The Golden Compass

I will be honest and state that I never heard of this book before someone forwarded me an email warning me to safeguard my children against the film version. All I gathered from this little epistle was that Hollywood is corruptive, evil, and that somehow the devil had his hand in this business. I can't describe how disappointed I was in my friend for being so narrow minded and believing that I would likewise share her opinion. So many people are absolutely rabid when it comes to a perceived threat against their faith. I am rabid when I perceive a threat against my freedom from faith.
I was born here and raised here in the Christian faith (a Baptist, no less) but I have found that organized religion, any organized religion, is inherently flawed. Religions are just too human. Why would God or Goddess or whomever is in control (should such a thing exist) hold us in such high esteem? I do not believe that we humans are good or bad any more than I think of sparrows as good or bad. I don't know what happens after we die, nor where we came from before we were born. But to ask me to consider the dictates of one groups' interpretation over another in regard to a Divine Figure whose will can never be seen, heard, felt, or understood is asking too much of me.
By the by, the book is intelligent and well written. I haven't finished it yet, but I am engaged by it. You can go to the Golden Compass website and "find" your daemon (the physical manifestation of the soul). My daemon is an ocelot. Meow.