I decited to look into this because it caused quite a stir. I got this off the authors website these are his exact words on this subject . For those who don't know The Golden Compass is part of a series called His Dark Materials. And from what I have read off of his site he doesn't seem to hate God. In fact he never says that God doesn't exist.

His Dark Materials seems to be against organised religion. Do you believe in God?

"I don't know whether there's a God or not. Nobody does, no matter what they say. I think it's perfectly possible to explain how the universe came about without bringing God into it, but I don't know everything, and there may well be a God somewhere, hiding away."

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