True Freethinker has previously provided info regarding activist atheist author Philip Pullman (at this link). He is in the news again as, for better or worse, Dr. Rowan Williams-the Archbishop of Canterbury is endorsing Philip Pullman’s books, “His Dark Materials” and the movie which it has spawned, “The Golden Compass.”
I wonder about personages such as Philip Pullman who seem to have their heads so firmly ensconced in well-within-the-box-atheist-group-think that they have difficulty discerning reality. I certainly understand that one of the most ubiquitous atheist talking points is painting atheists as underdog and thus, claiming victimhood status.When it was convenient for him; Philip Pullman states that his children oriented books are about “killing God” and that he seeks to “undermine the basis of Christian belief” and in planned “The Golden Compass” sequel “Director Chris Weitz hoped to develop the anti-Christian themes more fully.”But then he is surprised that his books and movies stir up controversy-what a shocker!Bill Donohue describes the books as “atheism for kids.”Melanie McDonagh describes them as,
a rather blatant and exceptionally offensive anti-Christian polemic…He is actually setting up a parody of Christianity as a thing itself. Now, that’s fair enough as Mr Philip Pullman’s own belief but I think it is something that readers should be alerted to because it is a proselytising agenda.
Rupert Kaye states,
My key concern is that many young people (and adults) who read Philip Pullman’s trilogy will be left with an extremely distorted understanding of what Christians actually believe and what the Bible really says about the person of God.
Chris Weitz retorts,
I think Philip Pullman takes issue with dogma. He is not anti-Catholic or anti-religion.1
Is that so? The deity in Philip Pullman’s books about “killing God” and “undermine the basis of Christian belief” is not referred to as a generic “god” or by some invented name (as an imaginative and unbiased author would do) but is referred to by biblical terms such as, “Almighty,” “Ancient of Days,” “Father,” and “Yahweh.” No, no, no; this deity, who is described as “malevolent, deceitful and powerless,” is never, ever referred to as “Allah.”And yet, suddenly, Philip Pullman becomes a Victorian era chap who in prim and proper manner state, “Oh my!”Moreover:
In the past Mr Pullman has said “if there is a God and he is as the Christians describe him, then he deserves to be put down and rebelled against.”As you look back over the history of the Christian church, it’s a record of terrible infamy and cruelty and persecution and tyranny.
“How they have the [swear word] nerve to go on Thought for the Day and tell us all to be good when, given the slightest chance, they’d be hanging the rest of us and flogging the homosexuals and persecuting the witches.”
Do you see what I meant by well-within-the-box-atheist-group-think? This is militant activist atheist poppycock. God, as the Christians describe Him, deserves to be put down and rebelled against-really? Well, it has been done my dear sir, done to the death, to the death of Jesus upon the cross.Philip Pullman, the prim and proper bloke, “denies he set out to court controversy”:
I don’t mind if controversy arises, but I didn’t seek it. I didn’t think of it at all. Any writer is in a position of the old storyteller in the market place who doesn’t know who will stop and listen_The more who stop and listen, the more happy I am. If the audience includes children – great. If it’s adults, great_The youngest child will do that if you start telling them a story_I don’t know who’s going to stop and nor do I know if they’re going to be annoyed by it. If someone is so annoyed as to get upset, the answer is don’t read it – put it down, read something else_I always was a storyteller. I told stories to my little brother, my friends at school… yes, I’m a storyteller, that’s all I am.2
Just how do such thoughts justify themselves within the inner recesses of Philip Pullman’s gray matter? I could imagine it now,
My oh my, indeed I did state that my books are about “killing God” and attempting to “undermine the basis of Christian belief” but I did not set out to court controversy. My atheist support group-think are quite hip to such sentiments, I wonder why Christians got their knickers in a bundle.
So, he is a storyteller and “that’s all.” Well, a storyteller who tells stories about “killing God” and attempting to “undermine the basis of Christian belief”-“that’s all.”
It is reported that The Golden Compass “was not a success_the US box office was quite badly hit. The movie made enormous money overseas, but the studio had sold the foreign distribution rights, so it didn’t make any money” yet the new stage play at the UK’s National Theatre (and now the West Yorkshire Playhouse) was a huge success.
It is in this new venue that Philip Pullman is realizing his power to influence and manipulate. I am beginning to think that Philip Pullman is of the catharsis school of book writing and movie making. As he explains it (emphasis added in the following quote):
In the cinema, they can have them [the characters] there in apparent real life – it’s been made on a computer but it passes for real. You can’t do that in the theatre so the audience has got to pretend, they’ve got to pretend that there isn’t an actor there holding a puppet and speaking for it. So there’s an active engagement
with the audience’s imagination. I’m used to hearing people who have read the book and were disappointed in the film, but much preferred the play because they are engaging with it in that way which is so special and peculiar to an audience in the theatre.
Via the emotions one can cut right through the intellect: emotions are tangible while the intellect deals with the abstract. He is realizing that he can make a theater audience more fully engage his propaganda so that as they build an emotional attachment to the story, his anti-Christian atheist concepts, and him as a person, they are also eating up his and agreeing with his prejudice.Having attempted to zombiefy his audience into accepting the concept of “killing God” and attempting to “undermine the basis of Christian belief” he is now working on a new bit of strictly anti-Christian propaganda:
The book I’m writing at the minute is about Jesus. I did a talk at the National Theatre with the Archbishop of Canter-bury, we were talking about the theology in the books and he said: ‘You don’t mention Jesus at all’, so I put him in the next book, The Scarecrow and his Servant. Nobody noticed, so I thought I better make it clearer_
The book is difficult to describe and I’d rather not go into it at this stage. It’s just that I’m writing about this very interesting character called Jesus, who is very different from the character Paul calls Christ. I’ve been reading the gospels and reading around them. It’s fascinating – and I’ve also realised it can’t all be true.
This is an outrage! An atheist who states that the New Testament “can’t all be true”-who ever heard of such a thing?!?!?!Pretty soon the 24,000+ manuscripts of the New Testament will be said to be of inferior quality and less telling about Jesus than Philip Pullman’s novel-the new one about “killing God” and attempting to “undermine the basis of Christian belief.”
Maybe after the new book about “Jesus” he will write about a very interesting character called Muhammad, who is very different from the character Caliph Utman calls Prophet. Perhaps he has been reading the Qur’an and reading around it. He may even find it fascinating and realize that it can’t all be true. Then again; do not hold your breath-ask Salman Rushdie and Cat Stephens / Yusuf Islam about that.
As to Dr. Rowan Williams – the Archbishop of Canterbury’s role in this:
The Archbishop of Canterbury has said books by campaigning atheist, Philip Pullman, are among his favourites, despite the author being a renowned critic of the Christian church_But the Archbishop, Dr Rowan Williams, said he liked Mr Pullman’s work because he took the church “seriously” at a time when it appeared to be “drifting out” of mainstream intellectual debate.3
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