RELIGION AND POWER SHOULD NOT MIX
Philip Pullman
You have been described as one of Britain’s most famous atheists
I don’t really recognise that description. I certainly don’t think of myself as an atheist more than, or before, anything else. As a matter of fact I don’t really like markers of identity that are nouns : I prefer verbs, because identity is an active and dynamic process, involving change, not a static and settled one. So, although I accept that the fact that I don’t believe in god seems to be one of main features of myself that has any public recognition. I also think what a limited view, what a slender grasp of the truth, what a narrow understanding, if that is all that is known about me.
The Good Man Jesus And The Scoundrel Christ’ as well as your ‘Dark Materials’ trilogy, are powerful allegories against the catholic Church. Are you against organised religion or do you not believe in the very concept of god?
It would be foolish to be ‘against’ a concept of any kind. A concept is beyond the reach of my distaste or disapproval, and one such as god, which is so ancient and so meaningful to so many people, will not be damaged by anything I do or say. What I do disapprove of is any mixture of religion and politics. When religious leaders get hold of political power, things go very bad very quickly.
The notion of Jesus having a twin, Christ, is blasphemous to most Christians. How did you come up with this idea?
It may or may not be blasphemous, but the idea of the importance of twins is almost as old as Christianity. Thomas the Doubter was a twin. In my case, I was trying to dramatise the difference between the nature of Jesus, the man, and the nature of Christ, the myth.
You grew up as a practising Christian/ What made you so critical of the church?
Simple observation and reading history.
What you write about Catholic Church is probably true for other religions of the Book, such as Islam or Judaism. Do you agree?
I don’t know. I can write about Christianity, because it formed the way I think. I a at home in Christianity, its stories and beliefs are not strange to me. I am familiar with all stories; the rituals and liturgy are in the very bones of my memory. I don’t have any such familiarity with other religions, and I wouldn’t want to try and tell their stories.
Aren’t ‘New Atheists’ such as Richard Dawkins as shrill and dogmatic as religious fundamentalists? And isn’t that drowning out reasonable voices on both sides of the religious divide?
That’s a familiar charge, and a wrong-headed one. Dawkins is a man of enormous authority in his own field, evolutionary biology, and transparent honesty elsewhere. He writes with great power and clarity, and people who find themselves criticised by him don’t like it. But I have never heard Dawkins wishing any harm to anyone. Until you see him in the street carrying a banner calling for those who don’t agree with him to be beheaded, the charge of similarity to religious extremists is, to say the least, unfounded.
You’ve debated with and professed admiration for the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. Do you see any hope for the Church of England or Christianity in general?
From time to time, the church always finds a reformer who argues for greater simplicity and truthfulness, for poverty and not for wealth, for love and not for law, for helping the poor and not for cherishing the rich. If it listens to those who argue that way, it will reform again.
(Courtesy: The Times of India, Crest Edition of 5th June, 2010)
