Somthing wicked this way comes!

[Kokhiri Sojourn]

I'm confused. Do some of you think we should only read novels written by Christians? That would eliminate a majority of what is considered classic literature nowadays. Not that I don't think that we should read books by Christian writers. It is not that at all. There are so many writers with entirely different worldviews, different beliefs on the important aspects of life, than Christians. Yet in some cases we are required to read them for our education. I can see that the books have become a stumbling block in many cases to Christians, and this is why I avoid discussing it. But, since we're on the subject...

To begin with, at first you wouldn't have caught me dead reading a HP book, but my older brother read them, and told me I should. You have no idea how reluctant I was, but once I did, I discovered that the storyline was good, the characters are well developed, and the plot line keeps you guessing. The truth is, in my opinion, Rowling is a good writer. Yes, the characters are learning to become wizards and witches, but at the heart, that is a setting from what I've read. The story is that of good vs. evil, as has been stated previously. Anime is loaded with magic, or super powers, things along these lines. I've had to read Darwin, Marx, a number of people under the influence of drugs, Voltaire, numbers of writers with heinous views on life. I don't believe them by any means. For me the question is this- where do you draw the line between fiction and reality? I have placed HP clearly on the fiction side (for me personally). If one cannot separate the two, please don't read the books. If you can, read critically. That's it for me. Again, I'm just stating my opinion on the issue, or how I can justify reading things that oppose my worldview.

[Quiet Hood]

Harry Potter's allright. It's good movie. Can't wait to see it.

[Kisa]

I'm confused. Do some of you think we should only read novels written by Christians? That would eliminate a majority of what is considered classic literature nowadays. Not that I don't think that we should read books by Christian writers. It is not that at all. There are so many writers with entirely different worldviews, different beliefs on the important aspects of life, than Christians. Yet in some cases we are required to read them for our education. I can see that the books have become a stumbling block in many cases to Christians, and this is why I avoid discussing it. But, since we're on the subject...

To begin with, at first you wouldn't have caught me dead reading a HP book, but my older brother read them, and told me I should. You have no idea how reluctant I was, but once I did, I discovered that the storyline was good, the characters are well developed, and the plot line keeps you guessing. The truth is, in my opinion, Rowling is a good writer. Yes, the characters are learning to become wizards and witches, but at the heart, that is a setting from what I've read. The story is that of good vs. evil, as has been stated previously. Anime is loaded with magic, or super powers, things along these lines. I've had to read Darwin, Marx, a number of people under the influence of drugs, Voltaire, numbers of writers with heinous views on life. I don't believe them by any means. For me the question is this- where do you draw the line between fiction and reality? I have placed HP clearly on the fiction side (for me personally). If one cannot separate the two, please don't read the books. If you can, read critically. That's it for me. Again, I'm just stating my opinion on the issue, or how I can justify reading things that oppose my worldview.

I agree, we should not just read Christian books or totally ignore them either, I also know anime and manga and all is filled with stuff like magic and all I was just a bit uneasy with the fact that it is presented in such a realistic light. I mean, in anime and all it is clearly fake and fantasy ( I know HP is too) but it is different, especially to little kids, when it is seen done by real people. I mean, we can tell the difference but kids can't all the time. They will see this and think it is real. Do you know what the highest percentage of teen girls take part in? Witchcraft. It has become one of the most popular hobbies for them. I know they aren't portrayed as evil in HP but wether good or bad witches and wizards, they still get they power from Satan . . . I just was concerned when these came out and all. I have heard that the books and movie are good though, I wouldn't see them because I don't want to really support that, but thats good that Rowling has done a good job. I know it is fiction and all but some people can't realize that. . . Man, got carried away . . . sorry to all you HP fans, just this is my opinion, I wouldn't reccommend it to people, especially easily influenced kids. (PG very reccommended!) -_-

[Bobtheduck]

BUT, hard-core fans all know that Rowling was a student at a school of witchcraft. An actual school (yes they do exhist, mostly "Wiccan" but there are some "black magic" out there too.) And so that's when one thinks...Maybe it's not just Fantasy?[/color]

Volt, you are so full of it. She never went to a "witchcraft school" and was not of the wiccan church or satanism or any of that crap. It's all a lie. She may not be a Christian by biblical terms, but she's at least a fairwheather "christian" and has never been wiccan or anything like that.

Many of the "facts" christians spread about Rowlling came from a parody site called the "Onion". The rest of the things said are just people who believe ANY sort of magic in the stories is wrong. And, for those people, I can't argue about facts because it's pretty blatant that they use "magic" in the stories, but the question is more that of personal convictions by that point and not fact or fiction about what's being written or the personal life of the person which are rumor ridden and mostly untrue.

[Lightbringer]

While its easy to see how people can get frustrated with what they want to say, and then other people disagree. And really neither of you can possibly know exactly what’s happened in someone else’s life.

That doesn’t mean that you should argue about it. So let’s just say this. Tone down your words please so that this thread can stay up and people can discuss it. 'Cause if it degrades further it wont be up much longer.


Lightbringer // Aaron

[MasterDias]

*sighs*
Contraversial topics like this always turn into debates no matter how hard you try to prevent it.

I can understand why some Christians would be uneasy about something like Harry Potter. Yes, it has "witchcraft and wizardry" in it. However, the "witchcraft and wizardry" is the same sort of stuff you can find in any fantasy RPG or novel. Stuff that, for the most part, has no bearing on reality whatsoever. Plus the "magic" in Harry Potter is there alongside unicorns and trolls and elves and dragons and all manner of fantasy creatures that don't exist. The people who preach that Harry Potter "magic" is real witchcraft tend to forget things like that.

That said, I am somewhat looking forward to seeing HP3. Hopefully, Sirius Black will be well acted.

[Fsiphskilm]

[quote="Bobtheduck"] She never went to a "wi

[Technomancer]

For one so spiritual I didn't expect that from ya. I mean Would you rather have your kids read a beautiful novel about demons or a horribly illustrated book about ...(thinks)...Duct tape. Well if you think about it Duct tape has so many uses.

The book is most certainly not about demons, nor is Rowling a witch (she's a Presbyterian). For the most part she follows fairly familiar literary descriptions of magic, and the books themselves are pretty much English boarding school novels. Should I ever have children, I'd be happy to see them reading the books (in all probability, I'd have given them the books in the first place).

Anyways, regardless of belief, I do not think that we should restrict ourselves to those authors who agree with our particular worldviews. To do so would not only mean cutting ourselves off from what has been called "The Great Conversation", between ages and peoples, but also from the greater part of the human race. It would also end any hope of our own education and betterment- how can we learn anything if we only read those authors with whom we agree?

[ZiP]

Grr...admins...meermm...close...stupid...thread....please......minermgrhfilgetbritgrrr....

[Fsiphskilm]

No no no don't! we'll be good....or at least

[Bobtheduck]

Pat Robertson? He's normally on track with things, but he falls for that stuff too... He's getting older and doesn't follow things as well as he may have been able to do in past days... Of course, his co-anchor was in the forefront of anti D&D stuff, but I still respect Pat for the most part.

I have to respect something I feel he does right that most Christians don't, (though another ministry which I can't name does it even better than he does) and that is open honesty about sexual issues. Not just sexual, but all sorts of issues people have a hard time talking about... He's at least doing some work to tear the veil, which I'm quite gratefull.

Pat aside, I picked up "Order of the Phoenix" (literally picked up, not "purchased) and the thing is bigger than the entire Lord of the Rings... I rarely see adult level books that large, but wow... Despite the similarity (through the 2 movies) I found to Roald Dahl, she definately went the other direction in that respect...

I haven't read the books, but I hear they are about the most accurate book to movie translations after "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" so how do they pull that off if the books are so big?

I'm going to see "Azkeban" as soon as it's released. It looks interesting, but it'll be sad to have Chris Colombus off the project... I wonder if J.K. Rowling handpicked the new director like she did Chris?

And, volt, for your last message: I don't think any marxist would consider themselves christians... I think Adolph Hitler was raised in some protestant denomination, though...

[Kokhiri Sojourn]

I'm pretty sure that Hitler was a member of the R. Catholic church...

[Technomancer]

He was raised as such, but was very much against the Church later in life.

[Bobtheduck]

Oh, I figured he was protestant, because he sent catholics to concentration camps... But, then again, he was also part Jewish by blood...

[shooraijin]

Official moderator note: back on topic, folks.

[Fsiphskilm]

We've been disco

[MasterDias]

Despite the similarity (through the 2 movies) I found to Roald Dahl, she definately went the other direction in that respect...

So you noticed the similarities too, eh?

[Twilly Spree]

I want to steal the road sign ad type thing in the movie theater in town. It's so cool. I stared at it while in line to see Cold Mountain....must wait til summer grrr.

*Sigh* trying not to say things about anti-HP type comments. Very hard, very very hard....okay one thing just one...It's just make believe. It's fantasy. It's like me pretending I was a My Little Pony or Rainbow Bright as a kid. I knew I really wasn't Rainbow Bright but heck I can pretend can't I? Let kids open up their heads and daydream once and awhile, it won't hurt them. (also Bob, made some great points earlier, hats off to you)

Okay that's my two cents, still excited about movie. Want ad in movie theater...will think of elaborate plan to get it.

[Kisa]

Red ninja, maybe find a person in the theater who you can get to give you one off the wall or something . . . or just grab one yuorself while no one looks . . . *evil sneaky grin* Shouldn't be too hard tho. ^_^

[Twilly Spree]

I was thinking on it last night, the thing stands upright and is probably 7 ft tall. It'll be tough. Maybe when there are alot of people there I can nab it. Hmm..or make friends with someone that works there. Hmm tricky, very tricky.

[Fsiphskilm]

[quote="Red Ninja"]Let kids open

[Inferno]

umm... yes it is! ther're a great bunch of books, and i can't wait to see the third movie!

[Six]

well i personally like harry potter alot.... its nice just to sit down and have some easy, fun books to read and not have to work at it at all... they are good storys and while the main target is children... adults can get a kick out of them as well... its also nice because its a thing that my little sister and i can share, we can talk about it and go to the movie in the theater... its nice to have common ground with her when she's 8 years younger than me... plus it gives kids like her great confidence in reading... i mean she will be 11 in a month and she is reading a 500 page book, not too shabby... so yeah there is alot of good things about harry potter.

[ZiP]

eeeyup!
It got me onto reading...

[Kokhiri Sojourn]

HP3 I hope turns out well. I loved this vol. of the books maybe more than the others because so many unexpected things happened and so much of the rest of the story was set up in it. Though I do have more of a hard time with the movies than with the books, just because with the last two movies, I didn't think our Harry Potter lookalike could act at all, so it really detracted from his character development, because he couldn't express what Harry in the book expressed. This wasn't true of all the other characters, so it was still pretty good, but I'd rather read the books than watch the movies. However, I'll still see the movie eventually, in hopes that the director has pushed him enough to get something out of Daniel Radcliffe worth film footage.

[Bobtheduck]

Since I saw the movies first, all the allready set up characters are their actors and actresses for me... The ones that are prolly going to be hard for me to accept are wormtail, Cho, Rita Skeeter(sp? I listened to the books, didnt' read) and, of course, the New Dumbledore... It's just not the same...

Besides that, maybe I pay enough attention to Lupin's description, but that's just not how I expected him to look...

[Kireihana]

I agree Bob, the actors don't really look the way I imagined them in the book. I imagined Sirius to be really handsome ^_^

I enjoy the HP books a whole lot. To me, the magic here is no different than "The Force" in Star Wars or the Good Witch of the North from The Wizard of Oz. And considering all the occult and magic you come across in manga/anime, this shouldn't be such a shocker. Didn't you ever wish you could do magic when you were a kid? I used to wave around plastic wands when I was a 6-year-old, way before HP even existed. We all know it's not real, but it's fun to imagine.

The first movie I didn't like too much, the second one has grown on me, and now I'm really looking forward to the third. I think the actors have gotten better each time. It's a shame though; I don't know how they'll continue at the rate the actors are aging. They'll be to old for their roles in a 4th movie.

[ZiP]

Forgive me but what on earth are you talking about Kitsune?
Are you saying the writers of the movie don't know anything about magic?
Can you please clairfy exposes?
My brain is a muddle with questions.

[EvilSporkofDoom]

I think the Harry Potter books are marvellous - and I actually agree with Kitsune o_O; I think he/she made some good arguments about why the books don't encourage paganism and black magic, and I think there's good messages in the stories as well.

[ZiP]

There's definitely something that needs to be addressed here:
Directors!

With LotR, they took someone who was a huge fan of the books, and a director too, and the movies turned out great!
With HP, they take any director they can get, and make the movie, and the way it's going, they'll have a brand new one for the last film, and everything will be changed around...
I don't get why Rowling hasn't put her foot down about this!
She seems to be going along with everything happily!
It doesn't make any since...