Pullman says Jesus isn’t God. Film at 11 9 Sep 2009 Philip Pullman, the author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, has a book coming out that asserts Jesus isn’t God: The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ. It will be interesting to see how the religiosi play this, but let’s just note now that so too do the Muslims, the Jews, the Unitarians, the Bahai, the Hindus and the Buddhists. But this will be spun as “atheists hate God”, you watch. Pop culture Religion
History Bastardising history in the service of dogma 11 Jun 2008 History is one of those things that the venal mine to serve their special interests, with no concern for truth or accuracy. But it takes real stupid to say this: Contrary to popular belief, as historian David Barton points out, the theory of evolution was around long before Charles Darwin…. Read More
Philosophy Science as atheistic 8 Aug 2009 If God is conceived as a being who belongs to the world of beings, even as the highest being, then the science whose object of research is precisely this world is of necessity atheistic. For its research takes account solely of phenomena that are objectifiable and at the disposal of… Read More
Ecology and Biodiversity How not to Feyerabend 5 Oct 2007 On Monday night last, Jason Grossman, a philosopher form the Australian National University rang me with an idea. He was coming to my university to give a talk entitled “How to Feyerabend”, arguing that Feyerabend was a dadaist rather than an anarchist. I’d tell you more about his talk, but… Read More
Uhh, the generalization about all atheists might but unwarranted, but I was under the impression that Pullman explicitly acknowledges his maltheistism…. Take it for what it’s worth, since I haven’t read it yet, but I’m concerned about his foray into non-fiction. I’m a big fan of his Dark Materials trilogy, but the last thing we need is another “New Atheist” offering intro-level attacks on the strawman that is fundamentalist Christianity. The rhetoric, I admit, can be quite satisfying at times, but it is ultimately shallow and counterproductive, IMO.
Actually I thought the maltheism (nice term; I’ll take it) in Pullman’s trilogy was the least interesting and most tedious part of it. I endured it so as to read the story, and because I think atheism needs to be more normalised in society in general.