Reflections From a Murky Pond

The Truth will not set you free. Truth is a tyrant that will enslave you and cast you into a bondage more absolute than any falsehood or ignorance could.

– jonolan

The old adage, “the Truth will set you free” is sadly wrong. No freedom is bestowed by knowledge of the Truth. Knowledge of any Truth removes the possibility of error or judgment, and thereby eliminates one’s freedom.

The enslavement by falsehood or ignorance can be replaced by another falsehood or error that provides for more freedom than the original lie or error did. However, no such alternative exists for the Truth. That is an absolute and does not brook dissembling or evasion.

While the truth is unknown one has the freedom to take various actions, many of which will be based on false premises. These opportunities represent a freedom that falsehood or ignorance provides. A person, innocent of Truth, can do many things; one’s choices may well be near boundless.

Once one knows a truth one can no longer dissemble or evade the consequences of that knowledge. It is a thing that is. The choices one has are now chained by that Truth. To act differently is to act in willful error.

All life is conflict; there is no peace this side of the grave.

– jonolan

All living things are in a state of conflict with other living things. Even plants struggle against each other for sunlight, water and soil. The natural cycle of predation is a very basic and primal example of the constant struggle between lifeforms for their very survival.

There is also the even more basic struggle the living engage in with their environment. The old adage of “adapt or die” is a perfect summation of this struggle to adapt to changing conditions that are at odds with a creature’s or plant’s continued survival.

Among people these primal conflicts are often expanded into conflicts over wealth, status and power. No longer just a struggle for survival, the conflict turned into wars of ideologies as Man grew to think beyond his immediate fleshly needs.

Finally there is Man’s internal conflict - his struggle with himself. The unrelenting struggle Man engages in with himself will outlast all other forms of conflict that he engages in and will continue until death.

Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass) have been getting a lot of attention. Many Christians are up in arms over the anti-Christian and supposedly atheistic theme of the the trilogy. Now that the first novel, The Golden Compass, is a major motion picture the rancor has increased.

Why are these Christians so upset? It’s simple - they’re right in the thought that Pullman’s His Dark Materials is intended to be both anti-Christian church (anti-Catholic to be more specific) and atheistic. Generally reliable sources confirm that Pullman wrote the works to promote atheism in the same way that C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia promoted Christianity. Pullman’s trilogy is in admitted fact a reworking of Milton’s classic 17th-century poem Paradise Lost into a children’s tale.

I’m Pagan so the anti-Christian church theme doesn’t particularly bother me. I’m not thrilled with the atheistic message contained in the works, but I feel that intelligent readers can see more of the author’s bitterness and disillusionment than of any basis for denying the existence of some form of divinity.

That doesn’t mean I believe that His Dark Materials is suitable reading material for children and many young teens. I firmly believe that the works were egregiously miscategorized. The material is these works is far too complex, dark, and grim for children.

The villains are on par with any of literature’s worst and the books show the actions of those villains with garish details - acts that make the most hideous techniques employed at GITMO pale in comparison. This, combined with the near constant failure, setback and grief that the young heroes experience despite their best efforts, makes the books unsuitable in my opinion for younger readers. I don’t think that children need to read stories that unrelentingly highlight that all plans can fail and that sometimes there are no good choices.

To sum it up - I thought the books were a good read - for adults!