Harry Potter?.......( Is it bad?)

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Xanthippe_Voorhees said:
What you seem to be lacking is the understanding of what was once oral tradition storytelling (many became Grimm’s fairy tales) and other methods pre-Harry Potter. T
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I am lacking far more than that but it’s very generous of you to point out your concern.

I understand the pleasure of sitting around an open fire in a cottage with little children at your knee enthralled by the fictional adventures of make believe people. I’ve experienced it, as a child and as an adult telling such stories. What was achieved by this? What if those stories had been biblical instead.

Do we want children growing to adulthood and rejecting the Bible because, actually, it sounds a lot like those fairy tales grandma used to tell us. Then when they seek the rich life they thought existed, how did that happen, and they don’t find it they look for materialistic succour, alcohol, drugs etc.

We don’t know what effects we cause in others exactly but I can see civilisation eroding at a rate of knots. That tells me we’re doing something wrong and when I watch tv or read the papers I can see quite a bit we’re doing wrong.

God asks us to raise ourselves from the base. We need to take our religion seriously. We need to control our diets and that of our children.
 
The books themselves aren’t harmful or wrong. You seem to be super into it, which could distract from greater things, but if that’s kept in check, you’ll be fine.
 
ProdglArchitect said:
Then I take it you have issues with LOTR as well? After all, the lesser number of wizards doesn’t change the fact that they practice magic.
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To be fair, the wizards/Istari in LotR aren’t practicing actual magic in the sense we understand it. They’re actually angels effecting their angelic powers.
 
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Wesrock said:
To be fair, the wizards/Istari in LotR aren’t practicing actual magic in the sense we understand it. They’re actually angels effecting their angelic powers.
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Yes, but to a casual observer who’s unfamiliar with the Silmarillion / deeper LOTR lore, it’s magic just like any other magic system.
 
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Lee1 said:
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Xanthippe_Voorhees:
What you seem to be lacking is the understanding of what was once oral tradition storytelling (many became Grimm’s fairy tales) and other methods pre-Harry Potter. T
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I am lacking far more than that but it’s very generous of you to point out your concern.

I understand the pleasure of sitting around an open fire in a cottage with little children at your knee enthralled by the fictional adventures of make believe people. I’ve experienced it, as a child and as an adult telling such stories. What was achieved by this? What if those stories had been biblical instead.

Do we want children growing to adulthood and rejecting the Bible because, actually, it sounds a lot like those fairy tales grandma used to tell us. Then when they seek the rich life they thought existed, how did that happen, and they don’t find it they look for materialistic succour, alcohol, drugs etc.

We don’t know what effects we cause in others exactly but I can see civilisation eroding at a rate of knots. That tells me we’re doing something wrong and when I watch tv or read the papers I can see quite a bit we’re doing wrong.

God asks us to raise ourselves from the base. We need to take our religion seriously. We need to control our diets and that of our children.
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Please, if you think that our society is somehow special go read a history book.
 
Lee1 said:
I don’t understand your statement.
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We hear more bad out of our society than ever before because of instant communications, but if you actually dig down and examine the kind of things the average 1800 person did/believed or the 1600 or the 1300 or 600, etc, even in a predominantly Catholic place, it’s far from a cozy, quaint picture of bestowed religious gems. In fact, until the printing press oral tradition was often rather unreliable and there are many stories about Jesus propagated before then that have simply been forgotten or were excluded by the authors of the Bible. In addition, storytelling was about survival.

In that respect, the story of Harry Potter is a decent allegory of how to survive in our modern world with the pressing darkness and unknown enemy.

Nevermind that if you read about the childhoods of many saints they were given healthy doses of lore and legend and children’s games and nursery. Many of the saints we do know about their childhood and many loved fantasy. In general, until modern time children were thought to be a bit of a different species.
 
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So rising crime stats are a myth? Every year we are told that the crime isn’t rising, people are just reporting it more, really?

You and I are both Catholics so we must agree on a great deal.

Society needs to progress not regress. The things that are wrong with it are not helped by the propagation of unhealthy ideas in the media, books or otherwise. That’s my opinion.
 
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I was just having this conversation with my wife because we are having our son read these books. They’re great and fun. I’d have to dig up an article I was reading but it mentioned that when Ratzinger was a cardinal he gave his opinion of these books as being that we should not read them. When he became pope though he gave no comment on them. Keep in mind, this is a man’s opinion and not official church doctrine. There has been much discussion on these books and all in all, it’s all fictional work. None of the spells in there are from actual necromancy practices and the ingredients for potions are all fake items that can in no way be found, since they’re not real. Also, the plot of the story is basically good vs evil.

Here’s an article from Our Sunday Visitor:

https://www.osv.com/OSVNewsweekly/B.../ArticleID/1571/Can-Catholics-read-Harry.aspx

and another from The Catholic Exchange:

Is Harry Potter for Catholics?

I don’t usually try to enter public discussions of this kind, but in the interest of fairness, I feel I must write about the matter of Cardinal Ratzinger’s alleged condemnation of the Harry Potter books, which was being circulated widely via the Internet right before the recent release of the...
catholicexchange.com catholicexchange.com

I hope this helps!

God Bless
 
Lee1 said:
So rising crime stats are a myth? Every year we are told that the crime isn’t rising, people are just reporting it more, really?

You and I are both Catholics so we must agree on a great deal.

Society needs to progress not regress. The things that are wrong with are not helped by the propagation of unhealthy ideas in the media, books or otherwise. That’s my opinion.
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Actually, crime rates are falling. That’s not a myth at all. Some neighborhoods on a micro level are getting worse, but not as a whole.

www.pewresearch.org

What the data says about crime in the U.S.

Federal statistics show dramatic declines in U.S. violent and property crime rates since the early 1990s.
www.pewresearch.org www.pewresearch.org

When you talk of “society” I feel like your scope of reference is a very “leave it to Beaver” Fictionalized white 1960 to today and not a historical perspective.
 
Why would I be talking about the past, I’m concerned with our future.

I should say that I’m in the UK and so our history differs. I also don’t understand some references you make, and our crime rates are rising, especially violent and sex crime.

Progress, the future not the past.

Our civilisation is creeping towards chaos and it’s due to peoples minds, what they think and what they think is heavily influenced by what they digest.
 
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MHLucille said:
I KNOW IT IS FICTION AND FAKE but my christian school is not super happy about it… is it wrong to LOVE Harry Potter
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I wouldn’t go so far as to say you’re in big trouble for liking Harry Potter, but on the other hand, HP is certainly not Christian, and many Christians have raised concerns. Personally I agree with them: HP isn’t quite as innocent as some people think it is. Anyway, I won’t try to argue the point because many others have already done so and their stuff is widely available on the web. I’m posting some links below. Not saying that any of these pages contains the definitive truth; but you can read up on this stuff if you want to know more about the reasons why some people are a little concerned about HP’s popularity.

Conservative Truth: More Proof that Harry Potter Harms Kids

CBN.com: What’s the harm in Harry Potter?

Cracked.com: Top 6 reasons Harry Potter isn’t for kids

ChristianAnswers: Is the “Harry Potter…” series truly harmless?

WikiPedia: Religious debates over the Harry Potter series

P.S. I think the ChristianAnswers page is the best to start with.
 
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The UK is a tiny geographic and it does appear that the change of laws is directly attributed to your rising crime rates. Worldwide rates are falling.

www.bbc.com

Crime figures: Is violence rising?

Crime statistics are regularly disputed so here's what the numbers mean.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com

Perception of crime is up.

The data is a huge mess that likely is an inaccurate reflection of what’s going on. The fact that it’s being reported as a huge uptick is really, really incorrect.
 
Lou2U said:
Harry Potter has masses of Christian themes and imagery, especially the last book.
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It’s not that simple, Lou2U. It has plenty of Christian imagery, yes, but that doesn’t make it Christian at heart. In fact, it is worrying, possibly even distasteful, that Christian imagery gets adopted in a story that isn’t very Christian. As I wrote above, there’s no point in me trying to summarize the reasons why HP isn’t Christian, because plenty of that stuff is available on the web. If you want to know, read some of the articles I linked above, or do some searching for yourself.
 
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The UK actually has a population of around 65 million, I think the US has around 350 million, the UK may be geographically small but it’s not insignificant. You shouldn’t base your ideas about crime rates in Britain on an article from one news source which may be biased for all you know. Such things happen.

I think you’ve veered off topic now.
 
Lee1 said:
It appeals because it’s scary and sinister and makes light of evil mischief.
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Oh, no, it does NOT make light of evil mischief. Evil is to be fought and defeated, even when it means risking your life.

Sounds rather Christian, actually.
 
After reading Harry Potter do you think children beg their parents to buy them a bible or a wand?
 
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