Extended Discussion

[Narishm]

I agree with what was stated before, this may sound kinda mean or harsh, but there is only ONE way. That's Jesus. If you try another you will fail. It doesn't matter what religion you call yourself, or what you follow. It comes down to having accepted Jesus and his gift to you, or not having accepted it. The Bible warns Christians to stay away from the Occult straight away. Christians are to have to dealings with the occult at all. THe occult is hiding under more than just Wiccans. Paganism, Occult, Neo Nazis, Freemasons, and Womanizm are all fronts for Occult practices. Dig deep enough into those "organizations" to find that out. Out of demoninations, like Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Mormon, Lutheran, Pentocostal, I don't see them as wrong, but I don't think they are exactly right. They are divisions in Christ's church, and He doesn't want us divided so. Paul warns against it too, when he tells the church at Corinth not to divide, some of them were saying things like "I follow Paul", "I follow Apollos", or "I follow Christ". I do believe there are some things you cannot believe in and be saved. The occult is one of those things, as is Islam. Islam is perhaps the most dangerous of the religions out there. They use the Holy Word of God and twist it around to suit their needs, then augment it with their own book and writings to make it seems like it says something that it doesn't. If your not strong in your belief then I do not recommend looking into Islam, it's not designed to convert you, it's designed to make you doubt. I say designed because it is comparable with other religions of the world, but targets Jews and Christians DIRECTLY. It refers to them as "people of the book", and actually directs muslims to question them in a particular manner with particular things, to make them stall and not be able to answer a question, that inserts doubt. I believe that Islam is a "religion" designed by Satan for the world. It fits with the world's belief of "your works will determine your position in eternity" which is not true at all. I however do believe it is possible to be homosexual and saved, but I do not think it's possible to be homosexual and in God's will, the Bible says quite clear that homosexuality is an abomination before the Lord. I bet this paragraph offends a few people, saying things always does. I'm not saying this to offend anyone, but this is what I believe.

Neway as to the topic question. I don't think that reading books that have magic, or games that have magic is wrong. You have to know right from wrong and the difference in fantasy and reality. I would not recommend the Harry Potter books to children, simply because of the references found in the books. I do not believe that J.K. Rowling is a satanist, because all of the things found in the Harry Potter books can be found easily from a google search or a wikipedia search. But things like "The Hand of Glory - gives light only to the bearer", that is a real occult item. The hand of glory is the right hand of a man that was hung, and cut off the day he died, and I believe wrapped in salt and pickled for a week, then candles are inserted between the fingers. It's supposed to aid in finding things and stealing things. I think that is a lot of frightenly accurate information about a very dangerous occult ceremony and artifact for a children's book, and word plays are a british trait to start with, but word plays on occult things are kinda borderline I think, like Diagon Alley, it could be Diagonally, or it could be Diagonal Ley, which has to do with street layouts for a circle of power. However Rowlings promotes the books as fantasy herself, she doesn't say that they are real in any kind of serious context. I would mark them as teenage level books tho, not childrens. That's why the Harry Potter books have come under such heavy fire from Christians. It's not the "magic" as much as it is the level of information found in the books about satanic practices.