Harry Potter religion question.

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Has anyone here seen this:
Harry Potter: Politically Correct Paganism by (Jan Markell, Wendell Amstutz, Bill Schnoebelen)

I am curious to hear how people can tie the Harry Potter mythos with any specific pagan beliefs.

Any input?

Were you trying to post a link? If so, you might need to fix it.

If you weren't trying to post a link, please consider it so other people can see the article in question. Not getting on to you or anything, just friendly advice.

no, actually I was not trying to post a link. I don't have a link. I have only caught people refering to that video, but I want to know more information.

BTW, Shin Megami Tensei is the BOMB!! !!

Why thank you. I've played a little bit of Devil Survivor and Persona 4, they're both very interesting.

Anyways, I can give you my personal opinion on Harry Potter and it's implications on a religious standpoint. Personally, the right-wing nuts that keep on bleating "OMG these books promote witchcraft, kill it with fire!" are just that - right wing nutjobs. If anything JK Rowling takes a stab against what we consider witchcraft in the plot of the story. Most of the things that are considered witchcraft - you know, evil stuff like raising the dead, killing people etc. - are collectively known in the books as the Dark Arts, and used by every evil character in the book. Meanwhile, the protagonists are strictly against the Dark Arts. The way I see it, the kind of magic Harry Potter and co. practice is somewhat benign, because any spell that could cause permanent harm to a person is usually classified as a Dark Art. The way I see it, Harry's brand of magic is not much different then the miracles performed by Jesus and other prophets - the only reason it's looked down upon by the religious community is because it is referred to as magic, but from the standpoint of good vs. evil, the only real witchcraft in the Harry Potter books are the Dark Arts performed by Voldemort and co.

My personal opinion, at least. Hope it contributes somewhat to the discussion.

I read through a PDF with the same title, I'm not sure if it's exactly what you read. Basically it boils down to children read the books and want to become wizards and witches afterward which is bad......somehow. The author also vaguely associates the rise in neopaganism with the success of the series. What you need to understand is no "pagan" past or present has ever refered to themselves as such as pagan is essentially a blanket term used by adherents of Abramaic religions for everyone who isn't in theirs. The Harry Potter universe has no real roots in any single pagan religion, though perhaps a bit from each as well as other folklore.

Because Harry Potter is a better read than the Bible or whatever the Christian fiction writers are peddling at the moment so they need to scare people away from it. Also magic in general is associated with paganism.. though almost every religion is full of magic, they just label it miracles or acts of god or whatever.

What many religious people forget:

- God gave you/us free will.
- The Bible is a book of values, not of miracles, they take it to literally and don't see life's lessons hidden in the context.