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I admit that I’ve always been quite a skeptic, a free thinker, when it comes to matters of the faith.

I would truly enjoy observing and reading on how each person would see the world, because I believe that no one has the same pair of eyes that can see the world just the same. Take example, for me.

I would wake up questioning why I own my voice, my body, and heavily doubt my senses, specially my eyes as I wake up in the world, an arrangement of me with the people – family, friends, even mysterious people that would come into my life. I would question what happens if these turn out all to be false , my existence perhaps? I question what the truth really is.

Anyway, before I get carried away, I was quite intrigued about Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Trilogy when TV Patrol showed a clip of The Golden Compass ( starring oh so elegant Nicole Kidman and hot(cube) Mr Bond ) as being anti-Church. Being the skeptic as I am, I immediately wikipedia-ed it and learned that Philip Pullman has some atheistic tendencies in his writings ( the undertones ) and boy, was I game to read them. Anything that would shake my mind would do just fine.

I’ve been told numerous times, ( warned is the word ) that you need to have a solid faith in God to be able to read these kinds of literature or else you’d get swayed. Excuse my French, but I am game to be swayed. It’s because I want to understand how Philip Pullman sees the world. I might not exactly agree on what he’s trying to say, but I will partake on the journey not guarded, not protected, but I will allow myself to be swayed. To see through his eyes. That would be quite wonderful if I forget myself for a few days as I get to understand his view of the world.

I started reading The Golden Compass during the Holidays, but found myself reading one chapter or two a night because of my tiredness. The read was quite wonderful for it was about a child ( Lyra Silvertongue ) with a daemon by her side named Pantalaimon. In Philip Pullman’s world, the soul is outside the human body, manifested by a daemon – which is in animal form. When the human dies, the daemon just slowly fades into nonexistence as it dies with it. During the read, it was all about daemons – symbolizing talks of souls and go by with the questions, “Can humans fare without souls?” and those other kinds of stuff. There is also the issue raised about humans being “sliced” apart from their souls, and the debate between innocence as a good thing ( which I think , when perpetuated and forced upon would lead to ignorance ), and experience as being attributed to sin. The armored bears and witches also made their respective appearances ( with the issue of different beings, animals, and souls again ) , and symbolized what they needed to represent, and the Aurora that connects the world to another universe is quite fascinating. Parallel universes also seemed awesome. Flip a coin, two worlds split from one reality as one world shows heads winning, and one world shows tails. I can only wonder how that would happen.

Lingering questions that are in my mind are :

* Is Original Sin truly bad? Original sin is depicted via Dust, and Original Sin is attributed with experience, and loss of innocence. In the book it is implied that getting rid of Original Sin straps a person out of “real” life as he/she lives a zombie life without free will, just enslaved. It is a war between perpetual innocence ( and hiding from the truth, perhaps? ) and experience and knowledge, which is deemed bad as it is associated with sin.

*Lord Asriel’s trying to go leaps and bounds by wanting to cross the Aurora to destroy the origin of Dust ( Original Sin ), which can be interpreted as a waging a war against Heaven, standing up to God, and seeking to defeat God. The main intention of Lord Asriel as of Book 1, is to have a new discovery about it. Books 2 and 3, I think, will expound more on this. This got me confused. Perhaps I am still on the tip of the iceberg.

* The alethiometer, which is an instrument that can answer any question. Which made me think – are we doomed to fate? No free will anymore?

Other ideas that drifted in my mind are that how Philip Pullman sees his world – atheists still believe that they do have souls? But they do not believe in a supreme being. They might just believe in evolution. Quite interesting, quite interesting. My mind hasn’t stopped thinking ever since.

After The Golden Compass, I was all giddy to get books two and three, namely The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. To my dismay, the National Bookstore website did not have books two and three in my desired hardcover 10th edition copy. Good thing my bestbud A’s folks are in the US right now, I was able to buy books 2 and 3, and are for arrival these precious books are due to arrive January 15. I would have wanted to buy Paradise Lost by John Milton with Philip Pullman as narrator ( it would’ve been quite perfect IMO ) to supplement my read, but I postponed my purchase for Lynch’s stock market book ( wth? ), something that I’ve always wanted to read and learn about. I’ll promise to make that purchase after sometime when I’m settled in my new house and new room. Perhaps, a nice library in my room would be quite delectable to the bookworm me.

Well, here’s to part two and three as I get my collectibles