Religion in Harry Potter stories:

[JP Cusick]

I did not read the HP books, so I am just talking about the 8 movies, but all are welcome here.

Lots of cool religious stuff in the Harry Potter stories.

One first is that it tells of practical and realistic forms of magic, as like a person can not fly but there could be a type of flying machine which looks like a broom. That changes the magic into some thing possible.

Also the magic comes from a wand and people could conceivably make a wand that works wonders.

Having a love potion is realistic which looks like magic, or any sort of potion can be created to look like magic.

A lot of religious people (especially Christians) have the mistaken idea that any true miracle has to happen like magic without any realistic mechanism, and that kind of magic is not really the way of miracles. So Harry Potter comes closer to reality then does a lot of the religious mysticism.

As like having a baby is a miracle, and flying in an airplane is a type of miracle, and people breaking the bonds of addiction is a real miracle - and so Harry Potter does fancy kinds of miracles and calls it to be magic.

Next if we think about it (as I have) then the discovery that the planet earth is spinning around the Sun at high speed and being held in the perfect position by invisible forces - then that is a by far a bigger and more spectacular miracle than anything told in the Bible, and it is far more magical than anything done in the Harry Potter stories.

Truth is stranger than fiction.

[JP Cusick]

And yet you would rather have these "old time religion" Christians turn the country into a theocracy instead of having the secular USA continue. I don't understand your worldview.

What I really say is that we need to create a new version of religion based on the improved knowledge we have now.

All other religions including the old Christianity could still continue, and so we need to make the new religion compelling with proofs and truth and super high standards which the people can willingly embrace.

As like the Church of the USA, but really it needs to be a new kind of religion for the entire world and beyond.

It would need to embrace all the Gods by every name and so much more.

And in fact it needs to over rule the government, even if the government were to be secular.

This is my concept for a better world - to be implemented ASAP.

[help3434]

What I really say is that we need to create a new version of religion based on the improved knowledge we have now.

To me that sounds like improved things that we pretend to know that the supposed creator of the universe wants us to do.

All other religions including the old Christianity could still continue, and so we need to make the new religion compelling with proofs and truth and super high standards which the people can willingly embrace.

At various times on this site I have challenged some of your assertions, and you haven't been able to back up your claims with evidence when challenged even once. How are you going to prove that this new religion is true?

[JP Cusick]

How are you going to prove that this new religion is true?

We make it true in the first place, then later there is nothing to prove.

And of course the religion must be able to expand and absorb new truths.

That is what I see being done in the "Harry Potter" movies, because it gives realistic examples of magic, and thereby it is replacing fantasy with a realistic possibility of magic being made true.

I really see this as inspired revelation and not directly from the author J. K. Rowling.

[Tcg]

One first is that it tells of practical and realistic forms of magic, as like a person can not fly but there could be a type of flying machine which looks like a broom. That changes the magic into some thing possible.

I'm not sure how a flying machine that looks like a broom could be considered practical. The danger of flying on such a device would far out way any possible advantage it could provide.

To me the very term magic implies something beyond the normal physical world we all interact with. If it is simply technology, as I think your are describing, there would be no reason to describe it as magic or anything else other than technology.

[JP Cusick]

I'm not sure how a flying machine that looks like a broom could be considered practical. The danger of flying on such a device would far out way any possible advantage it could provide.

The idea is not to view the broom as practical - it is to view magic as practical.

A practical one-person flying machine would need a better seat and siding and landing gear, Link Picture.

To me the very term magic implies something beyond the normal physical world we all interact with. If it is simply technology, as I think your are describing, there would be no reason to describe it as magic or anything else other than technology.

Yes - exactly = the view of magic needs to be corrected or enlarged to include technology.

An airplane flying is magical, and talking long distance on a cell phone is magical, and advanced medicine is magical too.

For technology to destroy the magical view of life then that is a harm done by technology - but not every person goes down with the same mentality.

I see it as like people who understand pregnancy so well that having a baby stops being a miracle or magical and so their knowledge lowers their view of life.

Or a person on an airplane who likes the technology but fails to see the magic of flying - that it is wonderful.

The "Harry Potter" movies are very cleverly displaying technology as magic.

[Tcg]

The idea is not to view the broom as practical - it is to view magic as practical.

The flying broom was the example you gave to support your idea that magic should be viewed as practical. If we don't view the flying broom as practical, and I agree that it isn't, then your example fails to support your conclusion.

Yes - exactly = the view of magic needs to be corrected or enlarged to include technology.

I must not of made myself clear. Magic and technology are two totally separate things. I see no connection nor any reason or need to try to connect them.

The "Harry Potter" movies are very cleverly displaying technology as magic.

I don't see this at all. In fact I think the HP stories are fun because they represent magic, pure fantasy. They engage the imagination and are not intended to be taken as a statement on technology in any way.

[furyoku111]

In the First Place, How could we have gotten too far from the discussion. When associating HP to God is such a difficult notion:

See, GOD Hates witchcraft or wizardry

Septuagint Bible w/ Apocrypha
Chronicles I 10:13 (LXX) So Saul died for his transgressions, wherein he transgressed against God, against the word of the Lord, forasmuch as he kept not, because Saul enquired of a wizard to seek , and Samuel the prophet answered him:

The Message Bible
1 Chronicles 10:13 (MSG) Saul died in disobedience, disobedient to God. He didn't obey God's words. Instead of praying, he went to a witch to seek guidance.

THEY WILL NOT ENTER HEAVEN

Revelation 21:8
8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.�


So to closely associate GOD/Christianity with Harry Potter; how could we put God into something he hates in the first place?

IMHO