So yes, it's been forever since I posted last. Life has been strange, as it must always be. Either way, onward to more important things:
Recently I was bored and wanted a movie to watch without the tedium of buying one, or waiting for one to download, or whatever other ways there are to watch movies. A couple friends at work have been talking up NetFlix to me over the last couple weeks, so I thought, What the hell, and signed up. And I've pretty much had a movie queued up on my computer since then. I've watched a couple of those movies that I'd always had an interest in seeing, but not so much that I would buy/rent/download it. Titles like Pan's Labyrinth, Being John Malkovich, and Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian to name a few. It's the last that got me thinking.
When I was a kid, the Narnia books were things that every kid supposedly read and loved. I guess I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, since I've been familiar with the story for as long as I can remember. But I wasn't much of a bookworm until I got into high school and Isaac Asimov books. So I never really read the other books; I'm not sure I was even aware that there were other books.
Back to the point, the Narnia books were just good stories back then. Not allegories, or anything technical like that. Hell, I didn't know what an allegory was until I was a Junior in high school. Now though, I've grown, matured, and had time to reflect. And what I find is that I'm horrified with the insidious, permeating influence of the Christian mythology into the lives of children. Similar to the scouts, as discussed in a previous post (see if you can find it among the plethora of posts!), children's literature is riddled with Christian allegories.
I was appalled last year when I downloaded the audio versions of the entire Narnia series and listened to it. I'd recently seen the first of the movies to come out; I'm sure it was well done, and sure, Liam Neeson has a great voice. But aside from that, it's just another way for Christianity to creep in at the edges and hide mythology behind cute lions and scary witches. Likewise, there are other reasons for my dislike in the story (C.S. Lewis' portrayal of a maturing female, for one), but this is about the forcing of religion on a child's mind.
I honestly feel violated. I'm not trying to be over dramatic here. A child's mind is a fragile, malleable thing, easily manipulated. Things like religion are concepts that are far too big to be grasped by such a young and vulnerable brain.
Yes, I know that religion has a an oral tradition which then turned into a written story telling. Hell, for the better part of human history, the oral tradition has been the main form of record keeping and handing down knowledge. However, I believe that we, as a species, have moved beyond the need to indoctrinate our children. Primal forces, which were once coped with by both children and adults, are now understood. The sky god will not hurl lightening bolts at you if you don't make a sacrifice to him. Yet his legacy, a.k.a. God, still grips the hearts and minds of men.
Well, now, this has turned into quite a stream of consciousness rambling, but here's the main point: Children's minds are vulnerable, and too be protected, rather than brainwashed by the incessant, insidious influence of the christian faith.
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