The Golden Compass[movie]

[ShunNakamura]

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I think a few of you have failed your sarcasm detector test. For those of you who have failed it just look up Landover Baptist Church. I thought the article was pretty obvious in what it was doing[and was a somewhat enjoyable read though it may have taken things a bit far] .

As for Skyblade's article I thought about going through and posting what is obviously wrong with that review.. but meh, the Christians who are protesting this film are either following the crowd[and likely won't listen to little old me] or they are so closed that nothing but a high powered laser would have any hope of penetrating even the outermost layers. However, to humor you I will post up one easily spotted error that really glares[and is a favorite of mine to go up with].

The villains are trying to “cut” the souls out of children. But in Pullman’s world, those “souls” are called “daemons”. Thus, anyone trying to “cast out demons” is really trying to carve innocence out of the kids.

Le Sigh.

Daemon: 2. Variant of daimon. [
Daimon: 2.An attendant spirit; a genius.
Daimon: a guardian spirit or guardian angel often associated with the communication of advice and inspiration. [Conneticut paranormal research society]

The words daemon, dæmon, are Latinized spellings of the Greek δαίμων (daimon),[1] used purposely today to distinguish the daemons of Ancient Greek religion, good or malevolent "supernatural beings between mortals and gods, such as inferior divinities and ghosts of dead heroes" (see Plato's Symposium), from the Judeo-Christian usage demon, a malignant spirit that can seduce, afflict, or possess humans.

Daimon is the Greek derivative for the term demon. In this sense the term "demon" means "replete with knowledge." The ancient Greeks thought there were good and bad demons called 'eudemons' and 'cacodemons.' The term 'daimon' means "divine power," "fate" or "god." Daimons, in Greek mythology, included deified heroes. They were considered intermediary spirits between men and the gods. Good daimons were considered to be guardian spirits, giving guidance and protection to the ones they watched over. Bad daimons led people astray.

But though the word demon is now practically restricted to this sinister sense, it was otherwise with the earlier usage of the Greek writers. The word, which is apparently derived from daio "to divide" or "apportion", originally meant a divine being; it was occasionally applied to the higher gods and goddesses, but was more generally used to denote spiritual beings of a lower order coming between gods and men. For the most part these were beneficent beings, and their office was somewhat analogous to that of the angels in Christian theology.

Pullman Speaks on the origin of Daemon. From a Scholastic interview.

Not exactly a difficult mistake to think of Daemon as the Christian demon/devil since that is the common thinking of the word, particularly to closed Christians; however, it isn't exactly hard to find what it was meant to mean.

In the Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish editions of His Dark Materials the word "dæmon" is changed to "daimon", simply because "dæmon" means "demon" in those languages[citation needed]. In Serbian and Italian editions, dæmon is also changed to daimon. In the Spanish edition, the term "dæmon" is changed to "daimonion". The Portuguese translation of the books render the word as "génio" in reference to the familiar spirits in Greco-Roman mythology.

Anyways easier/faster for me to do a lot of cut and pasting than to write my own 6 page report on daemon/daimon/whatever.

Oh and another which is fun

And yes, the church has had its periods of horrific misbehavior. But Christ is the foundation of the church, and he stands in stark opposi<b></b>tion to oppression, cruelty, and tyranny.

The church in the Golden Compass has no Christ figure; stated by Pullman himself.

Well, to answer the question about Jesus first, no, he doesn't figure in the teaching of the church, as I described the church in the story. I think he's mentioned once, in the context of this notion of wisdom that works secretly and quietly, not in the great courts and palaces of the earth, but among ordinary people and so on. And there are some teachers who have embodied this quality, but whose teaching has perhaps been perverted or twisted or turned, and been used in a fashion that they themselves didn't either desire or expect or could see happening.

So there's a sort of reference to the teaching of Jesus which I may return to in the next book - but I don't want to anticipate too much because I've found that if I tell people what I'm going to write about, I don't write it, something happens to prevent it, so I'd better not anticipate that too much. But I'm conscious that that is a question that has been sort of hovering over people's understanding of the story anyway.

If you want the interview transcript, here it is.



Anyways both articles were enjoyable due to the sillyness of them... sadly it looks like Skyblade's link is serious rather than sarcastic .