Replies

Magic is violation of physical laws without the will of God. And what doesn't come from God, informed reason, or physical laws MUST come from Satan.

When I was a new Latter-day Saint many years back I had to learn that lesson in a rather painful way. My best friend (also LDS) had happened upon some silly fortune-telling trick of using one's wedding ring and a chain to predict how many children one would have, and birth order (boy-girl-girl et cetera.) We found it uncanny, as it seemed to be accurate in reporting "the ones on the ground" and so we enjoyed playing with it, and showed it to others.

It predicted that I would have BOY GIRL BOY. I already had the first two, and since we had fertility problems I took it rather too much to heart. It predicted a whole string of kids for our friend Harlan, whose second marriage had just dissolved very painfully and whom we had heard to say would never have anything to do with women again. (I am glad to say that he and his wife have just had their first child together, and her son-from-a-previous is happy to have a brother!) We showed it to a Catholic friend of ours. Linda was pregnant with her second and her husband was being vile about it, since he hadn't even wanted the first kid, so she took the charm's prediction of several more to come as a sign that he would change his heart. It made her very happy, so she showed it to a Holy Roller friend of hers. (I want to say Assembly of God but this was years ago.)

Well, Linda told them we were Mormons who had taught her this, so now there's someone out there who believes she has convincing evidence that Mormons teach witchcraft. Linda was needlessly upset, and we felt bad that this stranger from another church actually was RIGHT. This charm, if it revealed anything true, must derive its power from the opposition to Jesus Christ, not from Him! And it certainly hadn't been harmless amusement, AND it was indeed against the teachings of our church! We had to repent, and it felt even worse to have to repent for something so darn SILLY. I'm on my guard against any such practices; I believe that the only right source of knowledge are reason informed by faith, and faith informed by reason! Horoscopes, telephone psychics, tea leaves, palm reading, even stock market analysis and doctor's prognoses CANNOT substitute for revelation through prayer, scriptures, and studying the physical world. (As a chemistry student, I believe that the physical world IS a testament of Jesus Christ.) It is belief in something outside God's power and creation that makes a thing evil.

My third child was a girl.