Pope Opposes Harry Potter Novels - Signed Letters from Cardinal Ratzinger Now Online

*** There are no real witches either***

There are real witches with real powers. You know the Bible testifies to that.

There are no good witches.

I've known several good wiccans/witches.

They're enjoying their popularity because when they came out, the books forced on children at the time were usually about pimples, third-grade bullies, and other stupid stuff.

That's not true. Rowling's books are but the tip of the occult iceberg in the young adult/sci-fi/fantasy section of any major bookstore. I regularly read the dust jackets.

Another popular writer in the same genre is Philip Pullman. What do you think of these synopses offered by Amazon.com? I didn't write these, Amazon did.

Some books improve with age--the age of the reader, that is. Such is certainly the case with Philip Pullman's heroic, at times heart-wrenching novel, The Golden Compass, a story ostensibly for children but one perhaps even better appreciated by adults. The protagonist of this complex fantasy is young Lyra Belacqua, a precocious orphan growing up within the precincts of Oxford University. But it quickly becomes clear that Lyra's Oxford is not precisely like our own--nor is her world. For one thing, people there each have a personal dæmon, the manifestation of their soul in animal form. For another, hers is a universe in which science, theology, and magic are closely allied:
As for what experimental theology was, Lyra had no more idea than the urchins. She had formed the notion that it was concerned with magic, with the movements of the stars and planets, with tiny particles of matter, but that was guesswork, really. Probably the stars had dæmons just as humans did, and experimental theology involved talking to them.

Not that Lyra spends much time worrying about it; what she likes best is "clambering over the College roofs with Roger the kitchen boy who was her particular friend, to spit plum stones on the heads of passing Scholars or to hoot like owls outside a window where a tutorial was going on, or racing through the narrow streets, or stealing apples from the market, or waging war." But Lyra's carefree existence changes forever when she and her dæmon, Pantalaimon, first prevent an assassination attempt against her uncle, the powerful Lord Asriel, and then overhear a secret discussion about a mysterious entity known as Dust. Soon she and Pan are swept up in a dangerous game involving disappearing children, a beautiful woman with a golden monkey dæmon, a trip to the far north, and a set of allies ranging from "gyptians" to witches to an armor-clad polar bear. In The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman has written a masterpiece that transcends genre. It is a children's book that will appeal to adults, a fantasy novel that will charm even the most hardened realist. Best of all, the author doesn't speak down to his audience, nor does he pull his punches; there is genuine terror in this book, and heartbreak, betrayal, and loss. There is also love, loyalty, and an abiding morality that infuses the story but never overwhelms it. This is one of those rare novels that one wishes would never end. Fortunately, its sequel, The Subtle Knife, will help put off that inevitability for a while longer. --Alix Wilber --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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From the very start of its very first scene, The Amber Spyglass will set hearts fluttering and minds racing. All we'll say here is that we immediately discover who captured Lyra at the end of The Subtle Knife, though we've yet to discern whether this individual's intent is good, evil, or somewhere in between. We also learn that Will still possesses the blade that allows him to cut between worlds, and has been joined by two winged companions who are determined to escort him to Lord Asriel's mountain redoubt. The boy, however, has only one goal in mind--to rescue his friend and return to her the alethiometer, an instrument that has revealed so much to her and to readers of The Golden Compass and its follow-up. Within a short time, too, we get to experience the "tingle of the starlight" on Serafina Pekkala's skin as she seeks out a famished Iorek Byrnison and enlists him in Lord Asriel's crusade:
A complex web of thoughts was weaving itself in the bear king's mind, with more strands in it than hunger and satisfaction. There was the memory of the little girl Lyra, whom he had named Silvertongue, and whom he had last seen crossing the fragile snow bridge across a crevasse in his own island of Svalbard. Then there was the agitation among the witches, the rumors of pacts and alliances and war; and then there was the surpassingly strange fact of this new world itself, and the witch's insistence that there were many more such worlds, and that the fate of them all hung somehow on the fate of the child.
Meanwhile, two factions of the Church are vying to reach Lyra first. One is even prepared to give a priest "preemptive absolution" should he succeed in committing mortal sin. For these tyrants, killing this girl is no less than "a sacred task."
In the final installment of his trilogy, Philip Pullman has set himself the highest hurdles. He must match its predecessors in terms of sheer action and originality and resolve the enigmas he already created. The good news is that there is no critical bad news--not that The Amber Spyglass doesn't contain standoffs and close calls galore. (Who would have it otherwise?) But Pullman brings his audacious revision of Paradise Lost to a conclusion that is both serene and devastating. In prose that is transparent yet lyrical and 3-D, the author weaves in and out of his principals' thoughts. He also offers up several additional worlds. In one, Dr. Mary Malone is welcomed into an apparently simple society. The environment of the mulefa (again, we'll reveal nothing more) makes them rich in consciousness while their lives possess a slow and stately rhythm. These strange creatures can, however, be very fast on their feet (or on other things entirely) when necessary. Alas, they are on the verge of dying as Dust streams out of their idyllic landscape. Will the Oxford dark-matter researcher see her way to saving them, or does this require our young heroes? And while Mary is puzzling out a cure, Will and Lyra undertake a pilgrimage to a realm devoid of all light and hope, after having been forced into the cruelest of sacrifices--or betrayals.
Throughout his galvanizing epic, Pullman sustains scenes of fierce beauty and tenderness. He also allows us a moment or two of comic respite. At one point, for instance, Lyra's mother bullies a series of ecclesiastical underlings: "The man bowed helplessly and led her away. The guard behind her blew out his cheeks with relief." Needless to say, Mrs. Coulter is as intoxicating and fluid as ever. And can it be that we will come to admire her as she plays out her desperate endgame? In this respect, as in many others, The Amber Spyglass is truly a book of revelations, moving from darkness visible to radiant truth. --Kerry Fried--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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With The Golden Compass Philip Pullman garnered every accolade under the sun. Critics lobbed around such superlatives as "elegant," "awe-inspiring," "grand," and "glittering," and used "magnificent" with gay abandon. Each reader had a favorite chapter--or, more likely, several--from the opening tour de force to Lyra's close call at Bolvangar to the great armored-bear battle. And Pullman was no less profligate when it came to intellectual firepower or singular characters. The dæmons alone grant him a place in world literature. Could the second installment of his trilogy keep up this pitch, or had his heroine and her too, too sullied parents consumed him? And what of the belief system that pervaded his alternate universe, not to mention the mystery of Dust? More revelations and an equal number of wonders and new players were definitely in order. The Subtle Knife offers everything we could have wished for, and more. For a start, there's a young hero--from our world--who is a match for Lyra Silvertongue and whose destiny is every bit as shattering. Like Lyra, Will Parry has spent his childhood playing games. Unlike hers, though, his have been deadly serious. This 12-year-old long ago learned the art of invisibility: if he could erase himself, no one would discover his mother's increasing instability and separate them. As the novel opens, Will's enemies will do anything for information about his missing father, a soldier and Arctic explorer who has been very much airbrushed from the official picture. Now Will must get his mother into safe seclusion and make his way toward Oxford, which may hold the key to John Parry's disappearance. But en route and on the lam from both the police and his family's tormentors, he comes upon a cat with more than a mouse on her mind: "She reached out a paw to pat something in the air in front of her, something quite invisible to Will." What seems to him a patch of everyday Oxford conceals far more: "The cat stepped forward and vanished." Will, too, scrambles through and into another oddly deserted landscape--one in which children rule and adults (and felines) are very much at risk. Here in this deathly silent city by the sea, he will soon have a dustup with a fierce, flinty little girl: "Her expression was a mixture of the very young--when she first tasted the cola--and a kind of deep, sad wariness." Soon Will and Lyra (and, of course, her dæmon, Pantalaimon) uneasily embark on a great adventure and head into greater tragedy. As Pullman moves between his young warriors and the witch Serafina Pekkala, the magnetic, ever-manipulative Mrs. Coulter, and Lee Scoresby and his hare dæmon, Hester, there are clear signs of approaching war and earthly chaos. There are new faces as well. The author introduces Oxford dark-matter researcher Mary Malone; the Latvian witch queen Ruta Skadi, who "had trafficked with spirits, and it showed"; Stanislaus Grumman, a shaman in search of a weapon crucial to the cause of Lord Asriel, Lyra's father; and a serpentine old man whom Lyra and Pan can't quite place. Also on hand are the Specters, beings that make cliff-ghasts look like rank amateurs. Throughout, Pullman is in absolute control of his several worlds, his plot and pace equal to his inspiration. Any number of astonishing scenes--small- and large-scale--will have readers on edge, and many are cause for tears. "You think things have to be possible," Will demands. "Things have to be true!" It is Philip Pullman's gift to turn what quotidian minds would term the impossible into a reality that is both heartbreaking and beautiful. --Kerry Fried--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Fine crappe like this doesn't come out of nowhere.

No, I don't idolize anything. I enjoy somethings certain narrow minded Christians find objectionable without bothering to actually understand and feel the need to lie about them to make others not like them either. I like fantasy novels, loud guitar driven rock, and roleplaying games. All of which have been lied about at various times by people who don't know what they're talking about. I've known far too many creative people in my life to every idolize them, it's amazing how many creative types are seriously lacking in basic life skills. When I enjoy their work I respect their abilities to do that, everything outside of that is a judgement call just like my dealings with every other person in my life. I recognize that a person can be a good writer (or guitar player, or world imaginer) and still a dipstick.

I'm arguing very effectively. Slaughtered every one of your "points". The fact that you must now turn this to attacks against me instead of against HP shows that even you know my arguing is better than your arguing. Bring some more attacks against HP, I enjoy pointing out your deceptions.

There are real witches with real powers.

Show me one scientifically documented example of someone with occult powers.

the fact that I don't just follow along with the rest of the herd makes me a "cave troll".

No. I figured it was because you signed on a fortnight ago and already you sound like one of these. But maybe I misjudged you, in which case you have my sincere apology.

Or in Rowling's case, "chunneling."

LOL! Good stuff!

I've known several good wiccans/witches.

Good for you. As for me, I worked on a film with a "wiccan". A more pernicious a@@hole I have yet to me.

I solemnly swear I am up to no good.

LOL!!! I love your tagline!

***I'm not sure how successful you've been at striking up conversation with them if you have this much trouble with Harry Potter, but good for you.****

I have a connection with them. I came out of similar darkness before I was saved.

Usually the conversation goes back to philosophical quesions of some sort. Often it is "ideas" which hold these peoples minds captive and it is the ideas which must be attacked and dismantled.

In your witness to them do not be discouraged. You may not see results for a long time. I recently found out a satanist I witnessed to 15 years ago finally came to Christ.

Be cautious also and pray. In witnessing to them you open yourself up to attack.

I have seen that also dsc.

I loved sci fi growing up (of course I read dang near anything). When I got to college, I began to see just how they influenced me, and others. Heinlein could spin a great story, but his world view was pretty anti religion. When I ran into people who were justifying various things exactly like many of his characters did, I realized that "Hey, they got that from .....". How many L(l)ibertarians got the idea for "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"?

Books are culture, and culture influences you.

*** Show me one scientifically documented example of someone with occult power***

Do your presuppositions allow for the existence of spiritual powers?

"Um, I thought that's exactly what's being suggested, that Harry Potter will convince kids to do pagan rituals or spells or whatnot."

That wouldn't be very subtle, would it?

The point is that the influence is subtle, unnoticed or very close to it.

What if, instead of being a fan of an author who taught me that a man has obligations to women he impregnates and his progeny, I had been a fan of an author whose works contained the opposite point of view?

Real-world consequences as a result of a belief I wasn't even aware that I had acquired. Perhaps a wife and children deserted.

And what of a child who, in the same way, acquires a belief that there is a "good occult" and a "bad occult?" No possibility for real-world consequences down the line?

Even if Satan and other malign spirits did not wander the world seeking the ruin of souls (Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in proelio), such a person might be at greater risk of going along with some cat-sacrificing, deflower-a-virgin-on-the-altar nonsense.

Beliefs have consequences, even if we're not aware that we have them or where they came from.

I know quite a few of them and have witnessed to them extensively for many years

That you apparently still have the use of at least one of your limbs fills me with admiration for the forbearance of Wiccans/pagans

I have said several times on this thread that Pullman's books are much more a threat than the Potter series. His hatred of God overwhelms any story he had.

The Potter books are not this sort of thing.

"I'm arguing very effectively. Slaughtered every one of your "points".

You really think so? I haven't seen a single valid argument from you yet.

LOL!!! I love your tagline!

Well, thanks, but it came from Harry Potter, which I take you don't like.

That you apparently still have the use of at least one of your limbs fills me with admiration for the forbearance of Wiccans/pagans

Dude, I don't know about him, but I'm typing with my nose here... those guys hold a mean grudge...

"With a snarl he sprang toward me with naked sword, but whether Salensus Oll was a good swordsman or a poor I never learned; for with Dejah Thoris at my back I was no longer human--I was a superman, and no man could have withstood me then."

You know, those books are probably the reason I later put thousands of hours into becoming (briefly) one of the top fencers in the US.

Oh, but they're "just stories" and "fiction," and therefore have no effect on our actions.

Maybe no arguments you're willing to aknowledge. But that's your problem. I debunked that entire monster list he posted of "objections", they're all false interpretations of what's in the books.