> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 10:54 AM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Re: "The Golden Compass"... what's this about Atheism? > > Well....in the third book they did kill "God". Granted "God" was just > the first angel. > > I could see how people can interpret that as "promoting atheism"
How so? Acknowledging that there is a God (regardless of whether he can be killed or not) is a completely non-atheistic viewpoint. Atheism is the absence of belief in deities (although I suppose more broadly it _could_ claimed that it's a broader rejection of theism). More broadly it's a rejection of deities as a fabrication: they don't exist anyplace but our imaginations because nothing we see, experience, feel or need requires them to exist. If deities exist (even if they're able to die, even if they evolved from men, even if they're pink with purple polka-dots) then it's a non-atheistic viewpoint. (And just to get literary on things they didn't "kill" God... he died when exposed to air. Nobody put a cap in his ass or anything. Although you could say that the battle lead to his death his actual death was "natural" and, I assume purposefully, anti-climatic.) I like the books (although I thought the ending was both preachy and pretty damn stupid - he backed himself into a corner and ended on a sappy "they're love saved the day" note) but I'm still irked that a) Atheism was attacked for it (it's clearly not Atheistic) and b) that atheists might expose their children to this new-age, pseudo-religious claptrap. It's dangerous for our kids to read such things after all! ;^) Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;192386516;25150098;k Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:259524 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
