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Hello IINers,
Hope you're doing okay. I go first!
So my friend who went to a Pentecostal Church told me that the Pastor have told the church that being a fan of Manchester United was sinful and that they should refrain from supporting the club because Manu Utd are "The Red Devils".
[for those who do not watch football, soccer for USA people, Man Utd is also called Red Devil]
I think that The Rapture is the stupidest religious belief that I’ve ever heard. That one day only true believers will be whisked to heaven in an instant, right out of their clothes, but non believers will be left behind to suffer the worst end imaginable.
I went to a Mormon church a lot with my Mormon friend when I was a teen because they had a lot of activities for teens.
It was actually a lot of fun but my goodness...I couldn't get on board with the belief system.
I too believe that magic, where it is real, is produced by or associated with forces that are against God, unless it is actually a work of the Spirit of God, in the name of Christ. But then, so are a lot of things that aren't expressly 'magical'. I think I'm right in saying that practising Catholics and Protestants generally believe this - Clunk...?
Fictional magic is however a bit of a grey area for Christians of my ilk. Firstly, it's not real. Plus, you can't stop people from liking what they like. I wouldn't recommend that someone get hard into it. I think that most kinds of addiction or obsession that completely take over people's affections, are usually not from God - even when on the surface, they can appear to be about religious things, sometimes. But Harry Potter and Co. do have at least one or two positive things about them.
Yes, "magic" is the work of the Devil, and most Christians believe that.
Fictional magic is a very hard to answer question, though. There's a whole argument about how books and code are containers and whether or not a portrayal of something evil makes it so that the container can be said to contain evil, and if it can be said to contain evil, then the container itself is evil until the evil is removed from it. But, of course, that all goes back to the question: "Is a portrayal of evil evil?" People will answer that question in many different ways.
Is magic in videogames such a bad portrayal? I mean you cant shoot fireballs in real life. What's the difference to using a sword vs using spells? Both can be used in evil ways, though is magic inherently evil since it's not an actual occurance, rather a more fantastical element of a genre now a days.
Heck is my little pony satanic? They use magic. But for friendship and stuff.
'you cant shoot fireballs in real life'
gimme a compressor a siphon gun & a bucketa diesel fuel and ill prove you wrong
The question of, "Is a portrayal of evil evil" has many, many answers. I honestly don't quite know. For example, a picture of a penis is evil, does that make it that a medical diagram of a penis is? I'm not quite sure. Images of the Crucifixion aren't evil, but does that mean that images of any crucifixion aren't evil? I'm not quite sure. It's really a very strange question.
The portrayal of a penis is evil?
Are we talking pornagraphy or in general?
I was under the assumption of theres no real inherently evil image out there. Unless it's a picture of a legitimately evil action such as the manchurian massacre pictures (dont look up unless you wanna vomit in disgust)
Perhaps that's just my libertarian worldview. If its not real it's not evil. Talking about evil actions arent evil until they are acted upon. Impure thoughts are not evil until acted upon.
God is aware you are having thoughts but the virtuous thing is to not act on them so God knows that you are trying to be a good person. Since thoughts can be outside of our control (or the devil's influence), but actions are completely within our control.
That's how I rationalize the argument of what is good vs evil. If people can use actual magic in real life then we can discuss the morality of magic, since we dont have magic it's more like a fantasy rather than an action.
Pornography, of course. Like I was saying, though, does that mean that portrayals of penises are immoral? I doubt it, but what about some portrayals that toe the line?
You see, you're automatically contradicting yourself here. If you apply relativism to the morality of depictions, the only conclusion you can obtain is that no images are immoral in any way, shape, or form, as long as they are used in a moral fashion. However, that is a very unchristian and certainly un-Thomistic conclusion. For example, pornography is immoral no matter what it is being used for; this is a very basic Christian teaching, but that begs the question: If pornography is immoral no matter what it is used for, what about things like images of sex organs, since, ultimately, what is pornography but showing how sex organs function?
The thing is, we do have magic. Though it's not as powerful as fantasy magic, there is "magic". The existence of magic, and magic being inherently evil, makes people question the morality of depicting magic in any way, shape, or form, no matter how powerful. Of course, then we have things like monks writing down pagan practices as historical records. Are those historical records made immoral for containing paganism? Clearly not, since they were written by monks, but the morality of depictions of evil really is a question with a very hard to reach conclusion.
Jehovah witnesses believe magic actually exists and it's the workings of the devil.
That means if they play a videogame and it includes mages as a playable class they will automatically assume the mage is evil.
Dont think I'm being serious? You can find jehovah witnesses bible tv episodes covering this very topic.