@RusA #9858856 #9858859 oh... I'm sorry if my questions make u dizzy,
Well, I can't really answer the questions you asked, in the way that you framed them, but it's a fair concern: why does Christianity condemn the practice of magic, and yet seems to think "miracles", which seem to be the same thing, are OK? The short answer is: the difference is where the magic/miracles come from.
In Christianity, God is all-powerful, and is willing to share some of that power with those who will use it responsibly, for ends that He approves of, by means of things that long experience (tradition) says are appropriate. We call that power "grace" (from a Latin word meaning "a free gift with no strings attached"), and the people, places, and things that mediate that power we call "channels of grace". Crosses, holy water, and in general anything that's used only for religious purposes can be a channel of grace, but must be used with prayer to God, because they have no power in themselves. Catholics and Orthodox make use of such things a lot; Protestants tend to shy away from such things, for the reasons you bring up: it's likely to lead to idolatry (thinking of the physical object as divine in itself) and to lead one away from God (because one thinks he can do these miraculous things by his own power).
Animists, on the other hand, may or may not have a Supreme Being (like the Bondye of Voudon), but they pay little attention to him; to them, the rocks and trees and artifacts and what-not have powerful spirits in them, that one can communicate with and employ to get things done in the material world. I likened Bondye to the CEO of a corporation, so to extend that analogy, the animistic spirits are like the office workers and sales representatives who actually do the work. Employing these nature spirits is how they practice their religion, and the only thing that matters is if one uses them for good purposes like healing, or becoming rich in order to help others; or for evil purposes like hurting other people or becoming rich in order to oppress others.
As to which one of us is right, well, as I always say, we have to die to find out. In the meantime, I think we should follow whatever religion we grew up in if we can, and if we can't then to find one that helps us do good in the world, even if that turns out to be agnosticism or even atheism. Unfortunately, my experience is that people who shop around for a religion they like tend to settle on one that makes them think they're better than everyone else, and turns them into total schmucks. This is as true of atheists as anyone else, although agnostics tend to be less full of themselves than either atheists or "true believer" religious people.
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@RusA #9858856 #9858859
oh... I'm sorry if my questions make u dizzy,
Well, I can't really answer the questions you asked, in the way that you framed them, but it's a fair concern: why does Christianity condemn the practice of magic, and yet seems to think "miracles", which seem to be the same thing, are OK? The short answer is: the difference is where the magic/miracles come from.
In Christianity, God is all-powerful, and is willing to share some of that power with those who will use it responsibly, for ends that He approves of, by means of things that long experience (tradition) says are appropriate. We call that power "grace" (from a Latin word meaning "a free gift with no strings attached"), and the people, places, and things that mediate that power we call "channels of grace". Crosses, holy water, and in general anything that's used only for religious purposes can be a channel of grace, but must be used with prayer to God, because they have no power in themselves. Catholics and Orthodox make use of such things a lot; Protestants tend to shy away from such things, for the reasons you bring up: it's likely to lead to idolatry (thinking of the physical object as divine in itself) and to lead one away from God (because one thinks he can do these miraculous things by his own power).
Animists, on the other hand, may or may not have a Supreme Being (like the Bondye of Voudon), but they pay little attention to him; to them, the rocks and trees and artifacts and what-not have powerful spirits in them, that one can communicate with and employ to get things done in the material world. I likened Bondye to the CEO of a corporation, so to extend that analogy, the animistic spirits are like the office workers and sales representatives who actually do the work.
As to which one of us is right, well, as I always say, we have to die to find out. In the meantime, I think we should follow whatever religion we grew up in if we can, and if we can't then to find one that helps us do good in the world, even if that turns out to be agnosticism or even atheism. Unfortunately, my experience is that people who shop around for a religion they like tend to settle on one that makes them think they're better than everyone else, and turns them into total schmucks.