The Republic of Heaven

in paragraph 2, when serafina visits lord asriels manservant, thorald in the north, he says this

"...correct me if i'm wrong, but the witch-people have differant gods from ours, en't that right?
yes, that's true..."

what could pullman be saying? is this just a little mistake in his book? because he could be saying that theres only 1 religion thats right? i know its a story but some religious people could take it the wrong way.

your veiws?

I don't think he's trying to say anything there. Just that the witches don't follow the Christian church/ Magesterium.
I wish he'd given us more details about the Witches mythology. All we really know about them is that they have a grim reaper character called Yambe Akka.

To know of 'gods' doesn't automatically imply a religion. To recognise a divine force, or higher power or whatnot is quite different from imposing your views on who that force is, what that force is, how that force must be viewed, worshiped, what sacraments must be enforced, and so forth. Religion says OBEY, spiritual says SEEK.

As far as there being 'one' way, the church (both in Lyra's world and in ours) is the one promoting that there is only 'one' way. The witches wuddn't do that. The church is tryin to force one view on people. The witches know the truth AS IS, rather than messing with 'beliefs'. The witches don't need belief, they KNOW what happens. That isn't promoting a singular view to others, that is knowledge gained from personal experience. They have left thier daemons behind, they have tasted the seperation of themselves, they have known what lies beyond. I would like to think that not a single soul that Lyra found in the Land of the Dead was that of a witch......

You could say the witches were very spiritual, while the mansevant and the church were very religious..... Strangely enuff, the church and religion has always persecuted those that were spiritual.

i think what is poignant here is that thorold distinguishes the witch gods from "ours," meaning his, meaning those of the dominant church in his social context, i.e. the l-world's magisterium. in no way does this imply "one true religion."

I don't see it implying there is one true relgion; if anything it shows the exact opposite. Everyone has a religion, none more correct than any other.