After reading the entire series, I was not offended as a Catholic. Perhaps it is true that if you read the series and your faith is shattered, then it may not have been strong enough to begin with. At the very least, it makes one question if he has really tried to understand what he believes in. (Theology as Faith seeking understanding, anyone?) If one is moved to learn more about his beliefs to have things clarified, then great! We shouldn't be drones and blindly accept what is thrown at us anyway.
It's interesting to note sometimes how the Magisterium of Lyra's world has corrupted different Church dogma found in "our world" too. We see scenarios speculating what could have happened if the Church hierarchy focused on building power alone, if the inquisition continued, and if dogmatic control was the only thing on its mind. We then start to think and be glad it's not the same in our world. (Or shudder at the thought if we are going there). Also, I believe one must not take the book as a religious treatise, but as a simple work of fiction. Pullman expresses his beliefs through some of the characters, but at the end, will not force you to share his own.
There is one statement I'd like to address, though, and it pertains to all organized religion:
Pullman writes, “But when you look at organised religion of whatever sort – whether it's Christianity in all its variants, or whether it's Islam or some forms of extreme Hinduism – wherever you see organised religion and priesthoods and power, you see cruelty and tyranny and repression. It's almost a universal law."
I don't believe that it's a "universal law." Perhaps he wrote this passage just as an extreme way of showing even organized religion can still go wrong at times and it is in such times that it must be wary of its power. It's not all cruelty, tyranny, and repression that we see in religion. There is a wealth of experiences immersed in love, sacrifice, and hope too.
The series' critics have a lot to say about the atheistic and anti-God sentiments of some characters. First, let it be clear that the Authority they speak of is different from the God we may believe in. His folklore may be based on some Gnostic beliefs that the God people know is different from the Creator. In the story, the Authority was just an early angel who seized control over all. Eventually, even this Authority grew older and simply delved into mysteries while his Reagent, the Metatron took over. It is this Metatron who was portrayed as ruthless and power-hungry. The novels are anti-authoritarian, against institutions that are drunk with power and stifle creative thought and free will.
Some of the best lines I've read regarding belief in God came from the third book in the series: The Amber Spyglass. Near the end, Lyra and Will question Mary Malone, a nun turned particle physicist and a self-proclaimed atheist, about her past and her faith.
"When you stopped believing in God," he (Will) went on, "did you stop believing in good and evil?"
"No. But I stopped believing there was a power of good and a power of evil that were outside us. And I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are. All that we can say is that this is a good deed, because it helps someone, or that's an evil one, because it hurts them. Peopre are too complicated to have simple labels."
"Yes," said Lyra firmly.
"Did you miss God?" asked Will.
"Yes," Mary said, "terribly. And I still do. And what I miss most is the sense of being connected to the whole of the universe. I used to feel I was connected to God like that, and that because he was there, I was connected to the whole of his creation..."
She reflects again a few moments later.
This was the very thing she'd told Will about when he asked if she missed God: it was the sense that the whole universe was alive, and that everything was connected to everything with threads of meaning. When she'd been a Christian, she had felt connected, too; but when she left the Church, she felt loose and free and light, in a universe without purpose.
And then had come the discovery of the Shadows and her journey into another world, and now this vivid night, and it was plain that everything else was throbbing with purpose and meaning, but she was cut off from it. And it was impossible to find a connection, because there was no God.
Now how can that be anti-God?
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