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When I watched the Golden Compass, the film, I knew nothing about Philip Pullman, or his "Dark Materials". I had never read his first book, Northern Lights (Golden Compass in the US), so I was oblivious to any prejudice that seems to have been formed by some people today.

I did not see the links to the church at all, only to an authoritative body, which could have been political, religious, big business, or whatever. The fact this Magisterium group were supposed to control an alternative universe suggested to me there would be differences, which is why the long gowns did nothing in my mind to suggest religion. Why should it? A politician in another world might wear long gowns!

The film is anti-authority, but then there are many people today who are just that, anti-authority! I certainly am, in many ways, despite being at the latter end of my life. I don't like the way our present authoritative bodies are determined to impose ideas on us without proper thought out explanations, or reasons, especially when those ideas are detrimental to the way we live our lives!

Anyone who protests against a fictional account is showing their own limitations in their belief system. Fiction is the format used to work out ideas that it would not normally be possible to explore without offense. Many fictional ideas are soon dismissed as implausible, unworkable, unrealistic, impossible, not worth considering. But first someone has to look at the idea being expressed. In this controversy too many people are seeing things in the books or film and considering them to be real, not imaginary. Could it be that stories in films and similar media like TVs, are now considered to be TRUE? At least, it has been said for many years now that a lot of people who watch certain drama programmes believe they are real simple because they have been put on a screen for the general populace to view. As we also use these same screens to broadcast REAL news, REAL ideas, REAL speeches, REAL actions, perhaps it is not surprising that some people confuse the fictional stories with real ones!

As it is, the Golden Compass was written by someone who admits he is an atheist, but actually that leaves him in a great position to explore other possible worlds, imaginative ones that may not be real but are different, interesting, and thought provoking. These stories are no different to fairy tales which generations of children have heard for centuries, many of them following a particular religious persuasion, but have

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