Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Pullman , Philip (2011-12-06), His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass, Everyman's Library, Retrieved on 2011-08-10
Folksonomies: atheism fantasy Memes
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Child Reference
The Amber SpyglassBooks, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Pullman , Philip (2002-09-30), The Amber Spyglass, Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, Retrieved on 2011-08-10
Folksonomies: fiction fantasy 10 AUG 2011
A Deceptive God
Balthamos said quietly, “The Authority, God, the Creator, the Lord, Yahweh, El, Adonai, the King, the Father, the Almighty, those were all names he gave himself. He was never the creator. He was an angel like ourselves, the first angel, true, the most powerful, but he was formed of Dust as we are, and Dust is only a name for what happens when matter begins to understand itself. Matter loves matter. It seeks to know more about itself, and Dust is formed. The first angels condensed out of Dus... 1 
notes
notesUsually a fake god is described as someone with special powers, but Pullman's god is merely an angel that preceded other angels into existence and lied to them about their origins, when, in fact, we are all products of the natural world.
10 AUG 2011
The Assassin Seeks Preemptive Grace
The President held up his hand. Preemptive penance and absolution were doctrines researched and developed by the Consistorial Court, but not known to the wider Church. They involved doing penance for a sin not yet committed, intense and fervent penance accompanied by scourging and flagellation, so as to build up, as it were, a store of credit. When the penance had reached the appropriate level for a particular sin, the penitent was granted absolution in advance, though he might never be calle... 1 notes
notesBefore committing a sin, a mercenary hired by the church does penance beforehand, so they may know they are still in grace after the crime.
10 AUG 2011
The Republic of Heaven
“But what does Lord Asriel intend? What is this world, and why has he come here?”
“He led us here because this world is empty. Empty of conscious life, that is. We are not colonialists, Mrs. Coulter. We haven’t come to conquer, but to build.”
“And is he going to attack the Kingdom of Heaven?”
Ogunwe looked at her levelly.
“We’re not going to invade the Kingdom,” he said, “but if the Kingdom invades us, they had better be ready for war, because we are prepared. Mrs. C... 1 notes
notesThe rebels in Pullman's book intend to overthrow the Kingdom of Heaven and replace it with a Republic.
10 AUG 2011
A Drop of Water to a Miniature Person
“Are there big people on your world, or are they all small like you?” Lyra said.
“We know how to deal with big people,” Tialys replied, not very helpfully, and went to talk quietly to the Lady. They spoke too softly for Lyra to hear, but she enjoyed watching them sip dewdrops from the marram grass to refresh themselves. Water must be different for them, she thought to Pantalaimon: imagine drops the size of your fist! They’d be hard to get into; they’d have a sort of elastic rind,...Folksonomies: perspectives
Folksonomies: perspectives
1 notes
notesWould have an elastic rind from the surface tension that would need to be broken before drinking.
10 AUG 2011
Nonexistence is Preferable to the Afterlife
“What will happen? When we leave the world of the dead, will we live again? Or will we vanish as our daemons did? Brothers, sisters, we shouldn’t follow this child anywhere till we know what’s going to happen to us!”
Others took up the question: “Yes, tell us where we’re going! Tell us what to expect! We won’t go unless we know what’ll happen to us!”
Lyra turned to Will in despair, but he said, “Tell them the truth. Ask the alethiometer, and tell them what it says.”
... 1 notes
notesIn Pullman's vision of the afterlife, things are dreary and static, the dead long to dissipate and have their atoms return to the world and become other things. An atheist alternative to the boredom of heaven.
10 AUG 2011
God Ages Through the Bible
“Well, where is God,” said Mrs. Coulter, “if he’s alive? And why doesn’t he speak anymore? At the beginning of the world, God walked in the Garden and spoke with Adam and Eve. Then he began to withdraw, and he forbade Moses to look at his face. Later, in the time of Daniel, he was aged, he was the Ancient of Days. Where is he now? Is he still alive, at some inconceivable age, decrepit and demented, unable to think or act or speak and unable to die, a rotten hulk? And if that is his ... 1 notes
notesNeed to factcheck this, but in this passage, Coulter describes an Old Testament god who grows older and older, so that, if he still lives, death would be merciful for him.
10 AUG 2011
Pass Along Wisdom
“Understand this,” said Xaphania: “Dust is not a constant. There’s not a fixed quantity that has always been the same. Conscious beings make Dust, they renew it all the time, by thinking and feeling and reflecting, by gaining wisdom and passing it on.
“And if you help everyone else in your worlds to do that, by helping them to learn and understand about themselves and each other and the way everything works, and by showing them how to be kind instead of cruel, and patient instead o...Folksonomies: enlightenment wisdom
Folksonomies: enlightenment wisdom
1 notes
notesWhat to evangelize in absence of religion.
Child Reference
Golden CompassBooks, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Pullman , Philip (2002-09-01), Golden Compass, Random House Childrens Books, Retrieved on 2011-08-10
Folksonomies: fiction atheism fantasy 10 AUG 2011
The General Oblation Board
“Oh, yes,” said Lyra. “I’m safe from everyone here. Where I used to live, in Oxford, there was all kinds of dangerous things. There was gyptiansthey take kids and sell ‘em to the Turks for slaves. And on Port Meadow at the full moon there’s a werewolf that comes out from the old nunnery at Godstow. I heard him howling once. And there’s the Gobblers….”
“That’s what I mean,” the man said. “That’s what they call the Oblation Board, don’t they?”
Lyra felt Pantala... 1 notes
notesAnd how it relates to the people giving their children to the church to become "oblates."
10 AUG 2011
We Settle into a Comfortable Identity as Adults
She still felt seasick occasionally, especially when the wind got up and the ship plunged heavily over the crests of the graygreen waves, and then it was Pantalaimon’s job to distract her from it by skimming the waves as a stormy petrel; because she could feel his boundless glee in the dash of wind and water, and forget her nausea. From time to time he even tried being a fish, and once joined a school of dolphins, to their surprise and pleasure. Lyra stood shivering in the fo’c’sle and ... 1 notes
notesThe idea of the daemon, which changes shape, trying on different forms as a child, is a great metaphor for the masks and roles we wear growing up until we settle into who we are.
10 AUG 2011
Witches Own Nothing
“Well, that seems kinda precipitate. Seems to me a man should have a choice whether to take up arms or not.”
“We have no more choice in that than in whether or not to be born.”
“Oh, I like choice, though,” he said. “I like choosing the jobs I take and the places I go and the food I eat and the companions I sit and yarn with. Don’t you wish for a choice once in a while ?”
Serafina Pekkala considered, and then said, “Perhaps we don’t mean the same thing by choice, Mr. S...Folksonomies: immortality materialism
Folksonomies: immortality materialism
1 notes
notesTherefore cost does not factor into their reasoning, because they live long enough to know that every opportunity comes around again.
10 AUG 2011
Adam and Eve are a Religious Variable
“But…” Lyra struggled to find the words she wanted: “but it en’t true, is it? Not true like chemistry or engineering, not that kind of true? There wasn’t really an Adam and Eve? The Cassington Scholar told me it was just a kind of fairy tale.”
“The Cassington Scholarship is traditionally given to a freethinker; it’s his function to challenge the faith of the Scholars. Naturally he’d say that. But think of Adam and Eve like an imaginary number, like the square root of minu... 1 notes
notesIncluded in theistic equations the same way the square root of minus one is used in mathematics.
10 AUG 2011
How the Church Cuts
“But they were cutting-” Lyra couldn’t bring herself to say it; the words choked in her mouth. “You know what they were doing! Why did the Church let them do anything like that?”
“There was a precedent. Something like it had happened before. Do you know what the word castration means? It means removing the sexual organs of a boy so that he never develops the characteristics of a man. A castrate keeps his high treble voice all his life, which is why the Church allowed it: so usefu... 1 notes
notesIn the fictional universe, the Church cuts children from their souls, but in our own history they have castrated boys to preserve their ability to sing in the choir.
Child Reference
The Subtle KnifeBooks, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Pullman , Philip (2002-09-30), The Subtle Knife, Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, Retrieved on 2011-08-10
Folksonomies: fiction atheism fantasy theism 10 AUG 2011
The Church is the Antithesis of Nature
Ruta Skadi stood. Her white arms gleamed in the firelight; her eyes glittered so brightly that even the farthest witch could see the play of expression on her vivid face.
“Sisters,” she began, “let me tell you what is happening, and who it is that we must fight. For there is a war coming. I don’t know who will join with us, but I know whom we must fight. It is the Magisterium, the Church. For all its history- and that’s not long by our lives, but it’s many, many of theirsit’s t... 1 notes
notesA witch rallies an army of witches by explaining how the church subverts natural understanding.
10 AUG 2011
Looking at the Shadows in the Cave
“Yes,” Dr. Malone went on, “they know we’re here. They answer back. And here goes the crazy part: you can’t see them unless you expect to. Unless you put your mind in a certain state. You have to be confident and relaxed at the same time. You have to be capable- Where’s that quotation …”
She reached into the muddle of papers on her desk and found a scrap on which someone had written with a green pen. She read:
” ‘… Capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, ... 1 notes
notesA computer named "the cave" where users look into the shadows displayed on it and it reflects their thinking. Named for Plato's Cave, it also sounds like Tarot readings; however, in the context of the story, there is something supernatural at work too.
10 AUG 2011
The Eternal Conflict Between Enlightenment and Ignorance
‘There are two great powers,” the man said, “and they’ve been fighting since time began. Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of the other. Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit. 1 notes
notesA shaman describes a more sophisticated clash than between good and evil, knowledge versus totalitarian ignorance.
