorance they're responsible for promoting in his name. If I were him, I'd want nothing to do with them."
Well, if your lack of proper grammar, and misuse of words is a prime example of a good Christian, I think I would prefer to talk to the atheists.
And just a quick FYI, Pullman is an agnostic. He has stated over and over he doesn't know if there is a God or not.
Shmam
How can you be a christain and support Pullman? He has stated publicly that he does not believe in God. What exactly do you owe him
a congratulations for promoting atheisim? A thank you for sending out a message that their is no God?
How about some manner of congratulations on writing one of the best, most involving fiction trilogies in recent times? What does being an atheist have to do with good literature?
I am very confused by your post. If you thought the movies were good, thats cool. But to call yourself a Christain and then in the same breath say you look up to an atheist
.well, I would ask your Pastor about that one.
Yes, because you certainly wouldn't want to come to your own conclusions. Let the pastor do the thinking for you.
Being a Christian is not about palling around with people you find easy to like. It's about respecting the good and human parts of a person regardless of your differences.
If you're not believing in the best in your fellow humans, you're not acting Christian.
If the only people whose ideas you find to be acceptable are those who purport to be christian, you are extremely narrow minded, and will be found extremely easy to fool by the first charletan who is trying to fool you, and realizes that.
they seem to miss that they don't really kill God. They release him and he's so old, he disintegrates. And he seemed pretty happy about it too. More like they were doing God a favor. Not like they were assassinating him.
(<3 Pullman. Fantastic writer. I hope I can be half as good someday)
Because there is no middle ground!! Black/white, good/evil, love/hate! Ambiguity, tolerance, situational relevance, and contradiction are always to be frowned upon! </sarcasm>
Another Fundie who talks about books he clearly hasn't read.
The Magisterium, in Pullman's wonderfully engaging trilogy (soon to be a quadrilogy - yay!), is a stand-in for every system of organised power that wants to control and repress life for its own purposes; a few examples are Communism, the free market absolutism of most economists, and all forms of organised religion.
In other words, Pullman asks his readers not to rebel against God, but rather to think for themselves and recognize the wrongs being done by humans in the name of God.
Rant and rave all you want, you'll have as much success in the long run as Ireland had in banning Monty Python's brilliant 'Life of Brian' after having similarly confused faith with a satire of our attitudes towards faith.
You'd do well to learn how to distinguish between calling bullshit on a belief wholly unsupported by Scripture or logic and calling bullshit on God himself.
READ THE BOOK, GODDAMMIT.
There IS a god in the story. The creature that Lord Asriel and Mrs Coulter kill is the FALSE god. Lyra and Will let the real god out of the cage that the false one's been keeping him in and the real one kind of vanishes into the air with a metaphorical wink.
The thought was, "spirituality, okay. Oppressive and absolute faith-based tyranny, not okay."
"I have a dream, that one day a man may be judged not on the colour of his skin but on the content of his character..." - Martin Luther King
I look up to people because what they do, not what they believe.
(Incidentally, Pullman is agnostic!? I had him pegged as a maltheist. Man, the poor bugger must have copped so much flak...)
Nicole Kidman didn't have a problem with the books, else she wouldn't have taken the role of Ms. Coulter.
Oh wait, I bet she doesn't count because she's Catholic, right? Yeah, you fuckers don't care until it comes time to do a total head count.
Pullman's own opinion is (or might be) that he does not believe in any gods. That is NOT promoting atheism, nor sending a message that "their" are no gods. It's just one person's opinion, that is all.
I look up to people of all kinds of faiths and non-faiths. I look up to people for their ideas, their thoughts, their actions. Their religion is their own business, not mine.
Why are religious people so self-centered? When you say you are an atheist, they rush to the conclusion that you don't like their god in particular. Most atheists find no evidence for ANY gods, whatsoever.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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