The Golden Compass - a good fantasy with a dulled needle?

The Gadfly watched the new movie The Golden Compass today. Certainly an interesting fantasy story. Part of what drove me to watch the movie in the theaters, rather than wait for the DVD release as I've supported in the past, is the clamoring of the religious community, in particular Catholics, against the film.
Any film that riles up the religious ranks is worth contributing to, in my opinion.
After watching this film, I can certainly see how the religious community would get a bit perturbed. The evil Magesterium, a thinly veiled reference to organized religion/Catholic church is the evil empire in the movie, attempting to control everyone. Those who stand against the Magesterium are standing for free will and free thought.
Doesn't that mirror what's happening today? So much of the world is bought over, indoctrinated by religious dogma that we're never even given a chance to ask, is there really a God? Is this really true?
If anything, I would argue that The Golden Compass doesn't go far enough in pointing a finger at the church.
We need more movies and books to go on such attacks. In recent years, an outpouring of great books challenging the fallacy of God have come out - The End of Faith, God is Not Great, etc. Atheists, Brights, and all who reject the supernatural are enjoying a resurgence. We have, however, stood idly by the propaganda of the religious community. Was there an outcry by atheists over The Passion of Christ, or the Chronicles of Narnia? The latter, targeted at children, seeks to lure in more unquestioning believers into Christianity while glossing over the gross falsehoods and logical inconsistencies and paradoxes in the Christian faith.
I think the religious community is waking up to the fact that nonbelievers are the fastest growing "faith" in this country. If recent statistics are to be believed, non-believers, or at least people who don't attend church on any regular basis, far outnumber the evangelical Christians who make up over 20% of the voting block in recent national elections.
It is time the non-believers, or at least the non-radical evangelical Christians, flex their mental muscles and celebrate asking questions. In a sense, this is what Pullman in his novel and the movie adaptation, The Golden Compass is asking us to do, to keep our minds free to think for ourselves. More importantly, we need to flex our muscles in the voting booth, to steer our country away from theocracy and towards a real democracy, for all Americans, including the non-believers.