Comments on: Religion in His Dark Materials

By: MikeyJ

MikeyJ — Mon, 21 May 2007 14:55:11 +0000

I don’t believe that popularity is the main difference at all. Religion is by its nature organised, it is a formalised set of beliefs adhered to at varying levels by its proponents. Superstition is a more specious concept and actually employed in His Dark Materials in order to enrich the text.

Community is one aspect of society that religion handles better than “non-religious ethical thinking”.

By: gordsellar

gordsellar — Sun, 06 May 2007 13:08:48 +0000

Which, mind, isn’t to say religion is evil evil evil, but just to say I’m dubious about the difference between “religious belief” and “superstition”, especially since, from any one religious perspective, most other religions actually can easily be (and often are) interpreted as something like superstitious nonsense.

By: gordsellar

gordsellar — Sun, 06 May 2007 11:30:43 +0000

What, pray tell, are those differences?

I don’t mean to be nasty, but I find very little in religious beliefs that aren’t also present in non-religious ethical thinking. The good bits are also bits that exist outside of religion anyway.

Whereas the main thing that differentiates superstition from religious belief in the supernatural is how popular a given belief is.

By: MikeyJ

MikeyJ — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 15:04:11 +0000

Anti-superstition isn’t really what His Dark Materials is about though, just as he said it wasn’t anti-religious but “anti-organized, politically-based theocracy”. Which seems to me to get rid of all the bad bits of religion and leave all the good stuff behind. It doesn’t exclude the superstitious and there are important differences between religious belief and superstition.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 18:27:28 +0000

…or rather:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1843545861/ref=wl_it_dp/202-8014916-3807837?ie=UTF8&coliid=I26DA0FK683HX9&colid=11CZEKCNV3KS6

That other video is ‘not safe for work’ by the way.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 18:26:17 +0000

It’s a great shame that Pullman, who could be on of the great anti-superstition thinkers of our age, feels the need to give himself an easy life like this, frankly who can really blame him. However it’s sad that a brilliant mind like Pullman’s can be silenced on a topic he obviously has lot to contribute to.

Pleasingly, the consistently excellent, Christopher Hitchens has a book on the subject out in June.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7532034279766935521