I have to say that Im a fan of Anne Rices works and have been for a while. I myself "became a Christian" 10 years ago so I guess I have a bit of empathy for her. I have to say that Im glad that athiets are coming out and are being more bold about it. I live in Britain where religion in general doesnt have any political hold and is generally a secular society so that when I say Im a Christian, people know I am a nutcase rather than a fundamentalist creationist or right wing political hothead. I have read Sam Harries works and Richard Dawkins and found them to be compelling though I would still argue that I have fallen from rationality and that Anne Rice has. Im sure if you read her books then you will see that there is a clear psychological journey to where she is now. I would be the first to admit that having faith in God requires a veering away from pure scientific thought but this thought will not, I feel, lead to entirely satisfactory conclusions. I dont have a day when I stop asking all important questions and I feel compelled to challenge my faith and to be proved wrong every day. You have my deepest sympathies living amoungst the flurry of fundamentalism that permeates your country where people dont challenge their faith and live in protective social bubbles, inpenetrable to outside views, where creationists are babbling their nonsense nonscience and hatemongers attack gays. You have met people like this but I would still argue that they are the minority of believers, but the media will always lap them up because they make stiring reporting. There are voices of reason that represent Christians, but you have to dig for them - Greg Boyd is one. At the end of the day Im am not a believer because of Christians or the institutions that would call themselves churches - I am a believer in Christ. I would urge you to read her latest book "Christ the Lord" without preconceptions as it is excellently researched and written. Certainly reads Queen of the damned and the Tale of the body thief. If youve made it this far, you are less tired than me. Cheers
Nobody
· 1 year ago
You say that it just kills you to see someone fall from rationality and stop asking the important question, but to say that shows your prejudice. Have you ever stopped to ask a 'rational' Christian why they believe or do you simply assume all Christians are ignorant non-thinking, dim witted automatons? I suggest you look up the word apologetics. Perhaps it was by asking the important questions that Anne Rice found faith .. i.e. a belief in something greater than mere materialism.
Rebecca
· 1 year ago
Honestly, I completely agree. I read Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles growing up, and I have to say that Anne Rice's convert to Christianity disturbs me. I think it is fair to say that she feels guilty in her old age about what she has written in the past--(if you know Anne Rice, you know what I'm talking about)--I know that most people find some comfort in Christianity as a religion. I believe that atheism is not for the weak of heart or mind; it is for those that cannot find satisfying faith in their everyday lives. I remember visiting her website before 2002...and it was a nice, clean, informative webpage like any other author's. Now it is crowded with animated graphics quoting Bible verses and spewing information about her newest memoir, (dedicated to her new life as a Christian).
It's just so strange!
liz
· 1 year ago
Concerning your comment chiding Ann Rice about "falling from her rationality". Maybe she indeed held on to her rationale and just decided it would be wise to explore the truth. She at least had the courage to ask the questions and find the answers. Some people are too afraid to even question what causes the torment of human beings and to have the "audacity to hope" to find the truth. There are answers and there is ONE who is very willing to give those answers but if narrow minded human beings are too locked into their strongholds and do not question how to get out, then the answer is not going to be forced onto someone who really is too stubborn, arrogant or "whatever" to pursue the truth at all costs even if it means letting go of their lifelong system of beliefs. Ann Rice has walked out of the darkness into the LIGHT and TRUTH.
Shaneen Clarke
· 11 months ago
Anne Rice is an excellent author and she has great writings that influence other people.
neissa
· 9 months ago
she influenced me .. and im onley 17 years old
Roxy
· 10 months ago
Chris:
I absolutely agree with you. I have read the Vampire Chronicles and the Mayfair Witches Chronicles. It's unexplainable how can someone so brilliant has suddenly decided to stop using the brain.
I have always believed that once you made the decision to search for information and the truth it was a leap of "faith" into reality and there was no way back to the old ways and beliefs. There's so little information abour the savior of christians - only that contained in the gospels - that any normal human being can inmediately figure out it's a myth or some kind of invention to unify a collapsing kingdom under one god (the Roman Empire). The Counsil of Nicea (to establish the first uniform christian doctrine) was held in 325 AD and the Roman Empire finally collapsed in 476 AD.
cherbert
· 9 months ago
Update: I'm reading The Witching Hour and am completely hooked. I had a debate with a friend over the weekend about whether a Christian can have an imagination... I argued that someone with so brilliant an imagination as Anne Rice could not possibly be constricted by a simplistic, rigid, clearly flawed religious worldview. He disagreed.
Then we discussed whether she could have converted solely for the commercial potential....would a conversion to Christianity open up vast new markets for her work? I am looking forward to checking out her work on the life of Jesus...to see how she approaches it. No idea how commercially oriented she was or how large an audience her books have reached...
What comes after The Witching Hour? Are there more books in the series?
look in the mirror
· 8 months ago
Christians are not just one person. All Christians do not believe in the same things and are not restricted to their beliefs. This is probably the stupidest comment here... Can a Christian have an imagination? A Christian is a person, just like you, and wow this is a retarded comment... I'm just 16 and I can see that...
cherbert
· 8 months ago
I just think that anyone who subscribes to a religion is turning over their brain to a set of absurd beliefs.....refusing to accept that there are infinite possibilities for why we are here and what happens when we die. it is easier for many to simply accept the religious world view story and reject all the other possibilities, abdicating their imagination, creativity, and responsibility to search. Most people would say they don't believe in most parts of the bible and therefore still have an imagination etc, but that half-belief is almost worse- hypocritical and two-faced....
blank
· 8 months ago
Well, I have been reading Anne Rice's books for a few weeks now and am on Memnoch the Devil currently. I can say that I am a Christian, but then I also do not study the bible, read the bible, or even pay attention in church. I do in fact believe there is a God, but that is as far as I can go. Because really how can I separate truth from fiction? What in the bible has really happened or is just from imagination? Honestly, it's merely a question of who I can trust and what to believe in. In the end I found this out: It doesn't really matter.
If I were to find the truth how do I recognize it?
So all this talk about atheists downing Christians and Christians downing atheists doesn't really matter. All I can see that does matter is the loss of a story that could have been. Rice refuses to write about vampires and witches from now on and I find that to be a disappointment because I found them to be really entertaining.
Lucimara
· 4 months ago
All of her work doesn't match whith christianity. All the mistery was about telling different religions, old religions. You can see clearly in her later work, the difference on the charater, the lost of mistery in Lestat. Lestat has no questions anymore, now he wants to become a saint. And the Menoch is a very interest book, but not to put with the vampire crhonicles, when she says he met with the devil, she afirms the christianity. I was feeling just like you all, and I am glad there are a lot people feeling the same.
All Comments
I have to say that Im a fan of Anne Rices works and have been for a while. I myself "became a Christian" 10 years ago so I guess I have a bit of empathy for her.
I have to say that Im glad that athiets are coming out and are being more bold about it. I live in Britain where religion in general doesnt have any political hold and is generally a secular society so that when I say Im a Christian, people know I am a nutcase rather than a fundamentalist creationist or right wing political hothead.
I have read Sam Harries works and Richard Dawkins and found them to be compelling though I would still argue that I have fallen from rationality and that Anne Rice has. Im sure if you read her books then you will see that there is a clear psychological journey to where she is now. I would be the first to admit that having faith in God requires a veering away from pure scientific thought but this thought will not, I feel, lead to entirely satisfactory conclusions. I dont have a day when I stop asking all important questions and I feel compelled to challenge my faith and to be proved wrong every day.
You have my deepest sympathies living amoungst the flurry of fundamentalism that permeates your country where people dont challenge their faith and live in protective social bubbles, inpenetrable to outside views, where creationists are babbling their nonsense nonscience and hatemongers attack gays. You have met people like this but I would still argue that they are the minority of believers, but the media will always lap them up because they make stiring reporting. There are voices of reason that represent Christians, but you have to dig for them - Greg Boyd is one.
At the end of the day Im am not a believer because of Christians or the institutions that would call themselves churches - I am a believer in Christ.
I would urge you to read her latest book "Christ the Lord" without preconceptions as it is excellently researched and written. Certainly reads Queen of the damned and the Tale of the body thief.
If youve made it this far, you are less tired than me.
Cheers
It's just so strange!
I absolutely agree with you. I have read the Vampire Chronicles and the Mayfair Witches Chronicles. It's unexplainable how can someone so brilliant has suddenly decided to stop using the brain.
I have always believed that once you made the decision to search for information and the truth it was a leap of "faith" into reality and there was no way back to the old ways and beliefs. There's so little information abour the savior of christians - only that contained in the gospels - that any normal human being can inmediately figure out it's a myth or some kind of invention to unify a collapsing kingdom under one god (the Roman Empire). The Counsil of Nicea (to establish the first uniform christian doctrine) was held in 325 AD and the Roman Empire finally collapsed in 476 AD.
Then we discussed whether she could have converted solely for the commercial potential....would a conversion to Christianity open up vast new markets for her work? I am looking forward to checking out her work on the life of Jesus...to see how she approaches it. No idea how commercially oriented she was or how large an audience her books have reached...
What comes after The Witching Hour? Are there more books in the series?
Can a Christian have an imagination? A Christian is a person, just like you, and wow this is a retarded comment... I'm just 16 and I can see that...
their brain to a set of absurd beliefs.....refusing to accept that
there are infinite possibilities for why we are here and what happens
when we die. it is easier for many to simply accept the religious
world view story and reject all the other possibilities, abdicating
their imagination, creativity, and responsibility to search. Most
people would say they don't believe in most parts of the bible and
therefore still have an imagination etc, but that half-belief is
almost worse- hypocritical and two-faced....
If I were to find the truth how do I recognize it?
So all this talk about atheists downing Christians and Christians downing atheists doesn't really matter. All I can see that does matter is the loss of a story that could have been. Rice refuses to write about vampires and witches from now on and I find that to be a disappointment because I found them to be really entertaining.
later work, the difference on the charater, the lost of mistery in Lestat. Lestat has no questions anymore, now he wants to become
a saint. And the Menoch is a very interest book, but not to put with the vampire crhonicles, when she says he met with the devil,
she afirms the christianity. I was feeling just like you all, and I am glad there are a lot people feeling the same.
From Brazil,