Ihaven't read the book but I intend to now that it's received so much free publicity engendered by the Halton Catholic School board. It has not been banned, despite some headlines I've read. The hapless board is just following policy to pull a book if there is a complaint and then investigate. But any hint of censorship in our democracy always puts one in the potentially embarrassing position of needing to justify the priority of one's dogma over the fundamental democratic right of free speech. So people's backs are up.

The identity of the complainant is being protected as usual. It might not even have come from a school parent but, for all we know, a US fundamentalist group. The meat of the complaint, according to a spokesperson for the board is that the author, Philip Pullman, is an atheist.

Pullman has made controversial statements, telling The Washington Post in 2001 he was "trying to undermine the basis of Christian belief."

In 2003, he said that compared to the Harry Potter series, his books had been "flying under the radar, saying things that are far more subversive than anything poor old Harry has said. My books are about killing God."

I'm confused by that quote. If you want to kill God you must first assume God lives, and that is not atheism, which affirms the nonexistence of God or gods, an absence of belief in deities. Atheism, by the way, is not necessarily irreligious. Some religious philosophies, such as secular theology and some varieties of Buddhism also lack belief in a personal god. There is no one ideology or set of behaviors to which all atheists adhere, but those I know are skeptical of any form of supernatural being.

The trailer for the movie, which debuts December 7th, depicts a story replete with deities. There are witches, spirits, all sorts of supernatural creatures and events. It's a fantasy, and from the looks of it, the ubiquitous allegory of pure good versus pure evil. I'll bet there are dozens upon dozens of such fantasies on the shelves of Catholic Schools everywhere.

An atheist Pullman may be, but his stories are not. And you don't reject a book because of who the author is, but rather for what the book says, the images it depicts, the philosophy it expounds.

My guess is the book will return to the shelves quickly because of the negative publicity. But if the book speaks significantly against the Catholic Church I wouldn't be surprised if Catholic boards clear it off the shelves. Acentury ago it was politically expedient to fund separate Catholic schools, and now we're stuck with it, even though the last election demonstrated that Ontarians are not fond of funding religious education.

If Pullman's books are banned, it's a consequence of a past folly I'm not going to get in a sweat about. eric@ericnagler.com