eSkeptic, a publication of Michael Shermer’s Skeptic Society, has recently published an amusing piece on yet another front of the cultural wars: Harry Potter. For once, skeptics and atheists are neither the targets of nor active participants in this particular assault; indeed, we happily sit by the sidelines and enjoy the show.
You see, Harry Potter is obviously promoting magic, at least according to Pope Benedict XVI who – when he was just Cardinal Ratzinger – commented that HP’s books are a “subtle seduction into witchcraft for young souls.” For some Christians, like author Richard Abanes, there is a difference between Harry Potter and, say, C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia. Lest you hastily conclude that the difference is simply that the latter is a not so subtle example of Christian apologetics, Abanes’ actual objection is that the books by J.K. Rowling (the author of HP), “contain elements of real magic.” Ah, real magic, of course, we ought to be afraid of that stuff.
Reverend Bryan Small – a priest in
I find this issue odd myslef. I don't remember religious types ending up in a tizzy over "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch."
ReplyDeleteAnd what about con artists like John Edwards and Sylvia Brown. The Bible has just as much negative to say about mediums and psycics as witchcraft.
How are fictional stories about whitchcraft somehow worse than real people claiming to be real psycics?
I don't get it.
Noah
Well, it never was about logic was it?
ReplyDeleteI've read the books up through number 5 and seen most of the movies. I think the movies are probably a little more understandable if you've read the book. They follow the story line very closely but have to leave out a lot. Knowing the background on some of the characters and situations adds a little to it I think.
The Christians who are opposed to Harry Potter would also have to be opposed to 90% of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales and 50% of Mother Goose nursery rhymes. Actually, the majority of Christians are probably not opposed to Harry Potter. It's just a couple of rabble-rousers and headline-seekers who are stirring a tempest in a teapot.
Even as a small child I was never very interested in fairy tales, the occult, or other things supernatural. Perhaps that is why, despite being brought up in an ultra fundamentalist religious household, I had serious doubts about religion by the time I was 25 and had completely rejected it by age 35. The ultimate fairy tale had completely lost its fasination. I only regret that it took so long.
ReplyDeletedoesn't santa work using magic, too?
ReplyDelete