07AR12-45

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Apologia Report 12:45

December 11, 2007

Subject: "Chronicles of Atheism" looks at The Golden Compass

In this issue:

BIOETHICS - British researchers create animal-human hybrid embryos

NEW TESTAMENT CRITICISM - new book challenges National Geographic Society's decision to champion Gospel of Judas

OCCULTISM, GENERAL - sympathetic occult history collection appropriately found quite strange by its reviewers

PULLMAN, PHILIP - muted concerns over film version of Golden Compass

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BIOETHICS

"Hybrid Test Drive: Advances in stem-cell technology cheer and alarm ethics watchers" by Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra - notes that "regulators in Great Britain became the first to approve inter-species experimentation.

"The U.K.'s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, which reports to the Department of Health, ruled in September that there was no 'fundamental reason' not to use animals as egg donors for the creation of animal-human hybrid embryos." The "development of a human-animal chimera should worry everyone who values human life, said Nigel Cameron, president of the Institute on Biotechnology & the Human Future [thehumanfuture.org].

"'This is a wake-up call that really does catch people's moral imagination,' he said. 'The whole notion of manufacturing human or semi-human life for experimentation and destruction goes to the core of human dignity.'" Christianity Today, Dec '07, p16. <http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/december/7.18.html>

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NEW TESTAMENT CRITICISM

"Gospel Truth" by April D. Deconick, author of The Thirteenth Apostle: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says [1] -- too bad the general public doesn't appreciate the time it takes to mount a response to challenges in the academic arena. It was nice to find this Op-Ed piece, nevertheless. Deconick begins: "Amid much publicity last year, the National Geographic Society announced that a lost 3rd-century religious text had been found, the Gospel of Judas Iscariot. The shocker: Judas didn't betray Jesus. Instead, Jesus asked Judas, his most trusted and beloved disciple, to hand him over to be killed. Judas's reward? Ascent to heaven and exaltation above the other disciples.

"It was a great story. Unfortunately, after re-translating the society's transcription of the Coptic text, I have found that the actual meaning is vastly different. While National Geographic's translation supported the provocative interpretation of Judas as a hero, a more careful reading makes clear that Judas is not only no hero, he is a demon.

"Several of the translation choices made by the society's scholars fall well outside the commonly accepted practices in the field. ...

"How could these serious mistakes have been made? Were they genuine errors or was something more deliberate going on? This is the question of the hour, and I do not have a satisfactory answer. ...

"That said, I think the big problem is that National Geographic wanted an exclusive. So it required its scholars to sign nondisclosure statements, to not discuss the text with other experts before publication. The best scholarship is done when life-sized photos of each page of a new manuscript are published before a translation, allowing experts worldwide to share information as they independently work through the text." New York Times, Dec 1 '07, n.p. <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/01/opinion/01deconink.html>

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OCCULTISM, GENERAL

The Secret History of the World, by Mark Booth [2] -- if you have had many conversations with occultists you have also heard bizarre alternate histories. Booth attempts to get them all down for the record. His reviewers are overwhelmed by the result. See for yourself. Briefly, here are three:

"Booth, a London publisher who has taught philosophy and theology at Oxford, is not shy about what he expects from readers - he asks that they enter into an 'imaginative exercise' and embrace a world in which 'the basic facts of history can be interpreted in a way which is almost completely the opposite of the way we normally understand them.' That radical re-interpretation is based on the tenets offered in the 'secret teachings' of Rosicrucians, esoteric Freemasonry, Sufism and Kabbalism, among others, with additional references to Eastern religions and Greek and Roman mythology. According to Booth, these teachings inspire the 'cosmic mind' that brought into being the material universe. Booth's history incorporates so many disparate philosophies, many of them far, far away from the mainstream, that it lacks all coherence. And his universe is full of bizarre theories, entertaining primarily for their weirdness. For example, he posits that the angels in the ancient Hebrew Book of Enoch 'who became sexually attracted to human women are none other than the Gods of Olympus.'" Publishers Weekly, Nov 5 '07, p58.

Kirkus Reviews (Oct '07, "#2", n.p.) calls Secret History "An encyclopedic, lavishly illustrated attempt to discern an alternative-belief system in the broad diversity of ancient paganism and mystical offshoots of the major faiths. 'Christianity contains a hidden tradition of the gods of the stars and planets,' proclaims British publishing executive Booth. While much of this tradition, including biblical allegories, has been denigrated by Mother Church, it has hardly been hidden. The author's mystical guardian institutions include the Christian-associated Freemasons and Rosicrucians, which both arose at the outset of the 18th century from earlier origins; Cabalism on the Hebrew side; and Sufism from Islam. Much of the problem with this roughly chronological narrative is its hazy documentation: Readers must be content with 'a friend of mine' or 'an initiate I met' as substantiating sources. Likewise, we must accept Booth's own innate ability to peer into antiquity and presume the influence of 'mystery schools' on such figures as Plato. He seamlessly moves from reportage to proselytizing, presenting for instance a precise date in the 12th millennium BCE as the moment when matter reached its final solidified state in the progression of existence from pure thought (preceding matter itself) through a 'human vegetable' state to the present form. Tracing this progression, Booth cites all kinds of permutations, fairy tales and familiar hippie spiritualist icons along the way. Humankind loses its third eye, can no longer directly interact with spirits and deities, must be content with the stifling restrictions of the scientific method to comprehend creation, etc. One culminating highlight: George Washington, a known Freemason, decrees that the capital city be laid out to reflect the geometry of the constellation Virgo, thus inviting 'the mother goddess' to participate in determining the future of the United States."

In Library Journal (Oct '07, n.p.) we read that "According to the author, an occultist-wannabe, the Bible's Psalm 19, studied 'in conjunction with comparative texts from neighboring cultures, ... describes the marriage of the sun to Venus.' No matter that Venus is never mentioned in that Psalm! And the Book of Revelation's account of the opening of the seven seals is 'in fact a way of talking about the enlivening of the seven [Hindu] chakras.' In Eschenbach's Parzifal, a jewel dislodged from Lucifer's crown signals 'that humanity would increasingly suffer a loss of vision in the Third Eye, the brow chakra.' This is a priori history in which all evidence contrary to one's convictions is ignored. Booth pontificates: we live in 'a psychosomatic universe,' where we can influence the roll of dice if we wish it hard enough; 'all biology is astro-biology.' Booth claims for his thesis a list of supporters or acolytes starting in Egypt, India, and Greece and ending with FDR [Franklin Delano Roosevelt] and Francis Crick; there is even a nod toward Lenin.'"

Your job, should you choose to accept it, is to filter the actual teachings of the groups cited from hearsay and loopy invention. Booth has added his own spin. Secret History might be a worthwhile starting place for anyone taking on the task of achieving a comprehensive look at the convoluted occult world. Our bet is that the reviewers were out of their league. We'd like to see secular chroniclers of the New Age such as Paul Heelas or Wouter Hanegraaff produce a review.

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PULLMAN, PHILIP

"The Chronicles of Atheism" by Peter T. Chattaway - notes that "Some Christians have expressed concern that if The Golden Compass [film] is successful, it will lead to films based on the other two Dark Materials books [3], The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass - both of which traffic much more explicitly in the death-of-God theme.

In these books, Lyra discovers that Lord Asriel is mounting a war against God, and she meets a boy from our own world named Will, who acquires a knife that can cut through anything, including the barrier between universes. The knife even has a prophetic name, AEsahaettr, which means 'god-destroyer.' By the end of the trilogy, God is dead, and Will and Lyra have reenacted the Fall in the Garden of Eden - but in doing so, they save the universe rather than destroy it."

Even so, controversial religious elements of the book have been softened in the film. In addition, the authors of two book-length Christian responses to the Dark Materials trilogy find that, despite Pullman's hostility to religion, the actual threat is not all that apparent and the final message may even support aspects of the Christian worldview. Chattaway reports that "Tony Watkins, managing editor of the U.K.-based website www.culturewatch.org and author of Dark Matter [4], a book that analyzes the trilogy from a Christian framework" concludes that Pullman ultimately "gets the [Christian] story into the public sphere. [In the U.K.], that has often been a bit of a challenge. But when there's some clear opposition, that's often when the Christian voice gets heard." Then there is Jim Ware, co-author of Shedding Light on His Dark Materials [5], who says "we can see ways in which I think [Pullman] pays homage to Christian truth, maybe without intending to or even knowing what he's doing." Christianity Today, Dec '07, p36-39. <http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/december/12.36.html>

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Sources, Monographs:

1 - The Thirteenth Apostle: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says, by April D. Deconick (Continuum, 2007, hardcover, 224 pages)

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0826499643/apologiareport>

2 - The Secret History of the World: As Laid Down by the Secret Societies, byÊ Mark Booth (Overlook, January 2008, hardcover, 512 pages)

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1590200314/apologiareport>

3 - His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass), by Philip Pullman (Laure Leaf, 2003, paperback boxed set)

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0440238609/apologiareport>

4 - Dark Matter: Shedding Light on Philip Pullman's Trilogy, His Dark Materials, by Tony Watkins (IVP, May 2006, paperback, 224 pages)

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/083083379X/apologiareport>

5 - Shedding Light on His Dark Materials: Exploring Hidden Spiritual Themes in Philip Pullman's Popular Series, by Kurt Bruner and Jim Ware (SaltRiver, 2007, hardcover, 192 pages)

<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1414315643/apologiareport>

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