What's next?

Lord of the rings? (and the book is better than the movie) lets go there and start banning the most popular titles, maybe they start caring about revenue then.

Alternitavely

Why not just burn 'em if they offend you, surely that'd be original... no... wait...

hope the nasty man will go away

Quite right! Don't bother with rational argument, just close your eyes (and force others not to look) and hope the nasty man will go away.

Never heard of the site before, will never use it in the future as I prefer to choose what to ignore for myself.

Land of the free..

...my arse

Of the kinds of user communities

Abunga.com “is willing to forego revenues to respond to our commitment of empowering decency within our user community.”

I'm sure that when they get to burning the books it'll be for exactly the same reasons.
And may no one have his mind exposed to new things without approval from the Decency Committee. Burn the heretics !

Ugh!

What's wrong with criticising catholicism? I think god and all the associated myth is as ridiculous as the tooth fairy or father christmas. In my opinion - and with all due respect - I think anyone capable of believing in such fantasy without any evidence isn't playing with a full deck. What's stopping someone with too much "faith" from believing (without any good reason) that the voice in their heads telling them to blow up a bus is the voice of god. Logic and reason is the only ahem logical thing to believe in. One thing the god botherers need to remember is that "Atheism" is not a cause or religion to be militantly and angrily squashed (anger at infidels is of course typical religious behavour), it is merely the abscence of one and leaves the path clear for a more balanced and sensible view on life. The fact that people can call opposition to catholicism "indecent" sickens me, the Americans in particular need to wake up as they're in danger of going too far with their weird beliefs. They're already using censorship to aid the indoctrination of their children because they're too scared to allow the kids to choose religion for themselves. Scum.

Are you people stupid or what

You people are commenting like this is some government banning a book or something. This is a business choosing not to sell a book that its customers don't like. This is not banning a book. It is someone choosing not to sell it. The business has every right to choose not to sell a particular book. You people are reactionary morons.

Haha

I wonder what they do with Sam Harris...or Richard Dawkins...or Christopher Hitchens... or...

Customers voting to block books: tragedy of the commons at its best!

Nice

Here at IdiotsRule.com we want to empower our community of racists, bigots, book-burners and scumbags to police the thoughts of all mankind.

amazing

why dont you get educated on the trilogy prior to commenting.
the premise is to "KIll God"

FYI Lord of the Rings was written by a Christian Author and has numerous underlying tone to such.
Narnia the same and even more so.

Golden attempts to model itself after Narnia in a "wolf in sheeps clothing" fashion

get real people everyone is entitiled to their beliefs and who they associate with, where they shop and what they expose themselfs to or thier children.

Other offensive books

Might I suggest that we start hitting the site with ban requests for a number of other offensive titles? Let's start with the bible section. Banning *that* book (In its hundreds of variations... I saw over 600 results when I searched for "bible") should give them a bit of a revenue hit, I would imagine.

Reactionary Morons .... Indeed!!

"You people are reactionary morons."

Well Mr A, I am too a moron, who finds it disgraceful that an organization of any type can be persuaded by a vocal minority to effect policy which effects the majorities freedom of choice.

It doesn’t matter if this is a Government or Amazon, its just plain wrong.

I don’t need someone else to sensor the books I choose to buy, if I don’t like them, I don’t buy them… novell idea hey Mr A?

Another note for you, although I am not religious myself, what would happen if the community voted to ban “The Bible”? Do you honestly think people would not be naturally pissed off?

no...

...the people who voted on that site and the company itself are reactionary morons. People with brains have every right to be mortified by the stupidity of people without brains.

LOTR?

I'm sorry but LOTR and Golden Compass have very few things in common. As a Christian the golden compass has moral issues. LOTR's does not.

We watched LOTR at church. Granted it wasn't during worship. But that was a very poor example.

Its like the Harry Potter stories. They do not teach children good moral lessons. I own all of them. Do I like them, YES, would I put a impressionable 8 year old infront of them, NO. My sense of right and wrong is developed. Most young peoples is not. Use common sense, spend time with your kids, know what they are doing, talk to them and you and they will be fine.

Stick them infront of MTV, the golden compass or even Harry potter movies for hours on end and you will most likely end up with someone who has learned all the lessons they have watched. Sex=good, Lying= ok if you get something from it, Adults=old idiots, Children always know better....right????

Ban This, its a nasty piece of work.

I am banning this, its just pure rubbish, and its full of evil lies, sodomy and murder.

http://abunga.com/?d=product&productid=9780529065193

Andy

No, we're not stupid

" You people are commenting like this is some government banning a book or something. This is a business choosing not to sell a book that its customers don't like."

That much is true. Trouble is, these same Bible-thumping jerks are always trying to gain government power. Indeed at least one is currently running for President of the US. Republican, of course. Let that happen, and we're all going to be shopping at Abunga.

It should only be banned by not buying.

The site allows customers to ban books? That's highly unusual. I'd actually never heard of them before this and I'd be curious to know what books they've previously banned.

If users can vote to ban books, and only books over a certain threshold are banned, then it's not true censorship and nothing to be alarmed about. Freedom includes freedom of association.

Despite Pullman's public clash with the legacy of C.S. Lewis, it's obvious that the Authority is not God, the trilogy's church is not realistic. It does lack critical thinking for a polemical fiction, so I'd put it on par with the Left Behind novels in quality.

This week I ordered The Twilight of Atheism and also In the Hands of a Happy God, the No Hellers of Central Appalachia, and I just finished Evangelical Universalism and also a Forgotten Realms anthology and a Battletech novel.

So, I see no real threat to Christianity in fantasy and SF, but do have issues with Pullman's polemics that influenced his trilogy.

Banning, however much it proceeds democratically, is not the way to answer anyone. Engagement and tolerance works better. Then again, I'm a Christian universalist who believes that Pullman will come around one of these centuries.

You are right...

A business certainly has the right to refuse to sell any product they choose. The fact that the book store refused to carry them is not the issue, I'm sure no other Christian bookstore is carrying them either. It is the mind set behind this concept that is so bothersome. The idea that the mob is always right and that there is such a thing as family unfriendly material. That they feel the need to actively have a book removed from sale because it offends them (or far more likely they have heard that it should offend them.)

this bookstore can do what it likes but I am still outraged that this kind of mentality exists in the 21st century.

empowering decency?

"empowering decency"? shame religion been unable to do that for thousand of years......

Reply to Mark

Mark, you seem pretty convinced that your way is the best, and anyone who doesn't think the same way as you is wrong. Am I the only one that finds irony in that?

It's great that you have such a sensible and balanced view on life...but that doesn't make you right. There are people out there that believe the only way they have their sensible and balanced life is because of religion. If you say they are wrong, then it is just as valid for them to use the same arguements in saying you are wrong.

Also, evidence is a relative concept. The concept of God is a poetic idea at best, but the evidence God exists is everywhere for everyone to see. Time and space started approx. 50 billion years ago...what was before that and what caused it to start?

Even if you believe the cyclical expansion and contraction of the universe, then you believe pretty much the same thing as most religions..."always been and always will be" ring a bell? God is just a personification of the cycle and everything encompassed within it.

.

LOL!

Hitchen's god is not great is still listed, probably because none of their customers even looked for it...

this proves it.

If there is such a point that this book is trying to make then what these guys are doing proves that point. They are helping the book's cause by banning it. What's next? probably witch hunts. Anyway aren't these the same people who burned others just becasuse they suggested the earth is not flat!

Catholic's different opinions

I suppose banning a book is marginally better than what they used to do.

In times past they'd send for the Inquisition.

anti-Catholic?

Or anti-Roman Catholic?

There is a significant difference.

Athiest or Agnostic?

LOL! - You peeps don't even know what your talking about. An Athiest is someone who doesnt have a religion but does believe in a higher power. Its the Agnostics that don't believe in a God - doh!

Stupidity, not censorship.

No, they're not reactionary morons. They're complaining about stupidity, not censorship. (And since when are reactionary morons against censorship, anyway?)

The next books to go (if they haven't already) will be Huck Fin and Harry Potter. Huck Fin is always at the top of the list for morons. The very idea that a young boy could reject his upbringing and come to view a black slave as a human being is just downright unsettling.

Anyway, this site's idea is just bad. Amazon's tracking what people actually buy can give some good results. But most of the idiots voting for what to ban have never read it.

Protect Us!

We need to keep poisonous books out of the hands of minors. Follow this link if you agree:
http://abunga.com/?d=report&keywords=bible&x=0&y=0

Woah there...

Wait up everyone. America is not banning or doing anything here at all. No no no, America didn't do anything. Why do all you non-Americans generalize the actions of one American (Bush mainly) or one American company and apply it to all Americans? The fact is that a privately owned company is choosing not to sell a book. The book isn't close to being banned, every other seller online and in store has these books, it's just that some paranoid Christian store is choosing not to sell them. Big flippin deal man.

Stop generalizing us Americans! Those who make the news only represent the very very small minority of the country!

Now, you British people, go back to your tea time...

The World is better..

When you remove everything you don't like.

You are free to ....

This is really funny. People lining up to whine about some business that allow its customers to choose what it offers them. You don't have to shop there, in fact you don't even have to visit their site.

Get a life.

Amen

"Are you people stupid or what
You people are commenting like this is some government banning a book or something. This is a business choosing not to sell a book that its customers don't like. This is not banning a book. It is someone choosing not to sell it. The business has every right to choose not to sell a particular book. You people are reactionary morons.

posted by : A, 17 January 2008 "

---------------------------------------

Amen brother, Amen!

LOL

Burn the witch!!!11one

They'd burn 'em if they could...

Did Hitler have a ton of children that escaped to the U.S of A holes or something back in the 40's?

Such a backwards society.

myth smyth

It is amazing how many people try to discuss religious thought using only understanding from childhood Sunday school lessons. Symbolism, philosophy, apocolyptic language? Sure, I guess we can get them from the Simpsons. Shallow thinking must be the wave of the future. Next thing we know some pinhead will make a cartoon out of Beowulf. A business cannot ban books, just decide not to sell them. If we force them to stock certain books will you reimburse them when the copies are unsold? Maybe the book is excrement. If we were talking about a public library I would be mad as hell, but this is a business.

LOL!

Only in the US, kids. Only in the US...


Thanks for letting me know of a site I'd never visit. I prefer places that treat me as an adult capable of my own choices.

Morons.

They missed some

Ironically, that site still sells the other two parts of the trilogy (The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass) which have so far gone unnoticed by the god-botherers.

Oh dear God...

As if the creation movment in Americas' science classes wasn't enough.

A never ending continuation of dumbing down and removing the free-thinking...

Christianofascists!

Most of the intolerance I've ever encountered has been a product of religious absolutism. A dangerous thing!

PS: anyone else notice Mike Huckabee (US pres candidate) saying US law and the constitution should be changed to fit the word of 'the living God'?
Terrifying!

More to this?

A voting system implies that the site had a prearranged list of books that their customers could vote for.

I wonder what books were on this list and why did they have a list anyway?

Could start an interesting trend on sites?

Let's have a list of names of article submitters for the Inquirer that we can ban.

Come on Inq, don't you want to listen to your readership? Hehe ;-))

Power of the people

I wonder what would happen if lots of people signed-up to abunga.com and voted to block the bible.
I wonder.... :)

Fiction...

... ever heard of it?

Why American christians try to judge fiction is truly beyond me?

I just don't get it.