His Dark Materials

Ok, I'm wrapping up the last of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials books (The Amber Spyglass). At this point, I see why various fundie groups in the U.S. were up in arms. There's really nothing for them to rant about in the first book, but the third, sure. Between the ex-nun turned Garden of Eden serpent and the re-staging of Milton's take on Lucifer's war on God (with God dying as a gibbering senile old man), ok their rants come from somewhere.

That said, we now have to look at whether they're justified in ranting.

From my perspective, as a semi-historian and whatnot, I have to say that they are most definitely not justified. Why? Because for centuries they (virtually any branch of Christianity) have been writing fiction and non-fiction denigrating and attacking every other religious faith in the world from Judaism to Buddhism, other Christian sects to Shinto. And do they seem to have a problem with this massive body of material (much of which is targeted at elementary school and younger children)? Of course not. But one fiction series that paints the faith in a, relatively, balanced light comes out and they go ballistic.

The thing is, although Pullman is quite open about his atheism, that doesn't really enter into the series. He still involves fate, limited predestination, and some sort of guiding higher principle (in this case Dust created by consciousness and imagination, which is itself conscious and capable of guiding people). None of these are remotely atheistic principles. So, maybe the fundies ought to take a look at the books from the perspective of what the faith could be if it loses its way versus what it could be if it truly follows the path it claims to. Unfortunately, the fundies views of the "right" path are precisely those that have caused their faith to lose its way, so they probably see far too much of themselves in the series' villains who are willing to kill and commit other atrocities in the name of their false view of religion/morality.