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My point it's idiotic to adopt the position that one must experience everything personally without considering the advice and recommendations of others.

And my point is it's idiotic to blindly follow the the lead of others in their opinions of artistic content. The poster I originally responded to had never seen "The Last Temptation Of Christ" yet felt qualified to pass judgement on it. This is nonsense, whether it's done by Muslims or Christians or Buddhists or anyone else.

if this were a pro-Nazi film or an anti-Semitic film or an overtly racist film, few would dare assert that the world would be "a better place" if everyone were encouraged to see it and allowed to come to their own conclusions.

Never mind making the world "a better place". If you're going to render an opinion on a book or film, call it vile or racist or whatever else, you'd better have seen it or read it. Otherwise why would you think your opinion on the material in question is worth anything? If you have no first-hand experience, you're simply parroting what someone else said - someone who may not have any exposure to the material in question either. Take this far enough and you have the blind leading the blind - a lot of uninformed opinions from people who don't really know anything about the material they're objecting to. This is exactly what we see in Muslims getting worked up over cartoons and movies, with the additional Muslim ingredient of violence.

I won't be seeing the movie - I read the books and found them kind of dull. But at least I know why I don't like them. A lot of the people objecting to the movie won't.

If you have no first-hand experience, you're simply parroting what someone else said - someone who may not have any exposure to the material in question either.

You're right. This IS about "parroting" what someone else said about Pullman and his books. And that person is Pullman himself. When the author makes statements like "My books are about killing God," "I'm trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief," and "The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake," why would we need to rely on others' criticism? Pullman's words speak for themselves.

Be reasonable. It is was well known at the time that “Last Temptation” portrayed Christ as homosexual, or at least as having homosexual tendencies. If I know that, am I allowed to call it “vile garbage” without having seen the film? Considering that Christ says homosexuality is an “abomination”, I think that’s pretty much on the mark.

How about if I call a child pornograher who rapes children a “pervert”? Do I have to watch him do it to decide?

I figure you are going to flame me for posting and running, but I do have to go to lunch. Flame away if you like, but I’ve said all I want to say on this. Have a nice week.