Part 2 of Golden Compass blog

"Pullman's Agenda"

Mark Hadley has said that the trilogy "may prove to be to children's literature what Richard Dawkins is to science. Both of their writings express a negative opinion of Christianity and its institutions that falls little short of hatred. The difference is that Dawkins uses every opportunity to publicly proclaim the perceived dangers of faith, whereas Pullman has cloaked his convictions in the drama and delight of an award-winning children's series."
Peter Hitchens, English Christian writer and brother of atheist Christopher Hitchens, says, "The atheists have driven God out of the classroom and off the TV and the radio, and done a pretty good job of expelling him from the churches as well. But one stubborn and important pocket of Christianity survives, in the Narnia stories of C.S. Lewis. Now here comes an opportunity to dethrone him and supplant his books with others which proclaim the death of God to the young."
Pullman, with Michael Rosen, has created a DVD for 11-year-olds called "Why Atheism?" in which students talk frankly about their atheism and why they left religion. Pullman wants atheism taught in schools, hoping the DVD is a teaching tool.
The books are more threatening, however, by going under the radar. The National Theater in London held a performance of the trilogy. "The kids were probably not aware that 'His Dark Materials' is a phrase from 'Paradise Lost,'" wrote Louis Menand in the New Yorker. "They were probably not aware, either, that the books are intended as an answer to Milton, and an attack on Christian theology and the Church."
Pullman wants to crush the innocence of childhood, saying "it's dangerous to believe that innocence is at its best when untouched by experience."
When a children's book was released that portrayed a teenage girl that morphed into a fornicating dog, Pullman only objected to the book's critics. He also calls Pooh books "nauseating whimsy" and Tolkien's LOTR as "fundamentally an infantile work."
His #1 enemy is C.S. Lewis, who Pullman hates for treating children as children. "The idea of keeping childhood alive forever and ever and regretting the passage into adulthood--whether it's a gentle, rose-tinged regret or a passionate, full-blooded hatred, as it is in Lewis--is simply wrong." Even his admirers admit he becomes unhinged at the mere mention of Lewis' name. "I hate the Narnia books," he says, calling them "anti-life," "cruel," and "unjust." He also calls Lewis "blatantly racist" and "monumentally disparaging of women." He adds that the series is "one of the most ugly and poisonous things I've ever read."
Pullman hates Narnia for being "propaganda" for Christianity, despite his own deliberate attempt to create atheist propaganda for children.
He calls the Adam and Eve story "enlightenment rather than an invitation to evil disobedience." Two of his central characters, Will and Lyra, are a sort of Adam and Eve, but "instead of reaffirming the Christian story, CS Lewis-style, they subvert it," says Deborah Ross. She adds Pullman is "all for Eve listening to the serpent and trying the fruit."
Pullman believes in a heaven on earth, a secular utopia with all that heaven offers, minus a pesky God. Since "the King [God] is dead, I find that I still need these things that heaven promised, sand I'm not willing to live without them. I don't think I will live after I'm dead, so if I am to achieve these things I must try to bring them about--and encourage other people to bring them about--on earth..."

Isn't it funny how a guy so against indoctrination calls for it, especially among naive, innocent, and easily-affected children who are almost defenseless against his teachings?

Song of the Day: "Tears of the Saints" by Leeland