Is Harry Potter against/anti religion?

dirtychinchilla · 23 Dec 2011 at 12:45

TheMightyTen said:
Unfortunately I do know people who believe that witchcraft is real and claim to be practising witches. They were friends once

I met a shaman the other day...unfortunately he was too drunk to remember that he'd ever been a shaman!

dirtychinchilla · 23 Dec 2011 at 12:45

Castiel said:
Only in your opinion...many people take great comfort and strength in their religions and beliefs...who are you (or I) to tell them their belief has no place in the world.

Live and let live......

Perhaps, for example, gay people and those who have HIV, might wish to live instead of religion.

Hatter The Mad · 23 Dec 2011 at 12:46

Castiel said:
Live and let live......

Your argument would stand up if religion wasn't the source of most evil in the world, and in many respects cause people to stop 'living' and death (and if one doesn't subscribe to murder as part of their own personal interpretation of a fairytale, they are at the least an enabler of those who do).

In the most part, religions and religious people don't by their very nature 'live and let live'. It is 'live my way', or I'll either force change upon you or abuse you in some way for not changing.

After centuries of oppression, murder and abuse (which hasn't ended in its entirety - ie the Catholic church), the fact the churches and religions demand 'live and let live' is laughable. Like all bad things in this world, it needs to be fully eradicated.

ringo747 · 23 Dec 2011 at 12:47

mglover070588 said:
Why?

Religion has no place in the 21st century.

Because your post is the 2nd most retarded post! Everyone in the world who follows some sort of religion should give it up because some guy in the UK says so? What would you suggest as an alternative? Are people just meant to leave whatever their faith is just because 'it's the 21st century now'.

dirtychinchilla · 23 Dec 2011 at 12:48

ringo747 said:
Because your post is the 2nd most retarded post! Everyone in the world who follows some sort of religion should give it up because some guy in the UK says so? What would you suggest as an alternative? Are people just meant to leave whatever their faith is just because 'it's the 21st century now'.

I follow no religion, what do you make of that?

Edrof · 23 Dec 2011 at 12:49

The people who complain that works like HP are 'pagan' and anti-Christian are often the same who have no idea that many Christian events, celebrations and rituals have 'pagan' origins and influences.

I wonder if the OP's lady friend knows that putting the glittery baubles on her Christmas tree is rooted in what she'd likely term paganism. In fact, I bet a huge amount of our yuletide traditions (holly, mistletoe, feasting, decorations and so on) originated as non-Christian practices.

ringo747 · 23 Dec 2011 at 12:49

dirtychinchilla said:
I follow no religion, what do you make of that?

Well then you must be really well aligned to 21st century life. I don't care what you believe or don't believe.

Cosimo · 23 Dec 2011 at 12:49

Glaucus said:
She's an idiot. Plain and simple.

There is nothing more to say.

Castiel · 23 Dec 2011 at 12:49

Hatter The Mad said:
Something doesn't have to exist for one to believe in it.

I didn't suggest they don't.

However Sorcery/Witchcraft are simply terms that have been used over many centuries to refer to all kinds of real things...such as herblore, pagan ritual, early chemistry etc.....

In context of Harry Potter and the definition it dervives from however it is fiction and as such is neither Good or Evil.

In fact pagan ritualism is not Evil or Good either as it is generally about Balance...it was only the spread of Christianity during the Early medieval period that associated Paganism with being inerrently bad.....

As with most things it is entirely about context and intent, not about the actual subject.....religion included.

BennyC · 23 Dec 2011 at 12:49

Entertainer toy shops chose not to stock Harry Potter toys & merchandise for the same reason.

dirtychinchilla · 23 Dec 2011 at 12:50

ringo747 said:
Well then you must be really well aligned to 21st century life. I don't care what you believe or don't believe.

You stated that everyone follows a religion though, your statement was false.

Vonhelmet · 23 Dec 2011 at 12:50

dirtychinchilla said:
Perhaps, for example, gay people and those who have HIV, might wish to live instead of religion.

Firstly, your sentence doesn't parse.

Secondly, the existence of religion doesn't really prevent gay people being gay, and it's not going to cause them to die of HIV. So your logic doesn't parse either.

ringo747 · 23 Dec 2011 at 12:51

dirtychinchilla said:
You stated that everyone follows a religion though, your statement was false.

No I didn't. Try reading this again slowly...

"Everyone in the world who follows some sort of religion..."

The above statement does not include those who don't follow a religion.

Castiel · 23 Dec 2011 at 12:51

Edrof said:
The people who complain that works like HP are 'pagan' and anti-Christian are often the same who have no idea that many Christian events, celebrations and rituals have 'pagan' origins and influences.

I wonder if the OP's lady friend knows that putting the glittery baubles on her Christmas tree is rooted in what she'd likely term paganism. In fact, I bet a huge amount of our yuletide traditions (holly, mistletoe, feasting, decorations and so on) originated as non-Christian practices.

Absolutely right.......

If people actually understood their own religions history, etymolgy and doctrine they wouldn't keep stating such stupid and ill-informed nonsense.

Vonhelmet · 23 Dec 2011 at 12:52

Right... Christian viewpoint...

The Bible does mention sorcery, withcraft, magic, etc, and it's not keen on them. You shall not suffer a witch to live, etc.

However... It's a work of fiction, and a highly moral one at that. So long as kids understand that the magic involved is fictional, then there are plenty of lessons to be learnt there that are far more valuable than any panic about the magic involved.

Glaucus · 23 Dec 2011 at 12:56

Castiel said:
If people actually understood their own religions history, etymolgy and doctrine they wouldn't keep stating such stupid and ill-informed nonsense.

that's asking to much. Most don't even read the bible and discuss it openly.

Castiel · 23 Dec 2011 at 12:57

Hatter The Mad said:
Your argument would stand up if religion wasn't the source of most evil in the world, and in many respects cause people to stop 'living' and death (and if one doesn't subscribe to murder as part of their own personal interpretation of a fairytale, they are at the least an enabler of those who do).

In the most part, religions and religious people don't by their very nature 'live and let live'. It is 'live my way', or I'll either force change upon you or abuse you in some way for not changing.

After centuries of oppression, murder and abuse (which hasn't ended in its entirety - ie the Catholic church), the fact the churches and religions demand 'live and let live' is laughable. Like all bad things in this world, it needs to be fully eradicated.

Religion is not the source of most evil in the world...

People are. How people justify their actions doesn't necessarily make something responsible.

If Religion is responsible for the evil that people do in the name of it and should be removed, then so should politics, philosophy, and any number of other justifications people use to add acceptance to their actions.

Just as much evil is perpetrated in this world despite religion as because of it.

If you accept religions responsibilty for all the evil done in it's name then you must logically accept religions responsibility for all the good done it's name..... you can't have it both ways.

scrlk · 23 Dec 2011 at 12:58

agnes said:
Religion... Get rid of every religion to be honest.

Vonhelmet · 23 Dec 2011 at 13:00

LET'S ALL ARGUE ABOUT RELIGION AGAIN!

We'll get a bunch of mentalists shouting down that all religion should be banned because a vicar once ran over their cat and they still think the crusades were about Christianity. Then if we're lucky we'll get kedge rocking up telling us that God made the earth last wednesday in 45 minutes and used one of those plaster of paris kits to make dinosaur bones to confuse us. And there'll be me and Castiel and a few others sat in the middle sighing to ourselves.

Hatter The Mad · 23 Dec 2011 at 13:01

Castiel said:
People are. How people justify their actions doesn't necessarily make something responsible.

I disagree. While I believe people are capable of anything with or without religion, religion is the process of life-long indoctrination which masks and glosses over true evils, tricking the human psyche into believing it is something some good and not evil. Religion activates, facilitates, enables people to achieve the ills and evils most religions teach and demand of their servants.

Morality is doing what is right regardless of what you are told.

Religion is doing what you are told regardless of what is right.

Vonhelmet said:
And there'll be me and Castiel and a few others sat in the middle sighing to ourselves.

I know you are a nice guy and you probably do not embody the evils of religion as you may have cherry-picked the parts of Christianity which you believe in and suppor (except I would argue the way you are bringing up your children to embrace ignorance (or is it called faith) is a form of psychological child abuse), but you absolutely do enable it.