The Golden Compass

A new controversial movie will be released worldwide next month. The movie is called The Golden Compass and is based on the first book of a trilogy written by English author, Philip Pullman, titled His Dark Materials. The movie is a distant cousin or rather imitation of previous fantasy successes such as Chronicles of Narnia and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

In regard to the controversy, there are two clear sides. Pullman is a declared atheist and has admitted unabashedly that the theme of his books is "to kill God". To reenforce his theme, president of American Atheists, Ellen Johnson, described The Golden Compass as being a movie about questioning authority, going on to to acsert that that message ought to be taught to children.

On the other hand, Bill Donahue, head of the Catholic League, is imploring families everywhere to boycott the movie on the premise that the movie is completely anti-Catholic and anti-religion. The movie portrays a group of bad men called in the film "the Magisterium". The group is made up of a Pope and Bishops who convene regularly to plot kidnappings of small children. They do so in order to carry out scientific experiments like separating the soul and body.

After Tuesday night's premiere of the film in London, The Guardian pointed out that the film has,"No other challengers as this year's big Christmas movie." Christmas: a holiday theoretically remembering the birth of the Son of God -- no doubt an inappropriate occasion to teach young ones about the best way of eliminating him...