Posted on 11/16/2001 1:23:06 PM PST by Khepera
Before Harry was born, a wizard “…went… bad. About as bad as you can go. Worse. Worse than worse.” He terrorized the wizard-ing world with a deadly curse.
Harry became famous as the boy who lived when he survived that deadly curse. Voldemort murdered Harry’s dad, then threw the curse at Harry, but Harry’s mom took the curse on herself to save him. Voldermort hit Harry with a curse again. That’s how he got his lightningbolt scar. But the curse was broken. Hagrid calls this “a great myst’ry”.
Lily Potter loved her sone so much that she gave her life. She jumped in front of the curse to save him. At the end of the story, the evil one couldn’t even touch harry! As Dumbledore said, “to have been loved so deaply”, gave Harry protection forever.
What a great story! It’s set in a fantasy world. There’s another great story. It REALLY HAPPENED in our world……
Before the world began an angle went bad About as bad as you can go. Worse. Worse than worse.” He terrorized the world with a deadly curse. God cast him out of heaven, like lightning see? He tricked people into disobeying God and hit ‘em with a deadly curse. People lived in fear of death until the curse was broken.
Jesus broke the curse. He took it on himself when he died on the cross. When Jesus came back alive that proved the curse was broken.
God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him will not die but have eternal life. (John 3;16). Believe in Jesus. He is the real elixer of life.
Then you can be the boy (or Girl) who lived.
Jesus came to distroy the works of the devil (that angel that went bad). He prayed he would “be protected from the evil one.” In our world, all witchcraft is like the Dark arts at Hogworts. So don’t dabble! Practice Defense against the dark arts. Get all your supernatural powers from God.
Maybe it's hair-splitting, Hugh, but there is a distinction to be noted between Luke's "spiritual battle" and Harry's "world of witchcraft." The Jedi's Force is represented as a force for the Good in the eternal struggle against Evil. This Good is a universal moral norm applying to all human beings, even those who resist or repudiate it out of some motive of personal gain.
Witchcraft, on the other hand, is only about personal gain. Its intrinsic selfishness is the antithesis of the universal. Its adherents are a tiny group of "superior" individuals supposedly in possession of an esoteric "hidden knowledge" that is not the common property of mankind. It uses the language of "we" (i.e., the "elect" human beings who are "in the know") against "them" (i.e., the squalid, dumb jerks who aren't "in the know"). The purpose of the "hidden knowledge" of witchcraft is to transform nature and to manipulate and exploit others for personal benefit. It is a fundamentally immoral project.
So yes, it's true both Luke and Harry are engaged in "flights of fancy." But their respective flights are NOT qualitatively the same, either in motive or consequences.
So it just seems to me that the only real purpose the Harry Potter books serve is the mainstreaming of anti-nature (and anti-life) propaganda among our children. Plus the one Potter book I did read -- Sorcerer's Stone -- was so exacrably written that the term "literature" did not even seem to apply to it. (Though the word "trash" did come to mind.)
All things considered, I find this latest "pop cult" just a tad disturbing. best wishes, Hugh -- bb.
The Jedi's ForceNo, there was no Jedi's force. There was one force, which could be used for good or evil, but was of itself neither.
Well you're a better Star Wars buff than I am, Hugh. Thank you for explaining the Force to me. Having interpreted Star Wars according to the primary symbols of Western civilization, I missed the "magical" implications of the Force.
On your reading, the Force is absolutely unaccountable power in the hands of the one who can master it and subject it to his will. Yet I need hardly point out that unaccountable power is disastrous to prospects for a just human social order as a rule, and "a clear and present danger" to the sanctity and dignity of the human person. History has made this point, repeatedly.
But this point seems to be lost in both Harry Potter and (on your interpretation) Star Wars. Why is it that the fabricators of pop culture seem to want to cultivate ignorance about such things? (And we complain about the "sheeple" problem....)
Maybe our kids would be better off reading history. JMHO. Thanks for writing, Hugh. It's been a pleasure.... best, bb.
YES I DO! CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THE MOVIE!!! :)
Yeah, and you missed the last goat sacrifice, so I suggest you hurry. One more demerit and you might actually get transferred to the "good" list. ;-)
I don't disagree with these statements, JmyBryan. My objection was to any supposed equivalency of fantasy and illusion. I meant to suggest that these two varieties of imaginative experience are not the same thing. As an imaginative exercise, the former is grounded in the structures of actual being; the latter is an attempt to evade or circumvent those structures.
From what I can see, it appears a scientific inquiry predicated on the latter is an exercise in futility. In other words, if the purpose of science and other modes of human inquiry is to investigate and articulate the nature and laws of what is Real, then the imaginative play of fantasy may be a useful "tool." But to indulge in flights of illusion is to refute one's own purpose.
In other words, a fantasy may be "real," in the same way a myth can be a "true myth." But an illusion is, by definition, necessarily false. I admit the point may be a tad abstruse. And probably practically no one cares about it anyway. Oh, well.... Perhaps I've just been wandering too long in the fields of metaphysics and ontology. :^)
Thank you for writing, JmyBryan. I don't think we "disagree" as much as it might appear, on the surface. best, bb.
Well, you learn something new every day. I never knew Hillary Clinton was Jewish. I have long suspected she is a Male (post-op).
The first occurance of anything in the Bible is usually a significant representation of a theme. Satan's first lie was when he contradicted what God had told Adam and Eve in Gen 2:16-17 --
And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Then later in chapter 3:
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? {Yea...: Heb. Yea, because, etc.} And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which [is] in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
Here, friend, is direct testimony from the words of Jesus (John 8:42ff):
Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar , and the father of it.
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I sincerely hope this helps you.
Russ
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