Food For Thought
Dec. 1st, 2007 01:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bloodyrosemccoyY'all may have seen this already, but the Boston Globe has a pretty good article on His Dark Materials: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2007/11/25/god_in_the_dust/?page=full
I am definitely an atheist, but I still believe in the Universe, and I can see where she's going with this concept--it's a kind of god that makes more sense to me, which probably means it's somehow heretical. I remember thinking along her lines myself when I read the books--that it wouldn't be hard to make them theistic, although he clearly didn't mean them that way. I even guessed that Hollywood would take this route to avoid the untouchable concept that maybe atheists aren't all hardened bitter immoral jerks: that this evil church was a false church supplanting some true god.
Also, of course the crazy religious people* would be up in arms. We can't have our kids reading anything that might make them think, after all. Atheist kids are perfectly welcome to come see The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, even if it clashes with their ideology because the Christians agree with it.** But we can't have those damn atheists enjoying stories that agree with THEM while the CHRISTIANS are left out. That's immoral.
What cracks me up is that they just now seem to have really noticed this series, and it's with the damn movies, which will amaze me if they've left ANY possible interpretation of anti-religion in it. *sigh* The power of Hollywood.
Also: DAMMITALL, I WANT TO SEE THIS MOVIE. WHY MUST I WAIT OVER A WEEK AFTER IT COMES OUT?! I am GOING to find a theater here, see if I don't.
*As opposed to the not-crazy religious people, and I'd like to thank all of those.
**Unless they're the frothy-mouthed Christians who think it's somehow WRONG because everything except their own incoherent interpretation is correct.
I am definitely an atheist, but I still believe in the Universe, and I can see where she's going with this concept--it's a kind of god that makes more sense to me, which probably means it's somehow heretical. I remember thinking along her lines myself when I read the books--that it wouldn't be hard to make them theistic, although he clearly didn't mean them that way. I even guessed that Hollywood would take this route to avoid the untouchable concept that maybe atheists aren't all hardened bitter immoral jerks: that this evil church was a false church supplanting some true god.
Also, of course the crazy religious people* would be up in arms. We can't have our kids reading anything that might make them think, after all. Atheist kids are perfectly welcome to come see The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, even if it clashes with their ideology because the Christians agree with it.** But we can't have those damn atheists enjoying stories that agree with THEM while the CHRISTIANS are left out. That's immoral.
What cracks me up is that they just now seem to have really noticed this series, and it's with the damn movies, which will amaze me if they've left ANY possible interpretation of anti-religion in it. *sigh* The power of Hollywood.
Also: DAMMITALL, I WANT TO SEE THIS MOVIE. WHY MUST I WAIT OVER A WEEK AFTER IT COMES OUT?! I am GOING to find a theater here, see if I don't.
*As opposed to the not-crazy religious people, and I'd like to thank all of those.
**Unless they're the frothy-mouthed Christians who think it's somehow WRONG because everything except their own incoherent interpretation is correct.
