It also amuses me when christians disagree with magic on principle, because
I have met several wickens who practice "magic" which they see simply as a
practical way of praying to god "or the goddess aspect of God depending upon
the brand of wicken"
thus, a spell to rid yourself of trouble could be as simple as pouring your
troubles into a cup full of water and pouring them away. it is no different
to someone saying a conventional prayer, it's just done in a symbolic way
much the way a catholic might say a rosery or indeed the way some churches
use insents or the blessing o the cross.
it's also worth remembering that most of the classic works of fantasy
literature never actually mention! magic in spells. Lotr doesn't, indeed
most of what is magic in the book is personal power, will and charisma, as
well as powers of insite such as those of galadriel, while the Narnia books
use the term "magic" directly to describe works of Aslan and the rules of
the world, eg "the deep magic before the dawn of time"
I don't believe harry potter has this sort of lexical info on magic or that
jk has confirmed what it is, though as an interesting point it's worth
remembering Arthur C clarke's dictum that any sufficiently advanced
technology would appear as magic (I'm pretty sure people two or three
hundred years ago would've thought tv, electric lights much less my ability
to write this message and for it to be read all over the world instantly is
pretty magical).
So bringing this back to games, i really don't see the christian arguement
or why someone wouldn't play a game like sarah or an rpg. Then again, I
often find those sorts of views aren't really based on rationality, or any
sort of reasonable expectation so much as just "it looks wrong"
which, bringing this back to oursensorship discussion is why simply
descriptions of what something roughly contains are likely the best, since
then, if somebody objects to the word magic, they can just not play sarah or
whatever, just the same way i myself avoid adult games.
Beware the Grue!
Dark.
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