I've got another book obsession. *Detective Squeaker Groans, But She Doesn't Notice*

Here's the story. Last Christmas, I got the box pack of the His Dark Materials series (You know, including The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass). I decided not to read it until there was absolutely nothing else in the household. Late April, a few months after, that's the case (The only books left are adult books I'm very uninterested in, and the library doesn't have any good-sized books I haven't read already except scary stories, which I never read at night because of nightmares).

I'm way past addicted. To be honest, I like it more than Warriors. (GASPEH!) Who here has seen the movie or read the book? Another thing.. there's a rumor about the series opposing Christians. Can someone give me updates on this? There's absolutely nothing wrong on that scale, that's for sure; I've only got a little more than a chapter left of the first book, and it rarely talks about Christian-related things (It mentioned the Bible, and like "OMG" stuff).

If you want to know about the anti-religious rumor go here:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/compass.asp

Don't know if you've ever used Snopes before, but it's very accurate. It says that it is anti-religious (read the third paragraph under "Origins").

And the series name is enough to make me against it. "His Dark Materials". "His" being a reference to God. The rest is just self-explanatory and offensive.

I saw that one. I've already started to read The Subtle Knife and nothing bad AT ALL, it hasn't even mentioned religion in any way at all yet. I meant real evidence from the books etc.- I really don't trust that site at all, because The Golden Compass even had a verse from the Bible in it. It doesn't really matter about the author's religion, just about what's in the book. For example, say Erin Hunter celebrates the Creligion (Crazy religion) holiday Apple Day. Does that mean Warriors is horrible?

'His', I'm pretty sure, refers to whoever made the alethiometer (Probably what the book titles refer to as the subtle knife and the amber spyglass, also; I don't know the scientific names, but I do know the titles). There's evidence in The Golden Compass that the alethiometer was not made by God;

The Golden Compass, part two "BOLVANGAR", chapter ten "THE CONSUL AND THE BEAR", page 173, Lyra and Dr. Lanselius

In that paragraph, the consul Dr. Lanselius answers Lyra's question about who made the alethiometer. And another quote;

The Golden Compass, part three "SVALBARD", chapter twenty-one "LORD ASRIEL'S WELCOME", page 369/370, Lyra and Lord Asriel

Dust being what makes the alethiometer means that practically, there's no way God can be directly connected to the device as a Scholar created it and Dust makes it perform (He did make what it's made of and who created it, but that's not direct). And basically, the alethiometer- well, without it in the story there would be a hole where the plotline's supposed to be, and with the alethiometer being the center of the story (Along with Lyra and Will, of course) I don't see how God could really be associated with the story.

Basically, my point is that I really see no reason how religion could be associated majorly (There are mentionings, of course) with the trilogy. I'm not asking for what I am pretty sure are not true (I might beleive it if they had quotes that I could check in the book). In fact, I've gathered that it's a false alarm; the sequel and prequel (Not sure about the sequel, actually) are about killing a villain whose name is one of the names God is referred to as, but that doesn't mean it's about killing God himself (If I had actual evidence that it was, then I'd immediately put the series down and promise myself never to read any of those books again).

I read the first two books. The only atheistic opinions in the stories have to do with the need for the church to keep control over all sciences. I've heard that The Golden Compass isn't as heavy as the other two, but I haven't finished them all yet, so I can't confirm that.

But that Snopes website looks totally biased. I'm skeptical about the whole conspiracy against Christianity idea. I mean, come on, His Dark Materials are no more antiChristian than Harry Potter! As far as I'm concerned, books are books. Any subliminal messages just allow you to see other perspectives.

Snopes isn't biased, and it's not like Wikpedia. Not just anybody can get in and change the information. It goes upon what is on the Internet. It's like the Internet version of Mythbusters.

But, I reckon it is all open to interpretation. Narnia is said to be a great Christian book, but Phillip Pullman said it was actually going against Christianity (don't know how he saw that). (Source- Far From Narnia, The New Yorker)

Anyway, it's all in how you look at things. Like Point of View.

o_0 Everyone beware of my argumentary mode.. I didn't know I could do something like that in my last post.. gosh, guys, I'm sorry. I sounded really... mean.. but I still am very sure that it's not about killing God. My mother read it (I'm not sure if it was the whole trilogy or just The Golden Compass) and she's the one who bought the trilogy for me, if she thought it was against Christianity she wouldn't have given it to me.

I got the DVD yesterday and now I'm officially obsessed. I could understand the movie a lot better now, and it was awesome (Especially when I enabled subtitles. YAY SUBTITLES!) in complete awesomeness. The only thing is that it cut short for the end and skipped a lot of parts (It also mixed some up and even changed King Raknison's name to King Ragnar, plus it changed the story of Iorek's exile) such as the consul meeting and most of the journey to Bolvangar, but then again they got to Svalbard first in the movie..

SWeh, I respecteh thy opinion-eth, but meh is addicted to His Dark Materials and for once I think I'm right to be addicted this time (I got addicted to Web Earth Online, and now I realize how silly I was being- it's really not that good a game) because it is a very good series, if it wasn't Mom wouldn't have reccomended it to me and approved it. Hehe, enough debating. Let's have a random celebration about the fact that I hate King Ragnar's voice in the movie! YAY MEH!

*ears prick* Did you say Ragnar? *eyebrows raise and she runs around on hands and knees like a polar bear* 'Twas the name of the fighter polar bear in the Fire series! (Which is becoming a new obsession of mine... again...)

Watch as I get more and more excited as September rolls around! *drools over a picture of The Fire Eternal's book cover*

[Ever wondered why I write in blue?....]

Exuse the whole not logged in thing. Ya. I'm in a hurry and saw this.

I must be the biggest, most giantic fan of this series, I've seen the movie about 10 times and read the series about 20. I love it! I thought I would be quiet about it in the c-box in case you thought I was off my nut... again. I even got out the little guide from the local library. (couldn't take meh paws off it!)

SUPRISE! The whole thing is about the who really made the universe. I don't know too much about the bible or anything (I do enjoy the stories though, even if it's unrealistic). And how there is no heaven (or hell) and peoples souls. Hehe, I can't give too much away. (expect that Will, who you will meet in the second book, is from our world) Everyone has daemons too! (we just can't see them, unless you get in a trance [which I did!]. You'll never guess what my daemon is! (okay, I can hear people going to laugh, or be bored by it!)

*bites tongue but has a look of "told ya so" in her eyes*

*thinks, "Well I'm offended!"*

*goes off to write another nasty letter but never send it*

Opps...