The Golden Compass

[Benedict16]

It’s just fantasy, I mean have you ever watched a slasher flick? It doesn’t mean you condone serial murder or anything. I think intelligent people can watch the Golden Compass and still retain their faith. I don’t think it’s a big deal, i like fantasy movies like that and I’ll probably check it out.

How can you put money in this guy’s bank account when he wants to kill God?? You must be very young and don’t understand the magnitude of hatred this man has.

 

[puzzleannie]

It’s just fantasy, I mean have you ever watched a slasher flick? It doesn’t mean you condone serial murder or anything. .

IMO if I watch a slasher flick and this is my idea of entertainment, yes I condone the murder-as-entertainment philosophy that dominates hollywood and gaming, and I also need to be in therapy.

please join the ongoing discussions and get the real deal on this horrible trilogy of books for which the movie is the marketing tie-in

 

[lukewarm]

IMO if I watch a slasher flick and this is my idea of entertainment, yes I condone the murder-as-entertainment philosophy that dominates hollywood and gaming, and I also need to be in therapy.

please join the ongoing discussions and get the real deal on this horrible trilogy of books for which the movie is the marketing tie-in

So everyone who has watched a Scream movie, or Silence of the Lambs etc… needs therapy? I think that’s a totally ridiculous statement…

 

[porkscratchings]

I’d like to know what others think about the movie “The Golden Compass”? I know that Phillip Pullman, the author and director of this movie is an Atheist. In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald on Dec. 13, 2003, he says “The people who complain that Harry Potter promotes Satanism or witchcraft obviously haven’t got enough in their lives. Meanwhile, I’ve been flying under the radar, saying things that are far more subversive than anything poor old Harry has said. MY BOOKS ARE ABOUT KILLING GOD.”
How can one even say something like this and still try and promote this movie?? Please do not see this movie, nor allow your children to see it.

Pullman is not killing God - in his books he kills a God that’s he’s invented. There’s not a world of difference from another author creating a character then killing him off in his books.

If he can really kill God - I’d be more impressed. As it is, I think he’s just desperate to drum up sales by being controversial, hoping thru this he’d sell enough books to beat the record of the Lord of the Rings.

I wouldn’t go to see the movie - not because i’m offended - I’ve read the books and the story’s as boring as reading the Das Capital by Karl Marx in its entirety. Believe me, u don’t wanna do that.

 

[Benedict16]

Pullman IS and WANTS to kill God. Here are just a few examples:
The plot of the story is that two kids are set to overthrow the “authority” in which this authority is God, and it becomes very explicit in his third book. When asked to identify the authority, two angels that are fighting on the side of the two kids use most of God’s scriptural names. It is very clear that in using the Scriptural names that we know which God Pullman is talking about. The church in Pullman’s universe has the college of cardinals, has priests, has bishops and one time had a pope. It uses a Bible similar to our own.
He shows god is very weak. He’s an angel who lied by claiming that He was the Creator, and by the end of the book, he’s senile. They don’t kill him, he just falls apart.
The very idea that God is formed of matter and can just fall apart like any other creature: It undermines the concept of God. Pullman’s first tactic is tomak Christianity look evil or oppressive.

 

[Benedict16]

Pullman is not killing God - in his books he kills a God that’s he’s invented. There’s not a world of difference from another author creating a character then killing him off in his books.

If he can really kill God - I’d be more impressed. As it is, I think he’s just desperate to drum up sales by being controversial, hoping thru this he’d sell enough books to beat the record of the Lord of the Rings.

I wouldn’t go to see the movie - not because i’m offended - I’ve read the books and the story’s as boring as reading the Das Capital by Karl Marx in its entirety. Believe me, u don’t wanna do that.

You really didn’t just say “If he could kill God, then I’d really be impressed.”

 

[puzzleannie]

So everyone who has watched a Scream movie, or Silence of the Lambs etc… needs therapy? I think that’s a totally ridiculous statement…

I said “I” not everyone, and yes if I find this entertaining, not necessarily if I am watching in for education, such as a war movie or historical epic, but I think this is fun, yes I need therapy. That is my opinion. this is an opinion forum. you don’t like it, don’t listen.

with regard to Pullman you don’t need to rely on the opinions or reports of others, go to his website, or better yet read the books (be ready for a systemic cleansing afterword you will need it) and let him speak for himself.

repeat, this has all been hashed out on previous threads, with actual links, is there some reason to hash it out again? i’m outa here.

 

[lukewarm]

I said “I” not everyone, and yes if I find this entertaining, not necessarily if I am watching in for education, such as a war movie or historical epic, but I think this is fun, yes I need therapy. That is my opinion. this is an opinion forum. you don’t like it, don’t listen.

O.K. O.K. take a deep breath and relax… Holy Cow how do you folks take this stuff so seriously? It’s supposed to be a religion board, if you get this riled up at simple comments you should really hang it up. I won’t post on this topic anymore…

 

[porkscratchings]

You really didn’t just say “If he could kill God, then I’d really be impressed.”

Yes I said it.

If Pullman can really bump off God, then he’s God - which would be really impressive, considering he’s just an old codger with pyschological issues about Christianity arising from his Anglican upbringing.

 

[colliric]

Movies water everything down, because (Hollywood) movies are geared to the mass market and want to make as much money as possible. You don’t do that by offending people. Also, movies have a more visceral impact than books, so apart from the fact that they are likely to impact a lot more people, they are going to get a stronger reaction even from people who also read the books (seeing something is more disturbing or moving than just reading about it).

The Christian content of Narnia was watered down, and from what I’ve heard the propaganda aspect of DaVinci Code was also watered down. It’s what one expects from a movie.

Edwin

I don’t think the christian content of Narnia was watered down persay. There was much additional plot to the story of the novel and even added action scenes and unfortunatly the scene where the kids saw the animals celebrating christmas was left “on the cutting room floor” so to speak. But other than that I thought the plot and themes were adequatly presented on screen.

But I don’t think it was “watered down”, the scene where lucy and Susan witness Aslan’s sacrifice was intense on the big screen that I nearly cried. I thought it was good.

Perhaps the additional plot elements(where the heck did that waterfall and river ride action scene come from? it wasn’t in the book!) drew it out a little too much and streched the themes a bit? I thought it was still presented strongly and very faithfully.

Although I did think they should have included a thematic dissection of the film’s themes on the DVD including a short segment on the christian inspiration of them. But alas they didn’t.

 

[Brenda_V]

I have not read the books. However havingseen how people in these forums distort the Harry Potter books to make them into evil personified I frankly don’t trust the criticisms I read about these books.

I know you got a link to Amazon.com’s review of the book but I wanted to let you know that I have read the entire Trilogy of “His Dark Materials” and it was beyond disturbing - not only was there the obvious references to the Magisterium but he does indeed “kill God”. My oldest daughter was an education major when she discovered this series and read it, at 20 she was disturbed enough to ask her mom to read them and see if I saw the same things she did in the books and a decision was made that this is not a book that should be in a classroom library, and Harry Potter would be allowed in a classroom library with a caveat that no child could check on out unless he or she had parental permission (enough controversy about this series that parents should have control over what their child reads).

I have also read all of the Harry Potter books. I did not see in them the problems that some here did. I have defended this series of books from those who have not even read them and have only heard about them.

It’s just fantasy, I mean have you ever watched a slasher flick? It doesn’t mean you condone serial murder or anything. I think intelligent people can watch the Golden Compass and still retain their faith. I don’t think it’s a big deal, i like fantasy movies like that and I’ll probably check it out.

You are hopefully an adult or at least a teen 15, 16 or older who may or may not be able to filter out the untruths that are presented in this book/movie. As has been said in many other posts on this thread, it is not the movie (which is supposedly vastly watered down) but the books, and again, not even the first book “The Golden Compass” that is the danger but the other two books that can indeed be a danger to a young mind in formation of a conscience and understanding of God.

I did not let my daughter read any of the RL Stein books when they first came out because she was too young to deal with some of the scariness involved in the stories. When she was older (13 and up) she was allowed to read them. You see, this is the same as not letting a child and early teen watch this movie and then be drawn into the books. I did not allow her to watch Dr. Who either because as campy as the first series was, it was still nightmare material for her little mind.

BTW, I will not watch a slasher flick.

Brenda V.