Socrates on 'The Bible'.

 Philip Pullman, in his Trilogy called "His Dark Materials' throws a copy of the bible to Socrates and requests his critic.

Socrates obliges with some pithy comment. 

What's Pullman pulling at?  Interestingly you have to know your bible to get much out of this.  A bit like Dan Brown before him, is Pullman getting his readership to learn more about the bible than they might otherwise know?  The classic reading of he bible has a clear good a bad divide.

God=good.  Angels=largely good (few bad eggs). Devil=bad, serpent=bad, Sin=bad.  It goes not like that.  Pullman says 'is that so?  Think about it?  Check it out.  Don't be taken in.  All good sentiments.  

Like many before him, Pullman points out hypocrisy, vacuous superstition, striving and guilt.  But we are all on his side, and not particularly keen to he part of the camp he is pointing out.  

Then the elements of life he he raises up, well, yes we want a part of that too.  Courage, sacrifice, honesty, self-knowledge, creativity, love and life.  

The thing that is missing is the idea of a creator.  This is where we part company.  There is only a vague yearning to be part of the universe, 'to be free'.  The challenge for the believer it that when they know their Creator, this becomes the starting point.  'I know my Creator, therefore I am.'  

To realise you do not know 'a Creator' is also important. It's honest, but the challenge for Pullman is not knowing what it is like to 'know'.  As I said before, it's like looking into an Oxford College and guessing what it might be like to be an Oxford Don.