The Golden Compass, 3 of 5

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who are wise in their own opinion and clever in their own sight. - Isaiah 5:20-21 HCSB

In article 2, I mentioned the tool given to Lyra by the house Master in The Golden Compass called the alethiometer, or as it should be understood “the truth measurer.” By this device, Pullman teaches children that occult tools are useful. The alethiometer enables Lyra to predict the future and learn information about anything in the past or present. She reads its messages by going into a sort of trance that resembles religious meditation, thereby connecting with some power outside of herself. To me, this sounds amazingly like an ouija board.

The falseness of Pullman’s claim to agnosticism is never more fully realized than when he discusses Christianity. In his stories, Christians are evil kidnappers. Those who try to remove the daemons from the children are called the “Gobblers” or “The General Oblation Board.”

“Oblation”, by the way, is an offering to God, particularly the Eucharist in Catholic doctrine. By this and other means, Pullman demonstrates that the Christian Church is evil and seeks to kidnap children and separate them from their beloved daemons.

In an interview with Teenreads, Pullman revealed his attitude toward Christian beliefs when he said, “I think we're far too superstitious on the whole. As for disgraceful betrayals of wisdom such as the pretense that there is something called "creation science" and that we ought to give it equal time in schools with proper science --- I'm ashamed to belong to a human race that is so sunk in abject ignorance and willful stupidity.”

Pullman seems to think that being good is boring. For one thing, a character named Lofur thinks that in order to become a human, he has to gain a daemon. However, Pullman reveals that the only way to truly realize one’s humanness is to acquire vices and flaws.

Another thing, Lord Asriel retells the story of Adam and Eve, transforming it in such a manner that it becomes the story of the beginning of human experience. In Asriel’s version, Adam and Eve were heroes who ate from the fruit and gained knowledge.

Pullman then applies the story by saying that children must make the transition from innocence to experience in order to become fully developed human beings. If Adam and Eve hadn’t eaten the fruit, the human race would be like the nurses at Bolvanger: bland, boring, incurious, and utterly complacent. Pullman’s conclusion? In order to be exciting, we need to be vivacious and disobedient.