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Anti-Christian Fiction

Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2012 2:40 pm
by Dudeacus97
I already made a thread on Christian fiction, as in stories that have a Christian message, but are there any you think have an anti-Christian or atheistic message? More importantly, what is your reaction to seeing or reading these stories? Do you get offended? Do you try to refute it in your head ("that was a strawman" takes out most of them)? Are you shocked when you find out or speculate that it is? Do you stop reading? If you are not a Christian, do you enjoy reading these stories?

Re: Anti-Christian Fiction

Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2012 2:46 pm
by Beanybag
I enjoyed Golden Compass as a kid, and I think even as a theist way back when. I didn't have any negative reaction. I don't believe in censorship of 'bad' ideas. If there's a criticism to be made, they can make it. That doesn't have to take away from the story or make it less enjoyable, nor does it mean you have to buy into it. I read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, and that was fine, if not a bit preachy. Reading and learning new things is pretty much always good.

Also, "God" in the golden compass was a pretty physical being who could be killed
Spoiler!
(and was killed)
and yet the universe continued... it hardly made sense to me at the time to call that being God. It just seemed like he was the current ruler of this 'heavenly' realm. And there was lots of magic and supernatural things, so it hardly tied in the the 'real' world. It, more than anything, was just a story. Nothing wrong with stories.

Re: Anti-Christian Fiction

Posted: Fri Jul 20, 2012 6:00 pm
by Ivellious
The Golden Compass is a common example of anti-religious literature. It's debatable whether or not the themes are specifically anti-christian or rather just anti-religion (because most of what it is the book has no real allusion to Christianity, outside of a character called "God"). I read them when I was younger and honestly I had no clue that they were anti-religious at all. In fact, my Christian mother is the one who made me read them for summer reading haha. As far as I'm concerned they were excellent pieces of literature, and well-put together stories.

Lots of books get attention from various christian groups for being anti-christian when they absolutely do not promote any kind of anti-christian sentiment, in my opinion. Depending on how conservative of a Christian you ask, you might find that the types of literature classified as "inappropriate" or "anti-Christian" will change greatly.

Re: Anti-Christian Fiction

Posted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 3:53 pm
by Stygian
I realize that Hitchhiker's "Trilogy" has a few anti-God jokes throughout, but done mainly for humor, and Douglas Adams obviously didn't mean for them to be taken seriously. Like when talking about the Babel fish.
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Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mindbogglingly useful could evolve purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as a final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God. The argument goes something like this:

"I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing".

"But," says man, "the Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It proves you exist and so therefore you don't. QED."

"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.

"Oh, that was easy," says man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white, and gets killed on the next zebra crossing.
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Yes, I still find it hilarious =D