Finished the Golden Compass

***Spoiler Alert***
-=Skip this message if you're planning to read any of these books and don't want to know what happens!=-

I've finished the first of three books in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy: The Golden Compass. If you've seen the movie, you haven't actually been exposed to everything in the first book. It is toward the end of the book that Pullman begins to reveal more what could be considered the true intended nature of this work.

At this point Lyra meets up with her uncle/father Lord Asriel and we learn more about his experiments with dust (and his true nature) - he isn't really as admirable as I had been led to think. It seems that this character is used by Pullman to exemplify people who consider all sorts of ecumenical reflections on the Bible and yet still come away with selfish, poisonous interpretations. If I'm to understand the intent of Pullman's words, knowing that he has been publicized (intentionally or otherwise) as both an atheist and a satanist, I might assume this is what he would consider to be the "best" result from trying to merge religion and science short of rejecting God and the Bible. Assuming we put aside this (IMO) flawed conclusion, I think there is much good to be derived from what he has brought to the table.

There are many people who read (or think they've studied) the Bible and use it to justify all sorts of awful things. It all comes down to interpretation. The beauty of having a tool like the Bible is that (with the exception of differing translations) it isn't really changing dramatically at this point - at least not like it was 1900 years ago. It can act as a kind of gestalt, against which we can see the true nature of a person or an organization. To come to the conclusion that the Bible itself (or the Koran, an astronomy book, the daily newspaper...) is evil would be a mistake. I'm not sure that this is what Pullman intends. I still have two more books to read in this series. We'll see...

What do you think?

Update on Golden Compass

I'm making good progress on the audiobook of Philip Pullman's Golden Compass. So far, I see little to get excited about in terms of a covert plot to turn our children into atheists. Maybe I'm missing something, but there we are. I would say I'm a little more than a third done and I've heard some decidedly negative things coming from his representation of the human political manifestation of faith (the church) but then I guess I agree with him on that.

Remember kids: Heresy is an imperative in this modern world.

Taking One for the Team

So I went to see The Golden Compass last night. I know it was supposedly watered down, but it didn't seem particularly anti-God to me. In order to learn more about the hubbub surrounding this release, I decided to purchase read the book upon which this movie was based. In fact, I bought the three-book trilogy "His Dark Materials" (The Golden Compass is the first of these books) and plan to read them all to see what's up. I'll report back to this blog as I make progress and will prepend all my posts with *Spoiler Alert* whenever appropriate (which I anticipate will be often).

Stay tuned and remember to keep your hands and feet inside the car at all times during the ride.