Harry Potter and Religion

Sorry for bumping a topic that was probably going to die, but "witch" was mistranslated in the Buybull! Use the Find function to find "poisoner."

 

I totally agree with your post.

The church should be more worried about keeping their church together and keeping people in faith then bashing a FICTIONAL book. Like you said, children should be able to know GOOD AND EVIL. If the church thinks we children are stupid, brainless mutts running around believing the Sand Man is after us, that's as lame as trying to slap Satan with a copper pot. And burning books is SOOOOOO old timey it's prehistoric; the church should have left that when the came here from Europe.

 

Goddammit, get me a gun! >:O

 

There you go. The church is an idiot in my view personally. However, it does make me wonder...

I only read the books because they are very entertaining. Worshiping it like Star Wars, is just retarted[No Offense]. If you noticed these books are like World War II, just with magic. If you look Voldemort kills Muggles for fun, Hitler killed Jews for fun.

So I think J.K. might've had a somewhat WWII theme to this. It is Fiction and the Church takes it too seriously,

"You'll got to hell, if you read it!"

Screw hell we should be aloud to read whatever the Hell we feel like without the freakin' Church and other religions coming and going

"Um, well Bobby is going to burn in hell with that book, once he's done reading it."

When that Church puts worse stuff in the Bible.

"Read it, and you're Sins will be forotten!"

They are just out to make you feel regretful on something that might not exist. A Father I know read Harry Potter and he said himself the church is too rough. The book isn't that bad. Father Scott talks about it sometimes when he comes in actually. And Again I got two weeks of detention for saying I like the books and reading them in school.

Fortunatly, my teacher the good person she is, got me off the hook.

 

You really are in the wrong school to speak your mind, Chocokitten. =:/ Seems anything you say that is contradicting things is a detention.

 

I am a Christian. I may not be that strong with Christianity, but whatever.

I find it very dumb how some Christan's think that if you read Harry Potter, you'll go to hell.

"Ooh, it's witchcraft! Ooh!"

My friend believes JK Rolling went through the Satanic Bible and that's where she got all of the spells from.

So you're saying that if I get a wand, point it at someone, and shout: "Avada Kadavera!" (or however you spell it) that person will die? NO.

 

I truely feel sorry for you ChocoKitten. That must really suck royal asz. I'd say scrwe it...I would never last a month in a Christian schoo....

Not too long ago, there was a lady who came to another forum I'm on, and tried to get every damn person on the forum to stop reading Harry Potter, read the Bible more, stand against gay rights, and so forth. Lol, we flamed her untill she begged to be banned. I even stated Harry Potter's my religion. *which it is, pretty much*

She said I'm the biggest sinner of all. XDDDD

I'd rather be a big time sinner than not read my HP.

 

any one that thinks harry potter is evil is a ******....no offence to the ******s....its just rediculous to think that someone/some people that Harry Potter is evil....HP is my fave series and ive seen all teh movies, read ALL teh books and played all teh games...i dont run around pointing sticks at people shouting Crucio or Obliviate......hmmmmmmmmm.......... LOL....but seriously i saw a pic that had HP with 666 instead of the scar and the devil bhind him and they both had evil smiles on their faces....WHO SPENDS THAT MUCH TIME DOING STUFF LIKE THAT AGAINST KIDS!?!?!? i mean.....if u wanna think something is evil then complain about homework....not the greatest thing to ever happen to this generation!!!

 

OK I am not a fan of the Church as an establishment myself but surely there was no need to come out and slander them like that by calling them 'idoits'. I'm sorrry but you have no right, how pathetic...


OK I think someone is doing a tad bit of exgerrating here. Please do quote me which part of the Bible this comes from as I would be interested to hear this.


I doubt it. Yes, maybe you got stick for it but I suspect that you are whining and not being truthful on the matter of detentions. Next you'll be telling us that they took the books from you and arranged a cermonial burning of all childrens' literature books from the library at your school.

 

The Church is an organized group as a collective and really instead of saying Church, perhaps the person should have used the term fanatical fundamental zealous idiots because those are the people who are insane and make the claims about Harry Potter being so evil in the first place and take action by forbidding children to read the books or watch the movies, sometimes rather violently. To spread lies such as the author read a Satanic book and copied spells for her books was pretty much calling Rowling a few things. I think fanatics can take being called idiots since they are busy telling everyone else they are going to burn in Hell and God will punish them, and we are the worst sinners.. blah blah.

You do realize that in the south books of Harry Potter have been stolen, yes stolen (thou shalt not steal..roight) and then taken out and burned? Seems to happen with every new Harry Potter book though this new one I haven't heard of anything yet. I'm waiting though. You just never know. Fundies often convince what kind of literary work is in the schools, and a Christian school is not going to have the same books as a public school. Magic is faux pas. Having an imagination seems to be that way too there. If you haven't been to a Christian school, go sometime and see their selections in the library.

Two weeks seems a while to be on detention but I can recall getting detention for some pretty stupid things in regular public school...oh yeah, that was because I didn't do the boring homework. However, I wouldn't just go about calling others liars because they called the Church idiots.

The Bible is chocked full of violence, bigotry and some of the worst traits of humanity. It grants the permission to kill in the name of God, seize women as property, slay men, and even off children that are not their own. That is why the commandment of 'Thou shalt not kill' is in error and it is actually a mistranslation of 'Thou shalt not murder'. Murder implies that if God didn't condone it, you are sinning. The Bible is one of the most violent books around telling about wars galore and then finalizing it all up with a nice Apocalypse view for the future. Harry Potter has nothing on the Bible. Probably no horror book or movie does, simply because people can say a horror movie is fake, but people insist the material in the Bible is authentic.

Also the second line he/she said that you highlighted is semi-true, isn't it? Believe the Bible, believe in God and Jesus and you are saved and gain entrance to the mighty kingdom in the sky. That, however, was an exaggeration.

 

This topic has always interested as it has irked me....

I also have a contradictory understanding of why the more...zealous believers of a certain religion take a book so seriously. No where in the book does it prophesize any sort of 'true' end or savior in RELATION TO REALITY (not directly, interpretation is dependent on the individual).

Taking the Harry Potter books as a sort of religious text makes little sense in many regards. As a simple parallel it would be saying to take every fable and fairy-tale literally- you don't take the characters seriously, but you give each and every moral a thought or two. (IE: King Midas and the Golden Touch)

And really, any person who says that the spells are "real", care to broaden your foreign language? Specifically LATIN, you will see similiarities in the words.

Now a part I DO NOT understand about the relgion bashing of Harry Potter is why OTHER fictional books are not bashed so massively on scale. Some examples would be Lord of the Rings (wizardry, enough said) and any of the Narnia (they have TALKING ANIMALS IN THERE and if you squint, minor pagan references) books, or any of HG Wells Books (albeit they're science fiction, but given how much religion seems to hate the concept of EVOLUTION among other things...) to this PRESENT day. Or did I miss a news memo on this?

Anyway, spontaneously back on topic: I think the reasoning for religion bashing that I somewhat understand is that Harry Potter was a world-wide phenomenon. However, because there were relatively no violent outbreaks of anything given its scale, its rather easy to dismiss as just another symptom of popularity. (Reference to how some zealous parents reacted to things like Pokemon- the non-seizure inducing related- apprehension to it.)

(Sorry if my post doesn't make enough sense, just got back from a trip and I'm not exactly in my right mind....)

 

OK for starters I was talking to ChocoKitten but thanks for stepping in and speaking for him/her.

As I said I am not the biggest fan of the Church in fact I oppose most of their views. Yes, I'll admit it is ridiculous of the Church to say HP is evil. I see nothing in the books that is explictly to do with satanism or any of the other ludicrous claims they have made about it. I also think it's silly how the Church will not even allow modern music or dance in the services and only the Priest is allowed to read from the Gospel. What it all comes down to is oppression and brainwashing. In which part of the Bible does it say 'Only by the lips of the Preist may the sacred Gospel be read?' None, in fact on the contrarary it calls on all to 'Spread the Gospel', not to go around condemning and planting fear into everyone's hearts but spread the good news that each and everyone of us has a place in Heaven. That's why I think the Church is doing the opposite of Christ's mission on Earth. It's just my take on it so don't be offended.

All I was saying is there was no need to stoop to their level by calling them 'idiots'. I thought it was being a little immature that's all. I wasn't defending them. Notice how s/he has also used slander like '******s'.


Yes, I disagree with the burnings and things I just thought that Chocokitten, like the Church, was making a mountain out of a molehill. It is a fictional book so their is no reason why it wouldn't be on shelves even in Christian schools. I went to a Catholic school and yes they did have a copy of each HP book in English and in French, none of them in flames by the way. We also had copies of the Qu'ran in Arabic and English, the Vedas, the Torah any many more. Don't forget that all the books I've listed actually get burnt as well, whether it be by other religions or governments. People die for these books and it makes me angry when people like Chocokitten come along playing 'poor victim' over Harry Potter of all things.


Depending upon which way you look at it and which overall conclusion you come to the Bible can be a very violent book. I'll admit that yes, quite a proportion, in particular the Old Testament (which makes up much more than have of the Bible) consists of lots and lots of montrous acts. But let's not forget that it wasn't just people in the Bible who got upto these things this was a worldwide problem there was not single place on Earth you could have considered to be Utopia. The OT is basically about nations in crisis awaiting the arrival of a Messiah to sort out the mess they were all in. Then, with Jesus came the NT, and fora new aspect on God's Commandments.

When you talk of the Bible's finale I assume you mean Revelation. If you think this was written to scare us then I think you've missed the point that was given to the Christians. It was meant to bring hope and let them no matter what lay ahead in the world that there was no need to fear because God was with them and even though one day all things on Earth would be destroyed (which they will be, apocalpyse or not) that a part of them would live on forever. A happy ending if you asked me. Someone once told me that only sinners feel fear or anger from reading Revelation, I dunno if i believe that.

No, it was not semi-true in my opinion. I think there is a lot more to it than simply reading your Bible. Beliving in God is a big part of it yes, but Chocco didn't say that. S/he made out that all those naive Christains think that by reading your Bible your sins are forgotton when in actual fact Christains know full well that it takes commitment and action to be saved. I was saying that there is no part of the Bible which says you must read it to be saved. That's true, regardless of whatever opinion I may have.


Look I don't want to argue with you, I don't have a problem with what you said I was just annoyed by what Chocco said. S/he is perfectly entitled to his/her opinions but all I thought was that there was no need to so with impudence if s/he wanted his/her own opinion to be respected. That's forum rules, right?

 

I hear what you meant and did point out that yes, she/he should have been more specific in her accusations, because the Church isn't all that 'banned' Harry Potter etc. There are some zealous protestant schools mostly that seem to have the biggest issues but in the end, it depends where you are. It would make sense to me more to target the actual targets instead of just saying "the Church". Also, I did catch the use of '******s' too.

I only interceded because I saw where both of you were right and both of you were also hostile. Calling someone a liar is not a good thing. I've seen some pretty whacked up Christian schools, and others that were not so bad. I see how they brainwashed my cousins to being just plain dumb, just as one example, or reforming friends into something else.

And lastly, I did say that what was said by ChocoKitten was an exaggaration, to read the Bible all sins are removed.

So, no, I have no problems with you either, but I simply wished to come between and stop a flame war pointing out that both of you were rather hostile in your messages and I saw the errors and hoped to make peace out of it, rather than leaving something so nasty. I appreciate you clarifying things to me and others and taking the time to address it.

 

Drop the ****** name calling of this debate, please. Next time it'll be a warning. Name-calling isn't allowed at this forum. People are allowed to have their opinions without being bashed by others.

And do note that the bible was written probably 2000 years ago. What our opinion of society today and what their opinion back then was two different things. It was written, plain and simple: By a bunch of guys, women couldn't write back then, and you either were taught by a tutor or in a monestary. That's very limited teaching.


People have different POV's about religion, life and etc. My dad prays over the Harry Potter movie, but treats my mom like dirt. My mom's fine with it and is pretty nice. So it depends on the person and their POV.

 

It's a fantasy novel, not a public protest against religion... seriously, there is no reason to fight about this kind of thing. It's like the da vinci code, it says clearly that it is a fiction, so why do people make such a big deal about it?

 

I am not one of these people, but I will try to rationalize it for you as best I can.

People make a big deal about it because they MAY believe it is "for the greater good", however this does not necessarily mean that they read the disclaimer print.

And forgive me for stating this if it falls under the catagory of name-calling, but people who REFUSE to acknowledge that it is a work of fiction are acting rather ignorant- especially if proof of this disclaimer is repetitively brought to their attention.

But yes, some people have literally gone on crusades in a way over something like this. It's sometimes amazing how much power a work of fiction could have over people...

 

OK cool.

It just seems with CK with those countless going-ons that the Catholic Church will stop at nothing to destroy him/her. And in addition to this s/he will stop at nothing to continue to bad-mouth them.

Yeah, agreed. This whole thing is better off left alone.