NARNIA: A REVIEW BY A NON-BELIEVER

A caustic non-believer at that. If you want to read what must be one of the most shrill and mocking reviews ever written, just feast your eyes on Polly Toynbee's toilet paper worthy drivel.

From "Narnia represents everything that is most hateful about religion":

Of all the elements of Christianity, the most repugnant is the notion of the Christ who took our sins upon himself and sacrificed his body in agony to save our souls. Did we ask him to? Poor child Edmund, to blame for everything, must bear the full weight of a guilt only Christians know how to inflict, with a twisted knife to the heart.

So the resurrected Aslan gives Edmund a long, life-changing talking-to high up on the rocks out of our earshot. When the poor boy comes back down with the sacred lion's breath upon him he is transformed unrecognisably into a Stepford brother, well and truly purged.

Children are supposed to fall in love with the hypnotic Aslan, though he is not a character: he is pure, raw, awesome power. He is an emblem for everything an atheist objects to in religion. His divine presence is a way to avoid humans taking responsibility for everything here and now on earth, where no one is watching, no one is guiding, no one is judging and there is no other place yet to come. Without an Aslan, there is no one here but ourselves to suffer for our sins, no one to redeem us but ourselves: we are obliged to settle our own disputes and do what we can. We need no holy guide books, only a very human moral compass. Everyone needs ghosts, spirits, marvels and poetic imaginings, but we can do well without an Aslan.

Jeez, who pissed in her Christmas stocking? If you can stomach the snipets above, go ahead and read the whole thing. I caution you though, to wear a hockey mask while you do, otherwise her acerbic bias against religion will hit you between the eyes harder than a wayward puck.

[ HT: Fox News ]