"School board pulls 'anti-God' book"
Halton's Catholic trustees and staff to review fantasy that is 'apparently written by an atheist'
oh get over yourselves!
philip pullman's book, The Golden Compass, is being pulled from school shelves and "principals have been ordered not to distribute December Scholastic book flyers" because of a complaint...
pullman is an atheist and supports his beliefs strongly. the book's characters and text are apparently "bashing Christianity and promoting atheism to children." hey, aren't christian books (say, the bible for an example...) bashing atheism and promoting christianity? why is it wrong one way but not the other??
this book was voted best children's book (suggested for kids in grades 5 & 6) in the past 70 years by global readers...
at first i was reading this and thinking this is absolutely ludicrous... but then this:
- in 2001 to The Washington Post pullman stated her was "trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief"
- in 2003, "My books are about killing God."
pretty harsh...
point the first - if atheism is the absence of belief in deities [source], how can he kill God? killing something that doesn't exist is a good trick for even jesus himself...
point the second - i still this this complaint is ludicrous...
so THAT'S how you trick people into believing in a religion - you don't let them know about any other choices!
besides, this is a fantasy novel! a work of fiction! there are books about people murdering other people (let's just say hamlet for educational sake), committing suicide (romeo & juliet), etc. that are welcomed by the educational system. we read about sinning all the time - it's just plain more interesting than "going by THE book"!!
AND you can't protect your children forever. better to give them all the facts (possibly not all at once at a young age... more like slowlly over time as curiosity would naturally bring it up) and allow them to make their own decisions and judgements.
i had to break in the middle of writing this so i sorta lost my point... but instead of rambling on further, i'm going to wrap it up. removing books that say things contray to what you're forcing kids to believe is silly and it make me a little ill. i hope that when i become a parent, i don't get hung up on petty things like this.
apparently the school board has a policy where "individual[s], parents, staff, students or community members can apply to have material reviewed." i wonder what would happen if someone applied to have a material like say the bible to be reviewed?? would they follow policy or would they make an exception?
2 comments:
I think when you choose to go to a Catholic school, you've chosen to believe in Christianity. I can understand and I agree with them pulling this book. In a Christian school, books bashing the Christian faith have no place. If Christian books are not allowed in public schools, why should the Catholic school be forced to allow an atheistic book in their school? Its a double standard, and I respect them for making this decision.
fine if YOU have decided on christianity but why go and raise your kid without explaining that there are other points of view out there? your kid hasn't decided anything yet - in their young years, you are telling them what to decide. and if you want to tell them to decide to ignore everything that doesn't jive with your view of the world then so be it.
there are tons of books in the public school system that are written by practicing christians. tons of other books about spirituality too. the only book that's a no-no is the bible... because it makes kids sad when they're told their evil and condemmed for not believing in something... fine if it's fiction and you can tell them it's just a story and not true... but when there are people prancing around proclaiming its trueness it's kinda hard to convince a kid!
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