Film and literary public relations workers must secretly hire religious conservatives around the world to stir up hype. Because to me, it always seems that when religion is involved in film or books, sales skyrocket.

Ironically, it is the absence of religion in The Golden Compass that makes it no. 1 at the box office and surely the biggest teen gift for Christmas (besides Nintendo Wii and Playstation 3, of course).

While it's said that The Golden Compass is the "tamest" of the Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman, many religious fanatics believe that the trilogy preaches atheism to children and should be condemned. The U.S. Catholic League even began a boycott campaign against the book. A Golden Compass reader on BN.com states, "This book is a very thinly veiled attack on God. The hero is Satan and the villain is God [...] PARENTS BEWARE: please do some serious research before buying these books for children. Do you really want your children reading a series of books called 'His Dark Materials'?"

It seems like we attach religion to many aspects of our society in America; like we cannot separate religious affiliations from presidential candidates, sexual orientation issues, and that our stubbornness won't even let us enjoy a good children's book. So, let's get down to the reality of The Golden Compass so that we can all get to the bookstores and movie theaters.

The Golden Compass is the first book in a trilogy. The story is basically: a girl with a golden compass, a polar bear, kidnapped children, and the girl's destiny. Pullman says, "the story I was trying to write was about real people [...] the story is about a universal human experience, namely growing up. I was using the fantastical elements to say something that I thought was true about us and about our lives. [...] A moral story is not one where the good guys do good things and the bad ones do bad things; its one in which people like ourselves do things, or are tempted, and then have to deal with the consequences."

Pullman openly admits his religious childhood has influenced his writing. On www.thirdway.org.uk, Pullman states, "This is the mistake Christians make when they say that if you are an atheist you have to be a nihilist and there's no meaning any more. Well, that's nonsense, as Mary Malone [the "satan" character] discovers. Now that I'm conscious, now that I'm responsible, there is a meaning, and it is to make things better and to work for greater good and greater wisdom. That's my meaning - and it comes from my understanding of my position. It's not nihilism at all."

In fact, Pullman's personal beliefs are fairly simple. On www.philip-pullman.com he states, "I don't know whether there's a god or not. Nobody does, no matter what they say. I think it is perfectly possible to explain how the universe came about without bringing god into it, but I don't know everything, and there may well be a god somewhere, hiding away."

If anything, Pullman discusses the replacement of religion with truth and individual morality. He isn't anti-religion, but anti-authoritarian along the themes of John Milton's Paradise Lost. A reader review on BN.com states, "This book's not all about god and Christianity. It is about the bravery, love and sacrifice that people put themselves through to help others." Maybe Pullman's books are a staple for our generation to be included in the literary history books. Deity-bashing or no, I can't help that every time I see a movie preview, I can't wait to get to the theater. Sure, it's a kid's movie with some heavy themes, but screenwriter and director, Chris Weitz, makes getting sucked into the first of the trilogy exciting. My overall suggestion: read the books, get fired up about the content, and then see the film.

The other books in the trilogy include The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. The Subtle Knife, book 2 in the trilogy, is "stark realism" according to Pullman and introduces Will, a 12-year-old who is fleeing for his life after taking another's. Will and Lyra's destinies become entwined as they move closer to a larger threat. The Amber Spyglass is the finale of the trilogy and leads Will and Lyra into extreme danger and major battles. It is known to have blatant religious examinations on Biblical Genesis and the Garden of Eden.

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