Well, The Golden Compass, and the other two books, really SHOULDN'T be made for kids, the books where written for basically teens and young adults. Trust me, the books are a bit graphical in some areas. Hell, even the movie showed the bear's jaw being completly ripped off his head and his tongue just dangling there.
G1, I understand. However, I won't hold a grudge against a book because of the author.
Still, in the books they make war against the church, and against Heaven itself. God, according to the books, had his power ripped from him because he became too old (the angel Metadon(?) took control of heaven.) However, the book hinted that the sin of Adam and Eve was actually good (and a result of the rebellion angels getting revenge against the Kingdom of Heaven.) The book hinted that Metadon might actually have had plans to have God killed himself (as he was a far strict and power hungry ruller anyway) after the war anyway (though God isn't innocent either, purposfully casting everyone who died into a netherworld of nothing.) The book also hinted that there was still plenty of room in the books for there to be a real God, the true God.
It's not like the books just say "God dies, deal with it." It allows for plenty of thinking, plenty of ideas, plenty of "what if's"
G1. by the way, they changed most of the religious overtones in the book because the studio wanted to make money on it, and everyone involved agreed that if they didn't it might not have done so well. Guess they should have contacted me, I was prepared to spend hundreds of dollars to see the movie as often as I could to do my part to get the other books made. Now I'm not so sure.