Why do Christians oppose magic as made up and evil?

They’re just mad cause they can’t do it like Harrry. I bet he gets all the ladies…Or men, whichever he prefers.

When it’s God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit acting through someone, it isn’t considered magic, but miracles (as far as I know). Magic is about humans controlling or predicting nature through unnatural (“supernatural”) means. As I understand it, magic is the will of humans, while miracles are the will of God.

Which Christians? No wait, don’t answer that.

The history of all Christian stances on magic is an enormously long and complex one. They used to have some success by claiming magic was just the evil part of their own belief system. That was more successful when people could be convinced to burn witches. It’s clear that the magic in Harry Potter is being invented as a modern work of imagination and fantasy, but I assume it doesn’t have enough to do with Christianity for their tastes, so I imagine they tend to oppose it as a distraction and a temptation to thoughts and feelings that lack Christian enlightenment.

Don’t forget the unicorns, burning bushes and the philosopher’s stones everyone seemed to own so they could live to almost a thousand. :P

What I don’t understand is, if it’s made up (ie: not real)...why bother protesting it at all?

@ as ahh yes let us not forget…

I only know that they recently protested The Golden Compass and Harry Potter. The Golden Compass they claimed was teaching children anti-Christian sentiment and Harry Potter as it taught children to believe in magic which is blasphemous… though I never remember them boycotting Disney… hmm? I will also say that it is mostly extremist Christians that protest these things, but on the other side of the coin most Christians are extremist in their beliefs…

It really gets interesting when you begin to see Christian imagery in the Harry Potter books themselves. I read a fascinating book all on this topic, The Hidden Key to Harry Potter, making the case that Harry was a Christ-like hero.

In this article, JK Rowling says, “To me, [the religious parallels have] always been obvious,” Rowling said. “But I never wanted to talk too openly about it because I thought it might show people who just wanted the story where we were going.”

She also says, “I go to church myself. I don’t take any responsibility for the lunatic fringes of my own religion.”

@Madcapper, I agree with JK that this represents the lunatic fringe, and not “most Christians” as extremists, as you say. Most Christians I’ve known are mainstream, sane people.

True believers are lacking in humor. They are not able to see the entertainment and escapist values in stories with magic. I remember reading once that the there were people who protested the children’s television show Barney because he asked children to use their imagination. I figure this must be the same crowd.

Its the fact that God is all powerful and as such can do what He wants; He’s God. We’re not. We’ve been given a lot of things, one of which is freewill. So we have the option to look at things and give credit to where credit is due, or we can claim it for ourselves.

Think about it this way: if you were to go into the lobby of a law firm and claim to be a lawyer and give out faulty, free advice, do you think the lawyers would be happy about it?

As for Harry Potter, I think people have just become extremely lazy and ignorant. You should know when fiction is fiction and be able to use your own discernment when reading. Shoot, Harry Potter has better morals than what most of these people shooting it down let their kids watch on tv.

Personally, the only thing that creeps me out is ouija boards, and I like Harry Potter, but to answer your question about some Christians:
Deuteronomy 18:10
“For example, never sacrifice your son or daughter as a burnt offering. And do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft”

We know that a third of heavens angels and Lucufer were cast down to earth for pride and overthrow God’s Kingdom. Those fallen angels are now called demons they work to destroy the created(mankind) with crafty tactics/influence , so tell me why should we listen to worldly things instead of God’s Word?

My mom raised my sister and I Catholic and she is very pious herself. I have always loved the Harry Potter books since they first came out. I read the first one when I was about 8. My mom never said anything about them. But as it became more and more popular she forbid my younger brothers to read them because she said the Church opposes them and that they mimic real life rituals of cult practices. Apparently it was all “revealed” on a tv special. Even though the book is about witches and wizards, one of the main themes of the book was good vs evil. Harry, representing good was always fighting evil. This made sense to me regardless of the use of magic and spells because honestly magic just isn’t real. The bible teaches not to worship any other God and engaging in witchcraft or reading about it means you worship the devil. For silly reasons like this I don’t even go to church any more because the rules are so distorted. I just follow the morals and live a good, clean life. If I want to read about unicorns and flying cars and dragons I will!

I am just piecing this together from what shadling and jholler said, but I guess that magic is considered an affront to god in the same way that the Tower of Babel was. People can’t be TOO great, or else they’re challenging God, even though God is omnipotent and can never be really challenged, and I assume that he knows this better than anyone.

But, if God really left all of his vengeful and violent ways behind in the old testament, which seems to be the explanation as to why the “magic” got dropped from the New Testament (Lazarus was probably just comatose), then why fear retribution for reading about magic? Better question: why am I inexplicably drawn to every question about God on Fluther?

maybe it’s the sign i’ve been waiting for.

maybe because you like to argue religion…

@madcapper – most Christians I have know are mixed in their beliefs but primarily moderate, not extremist. I would venture to guess that most Christians overall are also the same way.

The only thing I have heard is that stories about magic have the potential to lead people towards the occultist fascinations like psychics and ouija boards. Since the Occult has such a negative connotation like Hell, it is seen as a bad thing that detracts one’s focus from God and God’s word.

@tonedef – maybe it is because you know there is a better answer out there than the ones you have found so far

For the people who say that Harry Potter is forbidden reading material because God is against the practice of witchcraft or casting of spells:

Is there not a difference between reading about these things in an entertaining story, and actually doing them? I can understand if casting a spell is against your religion. That’s cool. But what you’re doing here is reading, not spellcasting.

If you are not supposed to read about people doing things that God is against, it would seem like the Bible is the first book that should go.

Ohh I thought Harry Potter was a book that taught me magic… shit now I have to decide on a new series to read!

Wait, you guys weren’t able to repeat the same spells that Harry used?
Hmmm, they work for me…

@ fireside maybe I need to read it and not just watch the movies?

@Fireside, which one is your favorite?

accio firebolt

i must be a squib, my firebolt never showed.

oh, i’ve got a few here.
this one must be yours, it’s got paint splattered all over it.
guess I’m just too good

if it is, I’m no better than Neville. one day the magic will come…now, if only i could find that damn toad.

waterus dela wineous!

I suggested earlier that religious fanatics oppose books like Harry Potter because they take the contents too seriously.

But there is another possibility, and it is contained in the wording of the question. If people see magic as “made up” then the arbitrary nature of the depiction of the supernatural can be taken as a type of satire that calls into question any interpretation of the supernatural, including organized religion. I am sure this was not Rowling’s intent, but it is out there nonetheless.

And of course the use of humor in the Potter books is absolute anathema to fundamentalists. By its very nature humor presents two different perspectives of a situation and being able to see things from more than one point of view is just not in the skill set of true believers.

surprisingly few people know (which I do, even though I haven’t even read the Harry Potter books) that JRW identifies herself as a christian. she just doesn’t like to talk about it a lot publicly or preach about it in the books.

as for the actual question, one anthropologist conjectured that magic evolved from religion, whereas older anthropologists tended to think that magic evolved into religion. (I think that some of both happens.) according to his or her view, magicians take bits of religions (reciting something from the Book of Psalms to cure a sore, or whatever) and use them for their own purposes which undermines religious authority. if you go far enough with that, you start to pick and choose and de-construct religion entirely.

also, the matter of feeling disrespected. example: a Buddhist priest once said to me online that (paraphrase) Tibetan Buddhist wisdom deities aren’t the same as “samsaric deities”. people who sincerely believe in deities don’t like outsider dillettantes (sp.?) using them as mental action figures in psychodramas, I guess. in my case, I feel pretty pissed off, because I felt that I desperately needed one of those deities to help me.

that does not explain why some denominations feel more strongly about that than others.

@augustian, if you believe that the Bible contains truths and think of the occult as a lie, you would not want the other person to believe in lies. you want truth to win out.

same way I get pissed when scientific misinformation gets spread around.

Simple. There is a difference between magic and miracles. Dont question God.

-Sellz

I’ll question him all I like, thank you very much.

always question…

iss cool. It’s your right ma ma..

-Sellz

well put and thanx

Magic is sometimes things we don’t understand and when we see something we don’t understand we consider it as maigic or as an miricle.

Goliath was a giant. Moses parted the Red Sea with God’s help, and Jesus walked on water. No magic. Watcha talkin about?

Oh boy…

Illusion is not magic, its just trick. however, the use of wiji( however its spelled) boards is getting in touch with the dead( the demons if you would say). Things like this like reading the stars etc. My suggestion is to read the book of Enoch in which it talks a lot about magic.

Most Christians are not aware of this, but Christianity (and the religions that are similar to it, such as Judaism and the Muslim faith) have a rich tradition of mysticism and magic. The people believed in it and what it could do.

Because people are often corrupted by power (note politicians and the like), people were afraid of what unsavory people might do with magic. It was all well and good in the hands of good people, like King Solomon, but what about the nasty neighbor down the street, or the woman you just broke up with? What if they had access to spells? It became easier to ban the use of magic for everyone than to try and regulate it, and present it as being completely evil. If you notice, the same thing happens today with guns and other dangerous things. They are banned or limited.