Leading with false ad hominem arguments is always a highly recommended strategy for bringing your opponent around to your point of view.
The Harry Potter books are FANTASY. Magic in them has no religious significance, it plays the same role that made-up science and technology does in Science Fiction.
How do you correlate this unsubstantiated assertion against all the items detailed in post #8 ?
The ignoramuses who claim the Potter books are Satanic tools are afraid that children will actually go out and do real magic after reading these books.
Nothing like a few insults to spice up your argument. Meanwhile, the reality of evil is being denied at a time when it's influence is so very tangible all around us. Check out some information on Fr. Gabriel Amorth and his work as the chief exorcist of Rome before you call people "ignoramuses." You might also want to check out this thread:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/835199/posts
I said:
Amazing how much people who haven't read the books know about them....
You said:
Leading with false ad hominem arguments is always a highly recommended strategy for bringing your opponent around to your point of view.
I respond: My previous post was addressed to the entire group of people reading this thread, which is why I replied to the original poster rather than to someone further down. I did not mean to imply that you personally had not read the books; I was rather drawing attention to the people on this thread who proclaimed that they hadn't read the books yet still attacked them. I apologize that I was so unclear about this that you took it personally. In any case, one should be able make remarks like this without being accused of "ad hominem" argument, since "ad hominem" argument is only bad when it refers to IRRELEVANT characteristics of the proponent of the opposing view, while here the only thing I even know about the person I am referring to is that they have said they haven't read the books, which is relevant.
I said:
The Harry Potter books are FANTASY. Magic in them has no religious significance, it plays the same role that made-up science and technology does in Science Fiction.
You said:
How do you correlate this unsubstantiated assertion against all the items detailed in post #8 ?
I respond: post #8 is so misleading that it deserves a separate, detailed point-by-point response. I won't have time to get to that until later today, but watch for it.
I said:
The ignoramuses who claim the Potter books are Satanic tools are afraid that children will actually go out and do real magic after reading these books.
You said:
Nothing like a few insults to spice up your argument. Meanwhile, the reality of evil is being denied at a time when it's influence is so very tangible all around us. Check out some information on Fr. Gabriel Amorth and his work as the chief exorcist of Rome before you call people "ignoramuses."
I respond: You are failing to appreciate the distinction I made between magic-as-an-impersonal-technology and magic-as-invocation-of-the-agency-of-supernatural-beings. There is no denial of the reality of evil in the Potter books -- the evil characters are very explicitly evil, and the hero of the book is very clearly obliged to reject them and their works. The "ignoramuses" I am referring to are the ones who are IMPORTING to the fantasy world of the books, where magic-as-an-impersonal-technology exists, the ASSUMPTION, which applies to the REAL world, that "magic-as-an-impersonal-technology does not exist and THEREFORE any real 'magic' must involve the immoral invocation-of-the-agency-of-supernatural-beings". That assumption is FALSE in the books.
Notice the extra logical step here. Most of the Potter critics believe the statement "Real 'magic' involves the immoral invocation-of-the-agency-of-supernatural-beings". What they have overlooked is that that statement is not "necessarily true", i.e. not "true in every possible world". Rather, its truth is DEPENDENT on the contingent fact "magic-as-an-impersonal-technology does not exist". This contingent fact does NOT apply in Rowling's literary fantasy world, and so the previous statement is not a justified assumption.