Adventist Media Response and Conversation

Friday, December 14, 2007

Golden Compass part 2

I got so tired of reading the Christian websites and blogs saying that Lyra killed God that I thought I would put in the quote from the final book where they meet the ancient of days who was earlier identified as an angel but may be assumed to be a type of the god that exists in the books. Imprisoned in a crystal cell the children come across the decrepit being.

Between them they helped the ancient of days out of his crystal cell; it wasn't hard, for he was as light as paper, and he would have followed them anywhere, having no will of his own, and responding to simple kindness like a flower to the sun. But in the open air there was nothing to stop the wind from damaging him, and to their dismay his form began to loosen and dissolve. Only a few moments later he had vanished completely, and their last impression was of those eyes, blinking in wonder, and a sigh of the most profound and exhausted relief.

Then he was gone: a mystery dissolving in mystery.

---Page 181 The Amber Spyglass , Phillip Pullman

I do not think the above incident spoils anything in the story but it does destroy the claim that they killed God in the books. At least when Christians decried the Da Vinci Code they did not have to make stuff up, just counter the stuff that was made up. Here we have Christians making stuff up to counter stuff that was not even present in the stuff that the author made up.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I share your exasperation. The only thing that happens when Christians decry something they haven't seen (or read) is that Christians look ignorant.

In moments like these there is something to be gained, I think, from examining the messenger.

In this case, the "messenger" screaming "the kids in Golden Compass kill God!" are a bunch of lunatic-fringe American Catholics.

Not the kind of people you'd let mind your kids -- let alone trust to understand complex things like metaphors in books for your kids.

Let me put it this way: if some fictional characters from a fictional universe kill a fictional "god", should this disturb Christians in any way whatsoever?

Christians who presumably live in the real world and have enough to be going on with worshiping a real God...