Christianity/magic, dnt know. Options

hello. i want to make sure about one thing.
i dont know. i m not saying no/yes to this religion.
but id like to hear your thaughts about Christianity+magic.

If you go to the root of the question, there is no difference. The real divergence is in the heart of the believer, the belief itself and the methods.

In most Christian churches, what you see on Sunday is the practice of ceremonial magic. They summon spirits, the Christ and the Holy Ghost. A priest is present as the middleman between the spirits (The Trinity, Saints, etc.) and the mortals. A miracle of transubstantiation (or spiritual cannibalism) is done every time. (This depends on the kind of religion.)

I think the real difference is that some Christian priests are only doing this as representative of their organization, doing a routine they don't believe in. Nevertheless, I'm sure some actually believe they are performing a highly magical act, summoning spirits to commune, meditate, confess, etc. (Who knows, they might be the ones performing the real miracles…)

I think some Christian churches don't like using the word magic, because of some definitions of the word and the ever-growing relation with new, non-Christian beliefs.

Let me show you what the “Catholic Encyclopedia” has to say on magic:

[…] it is the attempt to work miracles not by the power of God, gratuitously communicated to man, but by the use of hidden forces beyond man's control. Its advocates, despairing to move the Deity by supplication, seek the desired result by evoking powers ordinarily reserved to the Deity. It is a corruption of religion, not a preliminary stage of it as Rationalists maintain, and it appears as an accompaniment of decadent rather than of rising civilization.

The disease has been widespread; but if one land may be designated as the home of magic it is Chaldea, or Southern Babylonia.

Catholic theology defines magic as the art of performing actions beyond the power of man with the aid of powers other than the Divine, and condemns it and any attempt at it as a grievous sin against the virtue of religion, because all magical performances, if undertaken seriously, are based on the expectation of interference by demons or lost souls. Even if undertaken out of curiosity the performance of a magical ceremony is sinful as it either proves a lack of faith […]

I personally find this extract very funny, because performing actions NOT beyond the power of man with the aid of powers other than the Divine wouldn’t be a sin. But how can a man perform an action that is beyond the power of man? Hmm… maybe with the help of God?

For the some Christian churches(e.g. Catholic), magic equals pagans; it relates to non-Christians who will burn in Hell if they don't follow them. But they sure practice magic! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mf_popeanim.gif)

I hope I expressed my point of view without too much confusion.

Sources: The Catholic Encyclopedia, Occult Art, Occultism
(http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11197b.htm)

This post has been edited by Nachash: Aug 24 2005, 12:29 AM