Awhile back I made the argument that the concept of Dust in 'His Dark Materials' can be seen as a parallel to the Christian (and indeed any religion's) view of the true God, as opposed to The Authority. The idea is my personal belief, and it reflects the themes and values that I drew from the 'His Dark Materials' books- whether or not it is what Philip Pullman intended to write, I do not know

The folks over at Facing the Challenge have argued against this theory, saying that it isn't a legitimate way to interpret 'His Dark Materials'. They claim that what Pullman put into the story should be how the books are interpreted, and that coming up with thoughts on the books that mirror your own beliefs isn't good, unless they are what the author intended them to be. I disagree.

Pullman himself has said "As for whether I believe in this or that - you know, it doesn't matter what I believe. I'm just the storyteller. You must have heard that wise advice, 'Trust the tale, not the teller', and whatever I told you would have little importance compared to what the story itself is telling you. Attend to that, and I don't matter at all." Does what the author put into the story still have importance? Of course. But often times the case is that a reader will not know the exact intentions of the author- as is the case with the whole 'Dust as God' argument. Pullman has acknowledged that a reader may indeed read such a view into his works. He has also said that "I'm not making an argument, or preaching a sermon or setting out a political tract: I'm telling a story." We can never be sure, since we are not Philip Pullman, just what it was that he intended Dust to represent. Instead, we must think for ourselves a little bit here- Pullman has given us the tools to develop this great idea inside of our minds, but we must build it ourselves. Perhaps he had an idea of what it is he meant for us to build, but his story did not give us a blueprint- just the tools. Pullman said, "I pay my readers the compliment of assuming that they are intellectually adventurous." He expects us to do our share of the work while we are reading his stories. We must build this idea for ourselves, using the tools he has given us to start out with. Frankly I think that's a lot more fun, and in the end, more beneficial, than just building what someone else's blueprint told us to.

Well, "what is Dust?" we might ask ourselves. Dust is the physical incarnation (on a subatomic level) of consciousness. It is created when matter discovers and becomes aware of itself. It is created by conscious beings like ourselves when, as Lyra said in 'The Amber Spyglass': "We have to be all those difficult things like cheerful and kind and curious and patient, and we've got to study and think and work hard, all of us, in all our different worlds, and then we'll build… the Republic of Heaven." When we live our lives to the fullest, when we do good to ourselves and our fellow man. When we strive to make heaven on earth, heaven here and now.

'His Dark Materials' is most certainly not a retelling of the Christian religion, as 'The Chronicles of Narnia' are, instead they get right to the point- to the very core, not only of Christianity, but any religion. Don't all religions teach their followers to do all of the above mentioned good deeds? This would seem to imply that the whole vast concept that is Dust would appear very similar at its core to that of God.

So does Pullman mean for us to draw this conclusion about Dust equaling God? We really can't know for sure what he meant- he leaves it open, because a) he is agnostic, meaning that he doesn't know if there is a God, but would accept God if he thought there was enough evidence and b) he wants us to think for ourselves. He doesn't want to force some stiff idea down our throats- he wants to introduce a thought into our mind, and let us take it from there. In doing this, he is able to reach across the boundaries of religion, race, or creed, for he has not included the various details that differentiate one religion from another. He allows a person, no matter their beliefs, to see that in Dust exists the possibility for their beliefs to exist. He has simplified all religions to their common denominator of a belief in goodness and conscious thought and life, and packed this all together into Dust.

Any religions beliefs can be seen in Dust- it doesn't matter if you're Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, or atheistic. Dust is what we all agree on about God, and how a person should act during their time on earth. Without Dust, the universe would be pointless: without thought, free will, or any meaning. Life could not exist without it. The writers on the Facing the Challenge site believe that this is not a Christian view of God- I think its just the most simplified version. It strips off all of the details (which do of course have importance, and certainly could exist, but are left out to create a neutral stance) and leave just the core. In that view, Dust certainly could be seen as God- it is a valid interpretation drawn from the beliefs of the reader- drawing those conclusions for ourselves is exactly what Pullman wanted us to do.