Why Are Christians and Atheists so Obsessed with the "Message" of Talking Animals?
C.S. Lewis's highly acclaimed novels about an alternate world called Narnia, where the animals talk and unite together under the banner of Aslan, a majestic lion, have drawn both criticism and praise for what he intended to be Christian undertones. Although they do not stick out clearly to a reader, least of all to the children they are aimed at, Pullman's Dark Materials series promises to be the atheist response to the Christian propaganda.
This ushers an amusing question however. Why does either party care about one person's subtle attacks on the other through talking animals? Through The Chronicles of Narnia, several legends are invoked, including that of St. Nicholas (Santa Clause) for the sake of creating a "magical" story akin to Lewis's good friend J.R.R. Tolkien. The most obvious of the Christian messages comes in the final installment of the series, The Last Battle, where an impostor Aslan, meant to represent the anti-Christ, and his false prophet, a monkey, lead the world of Narnia into corruption before the true lion himself returns, brings the world to a close, and brings his followers into a newly created land.
This of course is really digging into the meat of the Christian part of the story - reading through it in my youth I hardly recognized any of the similarities there, and only knew that a crazy monkey was tying a lion skin onto a donkey, and some giant bird ate someone that looked like a Saracen. But the similarities between Christian belief - something that C.S. Lewis wholly ascribed to - and the Chronicles of Narnia were apparently so strong that I was heavily chastised by my public school for reading it, especially on school grounds.
Atheist groups have always thrown a hissy fit over the Narnia series, much as the Christian groups are now over Pullman's Goldan Compass, which he promised to "undermine Christianity" with. Amusingly, some of the themes of the book, such as opposition to a Catholic church going astray from its roots, have the basis in several Christian theologies. Indeed, Protestantism is fundamentally founded in the idea that the Catholic Church lost its way, and a more traditional viewing of the Gospel and its surrounding texts was needed.
The director, David Weitz, has promised that the anti-Christianism of the book has been toned down, and that the Catholic Church's equivalent in the book, the Magisterium, is more of an attack on dogmatic, organized religion in general.
I'll tell you how I see the movie however - it's a girl with a talking Polar Bear. Truthfully, I can hardly take any form of revelation about the world from a polar bear voiced by Gandalf any more than I questioned the authenticity of religion based on his lackluster performance in The Da Vinci Code. High priced actors who try to tell me that Christianity is wrong hardly makes it so, but apparently, where Dan Brown and the writers of Holy Blood, Holy Grail failed was in that they imbued this revelation of Christianity's follies in a human being. The truth, as Narnia has shown us with the atheists and the polar bear in Compass has with Christians, is that we need some sort of talking animal to tell us that our religious foundation is wrong, not a scholar of any sort.
Why? I simply don't know, but apparently once the Animal Kingdom tries to inspire in us a spiritual belief or doubt, suddenly it becomes valid, and a threat to one's lifestyle. Shouldn't one, Christian or atheist, have enough faith, however, that they don't really care what a talking beaver or a talking polar bear has to say anyway?
Published by Chadd De Las Casas
I was born in Valencia, California in 1987. It's ironic that I turned out to be a writer, since my first exposure to it was an essay about why I hate writing. I am also the owner of the Content Producers Wiki. View profile
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20 Comments
Post a CommentThe funny thing is, that as an atheist I read 'The Golden Compass' series unaware that Pullman was an atheist. I came away thinking the books were pretty religious but I liked them anyway. They propose an entire pantheist spiritual theory and discuss souls and afterlives as if they were fact. I don't understand how they could be considered an atheist agenda if an atheist can't recognize any atheism in them.
My parents had no problem with me reading 'The Chronicles of Narnia' or the Bible for that matter. It's disgusting when people try to censor society according to their religious beliefs or non-beliefs. It's not like 'Narnia' was funded with government money. That's when we atheists get pissy - when tax money is used to present, create, or endorse religions or religious material.
Very good points, April.
Actualy I don't resent when people try to 'save' me. Infact, I thank them and then politely explain why I don't need to be saved from anything. "I don't sin, because I don't believe in sin. Therefor, I don't need forgivness. I believe in human nature, and it is in my nature to be a good person". If someone says something simular like that to you, leave them be. I would appreciate if the attempt to 'convert' me , would end once I asked for it to.
Well put, April...as for who has more to lose, I would say all of us have much to lose if we allow religion to dictate anything to us. And Bret, in another era you would have ignored me? Or stoned me, or perhaps a nice burning? You are right about one thing..I hope I live long enough to see religion fully, completely, and utterly discredited.
Which is fully your right to believe, but I do so inquire, can you resent someone who's earnestly trying to save you from what they believe is an imminent punishment? I mean, I always appreciate when people try to convert me based on that fact.
I dont have anything to loose. If all logic failed and infact there is a God and he judged me soley on whether I worshiped him or had 'faith'... Id tell him to send me to hell. A God that cares not for who you are and what you've done, who decides your only worthy of 'salvation' if you worship him, is not a God that I would have faith or respect for. See, I don't believe, I dont pray, and most of all I dont fear. I dont need a God to tell me I am good.I believe in myself and have my own principles.
I've never disagreed about American law - the problem, however, comes in when you find people who see correlations between Christian thought and secular laws. But just because the Bible says not to steal, does that mean that there shouldn't be a law against stealing? I'm fully for a separation of church and state, due in no small part to the fact that if you need the state to deprive you of temptation, your faith is pretty damn weak I daresay. Fundamentally you and I don't seem to disagree on much in terms of how things should work - here's something to chew on: from a Christian's perspective, who's got more to lose if they're wrong? The Christian or the atheist? And that tends to drive people's desire to save people.
Chadd, most athiests had the same experiance as you had in school. Only our persecution for not believing is something that we have to deal with every day. Random people I've met, for example my neighbor, raise their nose and give me evil looks once they find out I'm not christian. Others, won't stop trying to save me. Yet I still don't judge them and I don't try to convert them either. I understand why they need to believe. I simply want the same respect and tolerance. Spread religion all you want. I think it would be a more peaceful world without it, but that is were we disagree. Christians should stop trying to shove it down our throats, thats all I'm saying. Politics and law, in America, should be neutral.
The thing about Atheism,Jeff, is that it insults not only Christianity, but also every other religion or worldview that believes in any kind of higher order of the universe. In another era, I would just laugh and move onto another article. However, in this time, atheism is a serious threat to the Kingdom of God and its expansion. Understand that from my perspective, the spread of atheism means that less people are prepared to accept Christ's sacrifice, which is the only thing that can possibly pay the price of sin.