'Golden Compass' Movie: Are There Really Undertones Of Atheism?

Macayla Scarpello
12.18.07

While “The Golden Compass” was criticized for having undertones of atheism, I personally wouldn’t have noticed anything of the sort if I hadn’t had heard all the uproar about the movie upon seeing it. It was a Sunday afternoon and I decided that after seeing all the stories on CNN it would be interesting to go see.
 
Concerns about the movie had many parents keeping their children from seeing it with fears that it would send them the wrong message about the church. Without watching the news stories on CNN, which debated the controversies over the movie and its hidden meaning, I wouldn’t have noticed any sort of criticism of the church. But having seen the news stories beforehand, I did have a biased outlook throughout the entire movie. 

The movie was interesting and action packed and is a good movie to go see if you enjoy movies in the fantasy genre. In the movie, each child and adult had an inner demon that follows him or her wherever he or she goes. The movie contained many unique characters and was fascinating, but at some parts of the movie scenes skipped around and without having read the book, it got confusing.

 Many parts referred to the "Magisterium,” which is another word for church. Nowhere throughout the entire film was the word church mentioned, but Magisterium was spoken several times. In one scene, the main character, Lyra, played by actress Dakota Blue Richards, was hiding in a cabinet. A couple of the members of the Magisterium came into the room before a meeting and one of them poisoned a drink sitting out on the table. The drink was that of Lyras’s uncle, played by actor Daniel Craig, who represented the opposing force against the church in the movie. After everyone left the room Lyra jumped out to keep him from being poisoned by the church.

As the film continues Lyra’s uncle tries to stop him from going on his mission to find out more about dust. Dust represents an outside ruler that the Magisterium tries to keep others from knowing about.

CNN pointed out key points about the movie, such as the author himself being atheist. The trilogy, written by Phillip Pullman, has been criticized by Roman Catholics and evangelicals for “feeding atheism to kids.” Some fans of his work feel that Pullman’s religious critique throughout his books have been watered down in the movie and feel jipped by the author, who claims to be both an atheist and agnostic. Pullman told ReporterTimes.com, “Maybe there is a God. But among all the things I do know in this world, I see no evidence of a God whatsoever and everybody who claims to know there is a God seems to use that as an excuse for exercising power over the other people.”