The Golden Compass

The film the Golden Compass is attacking Christianity. The film mentinons origional sin and how it comes from ancestors, and ancestors are bad. That refers to Adam and Eve how they ate the fruit and it started the whole sin act. The author of the book Philip Pullman is athiest and presents the views in a watered down way in the movie by just referring to the magisterium as the authority figure. The magisterium in the real world could be referred to as the church and God. God is the authority figure to people in the church and to christains. The magisterium was the authority to the universe in the film. The magisterium is depicted as a fascist organization that is meant to have all the power.People have the right to think on their own to be freethinkers which the movie also mentions but under this control you cannot. Dust is mentioned in this film and it makes people rebel against its control which is the magesterium. Mrs. Coultier is a character in the film that is meant to take away the daemons from the children. The daemons represent the people in the movies soul. Author and film maker Philip Pullman has very harsh views of the church. He has written a series of childrens books called "His Dark Materials Trilogy." Geared towards young adults because they will watch the movie trailers and want to go and see the movie. Not knowing what they are watching and the damage that it can go to Christianity. Pullman says in an interview with NBC news, "What I was mainly doing, I hope, was telling a story,As for the atheism, it doesn’t matter to me whether people believe in God or not, so I’m not promoting anything of that sort. What I do care about is whether people are cruel or whether they’re kind, whether they act for democracy or for tyranny, whether they believe in open-minded enquiry or in shutting the freedom of thought and expression. Good things have been done in the name of religion, and so have bad things; and both good things and bad things have been done with no religion at all. What I care about is the good, wherever it comes from." Pullman says he wasn't penpointing religion but if you get into the argument and his beliefs it lines up. I believe that he was coming against his dislikes of he church whether or not he was exactly mocking christianity or not. This was made clear in this film and in his book which the movie was based off of.