Posted on 12/04/2007 8:49:42 AM PST by NYer
True, however it should be remembered that Islam was viewed very differently in the West when the Dune nooks were written. Kind of a cute religion or primitive peoples. No kind of a threat. Their religion has also incorporated Buddhist and other elements.
ping
Neither view is supported by history.
God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?
– Nietzsche, The Gay Science, Section 125, tr.
“The madman’s explanation of a thing is always complete, and often in a purely rational sense satisfactory. Or, to speak more strictly, the insane explanation, if not conclusive, is at least unanswerable; this may be observed specially in the two or three commonest kinds of madness. If a man says (for instance) that men have a conspiracy against him, you cannot dispute it except by saying that all the men deny that they are conspirators; which is exactly what conspirators would do. His explanation covers the facts as much as yours. Or if a man says that he is the rightful King of England, it is no complete answer to say that the existing authorities call him mad; for if he were King of England that might be the wisest thing for the existing authorities to do. Or if a man says that he is Jesus Christ, it is no answer to tell him that the world denies his divinity; for the world denied Christ’s.
Nevertheless he is wrong. But if we attempt to trace his error in exact terms, we shall not find it quite so easy as we had supposed. Perhaps the nearest we can get to expressing it is to say this: that his mind moves in a perfect but narrow circle. A small circle is quite as infinite as a large circle; but, though it is quite as infinite, it is not so large. In the same way the insane explanation is quite as complete as the sane one, but it is not so large. A bullet is quite as round as the world, but it is not the world. There is such a thing as a narrow universality; there is such a thing as a small and cramped eternity; you may see it in many modern religions.
...
Or suppose it were the second case of madness, that of a man who claims the crown, your impulse would be to answer, “All right! Perhaps you know that you are the King of England; but why do you care? Make one magnificent effort and you will be a human being and look down on all the kings of the earth.” Or it might be the third case, of the madman who called himself Christ. If we said what we felt, we should say, “So you are the Creator and Redeemer of the world: but what a small world it must be! What a little heaven you must inhabit, with angels no bigger than butterflies! How sad it must be to be God; and an inadequate God! Is there really no life fuller and no love more marvellous than yours; and is it really in your small and painful pity that all flesh must put its faith? How much happier you would be, how much more of you there would be, if the hammer of a higher God could smash your small cosmos, scattering the stars like spangles, and leave you in the open, free like other men to look up as well as down!”
- G.K. Chesteron, “Orthodoxy”
Don't parents look up information about books before giving them to their kids? Our daughter got these from the library, but I did read about them, and discussed them with her. She was a teenager at the time, and reading them didn't harm her religious beliefs, but again, that could be because we discussed the stories as she read them, and compared them directly to the Narnia series, which she'd read earlier.
And . . . the sales of the books will go up because of the movie (essentially cross-marketing no ironic pun intended). That’s a big chunk of the evil of this even if the film is less aggressive in its athiesm and its attacks on Christ.
My priest encouraged us to read all of the philosophers, Nietzsche wouldn't be excluded. He’d sit down and explain it to you. Let’s just say Father Hart and Bishop Sullivan had no fear of any earthly writings and stories of men. It just really grinds me wrong when Catholics start to find themselves amongst the ‘book burning’, ‘snake handling’, ‘witchcraft’ paranoid types. One thing I treasure about the Catholic faith is the open-mindedness of free-inquiry, yet maintence of moral objectivity.
BTW, I recommend the trailer. The movie simply looks abysmal. I think it’ll flop.
How's that for irony.
Sounds like the mid 1990s...
In the Dune books, Herbert drew on a number of themes from Islam, Judaism and Zen Buddism. The term “Kwisatz Haderach” to describe a messiah figure is a transliteration of a Hebrew phrase. The history of the Fremen in the books seems to mirror the ancient Hebrews/Israelites somewhat. Although their religion is rather Islam-like with some Zen elements. They do use the term “Jihad” a lot, but the books were written well before the term took on the more threatening context of recent times.
The Church abandoned the Index of Prohibited Books because it was seen to be counterproductive.
The problem is not well informed readers who read Nietzsche, or Pullman, to discover what their arguments are first hand. the problem is innocents who are drawn in and abused.
His Dark Materials is deliberately written in a subtle and incremental way, so kids will be drawn in first and only exposed to the vile message after they are hooked.
Note that the next installment of this analysis of the books will treat the sexualization of children. That is a major part of Pullman’s purpose. Basically, the lesson children get from the books is that God is an interfering busybody who must be rejected and killed, so they can have good sex with each other. Yet I’m sure Hollywood will give it a PG rating. And it will pretend to be Narnia by opening in the Christmas holidays.
I have rules on what movies I will see. It has to have 2 of my 3 requirements. Nudity, adult language, and violence.
Does it meet my requirements?
You need to also look longer down the road. If your kids are readers, they will likely be intrigued by this movie and want to look into Pullman’s books. By the time they get to the third book in the series, where God is killed, the parents have lost the ability to but the genie back into the bottle. Frankly, most parents will be clueless, because parents rarely read children’s novels.
Many parents will just be thrilled their children are reading. But children shouldn’t read just anything for the sake of reading. No decent parent would allow their child to read pornographic novels, but they let their kids read atheism or paganism disguised as fantasy. Some ideas endanger children’s souls.
This is exactly like Satan works. He tempts with something beautiful and delightful, and then draws you gradually into deep evil. The Bible tells us Satan was created a beautiful magnificent angel. He’s a master at making things seem appealing and innocent.
Sorry, splash damage. Not meant to you, per se, more a general posting.
Here’s another review of this moive, from the “Focus on the Family” people.
http://www.pluggedinonline.com/thisweekonly/a0003516.cfm
I find this not the least bit ironic. Atheism is a mental illness, so it's not surprising at all that it's most forward proponent was a raving loony-tune.
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