Magician Harry

Unemployed Philosophers Guild-The Incredible Escaping Houdini Mug List Price: $12.98 Sale Price: $9.95 You save: $3.03 (23%)   Eligible for free shipping! Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Set of 6 Harry Houdini 1.25" MAGNETS Magician Sale Price: $4.99   Eligible for free shipping! Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Geisha Boy [VHS] Sale Price: $19.69   Eligible for free shipping! Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

The Magician [VHS] List Price: $29.95 Sale Price: $29.94 You save: $0.01 (%)   Eligible for free shipping! Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Widescreen Edition) List Price: $19.96 Sale Price: $3.49 You save: $16.47 (83%)   Eligible for free shipping! Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Two-Disc Special Edition) List Price: $26.98 Sale Price: $3.90 You save: $23.08 (86%)   Eligible for free shipping! Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix [Blu-ray] List Price: $19.98 Sale Price: $9.74 You save: $10.24 (51%)   Eligible for free shipping! Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

HARRY HOUDINI MAGICIAN POSTER Coin, Mint or Pill Box: Made in USA! List Price: $14.99 Sale Price: $8.98 You save: $6.01 (40%)   Eligible for free shipping! Availability: Usually ships in 2-3 business days

Classic Wizard Wand Sale Price: $2.99   Eligible for free shipping! Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Schylling Magic Wand Sale Price: $5.99   Eligible for free shipping! Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Black Cape Sale Price: $33.99   Eligible for free shipping! Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours

Midnight Mysteries: Haunted Houdini - Standard Edition [Download] Sale Price: $6.99   Eligible for free shipping! Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Harry Potter and the Douchebag Magicians

My God! the Church or Harry?

So the Church of England is implementing a drive to engage teenagers and children with the Christian faith and the person of Jesus Christ. Well, a good start might be to remove the myth, the superstition and the bigotry taught in the name of God. Children and young people have an uncanny ability to see a hole the size of a pinhead in false logic. What they can't see is a host of angels dancing happily to the tune of a celestial choir. It's difficult to explain and more difficult to comprehend the contradiction of an all-knowing, all-loving God in the face of the ever-present evils in the world. Clever theological arguments to explain the problem of evil don't really hold water and the pat answer to such question that it is just ‘God's will' fail to convince. Why is it God's will? Why does an all loving God allow suffering, cruelty, torture, war, disease, terminal illness, disaster, fire, pestilence and flood?  Why indeed. If one ever has the temerity to press the question it's usually followed by something along the lines of; ‘well it's all part of God's bigger plan'. A bigger plan? A plan that we are too intellectually frail to comprehend, it seems. Mmmm … and what is the timescale to implement this bigger plan? After all, so far he (sic) has had over two thousand years to get it right and there's scant evidence to suggest things are improving and any improvements made thus far have been due to sheer humanistic, social, political and philosophical effort. No indication of divine intervention or a heavenly helping hand. In fact, the only divine intervention seems to have been to inspire a number of carefully chosen psychologically unbalance individuals to marshall together communities of followers and have them commit either atrocities against others or against themselves culminating in mass suicides. Need I mention Jonestown, Waco or the Moonies? Probably not. Strange plan!

The religious right, and by ‘right' I mean the moral minority not the politically conservative, seem to think they have a monopoly on ethical standards and behavior and that to behave as an ordinary, decent human being relies upon their biblically based far-fetched dogmatic beliefs. Faith based upon mistranslated texts written over many centuries by various authors in a variety of ancient, sometimes cryptic, languages. Faith based upon a motley collection of texts that  espouse variously in their holy pages misogyny, xenophobia, sexism, homophobia and racism and include numerous accounts of extra-terrestrials, invisible beings, giants, angels, devils and demons that would perhaps be more at home in the pages of a Philip Pullman novel or more suited to the exploits of Harry Potter and his magical friends. And talking of the young wizard, Harry's deeds are far more believable and relevant than any religious text and  heathen that he is, is he a bad person? Far from it and he who lives in a magical world of enchanted beings, both good and bad, does what he can and must to overcome evil. And do it he does without a dogmatic faith in superstition or myth. He is a magician and his magic is immediate and visible and, more importantly, based on a rational philosophy founded on fine logic, logic that children and young people can understand and appreciate. Is it any wonder more people read Harry Potter than the bible? Not to me. I'm not suggesting we put our faith in Harry any more than I believe in the virgin birth, the miracles of Jesus Christ or his resurrection. What I'm suggesting is that it's possible to be good without having a faith. If I help my neighbour, I do it not because Jesus is my personal saviour, not because it is God's will or because it is proscribed in the bible. I do it because I'm a decent human being with a deep humanistic desire to improve the world I live in. If I help to improve it for others, I improve it for myself. Or if I improve myself, I add to the sum total of humanistic decency in the world, without the need for God and a blind dogmatic faith in his mysterious ways and dubious deeds. Stripped of dogma, what we hould have is a social, philosophical and political ideology based on rationality and  logic firmly grounded in human psychology – something that Christianity continually fails to accept. I don't need God, Jesus or the mistranslated rantings of epileptics and misguided visionaries to live a good life. But then I can think for myself. Maybe I'll put my faith in the young magician from Surrey!

About the Author

Wytchewoode is a freelance writer, poet and teacher currently living in Prague, Czech Republic