Who’s afraid of Harry Potter?

Pope Rat is, apparently.  Or at least he was two years ago, when he wrote to one Gabrielle Kuby, author of Harry Potter - Good or Evil (sic):

...thanking her for sending him a copy of "your informative book". He said: "It is good that you are throwing light on Harry Potter, because these are subtle seductions that work imperceptibly, and because of that deeply, and erode Christianity in the soul before it can even grow properly."

Apparently Rat approved of Kuby’s argument that the Potter stories “blur the boundaries between good and evil and impair young readers' ability to distinguish between the two”

Bwahahaha!

First, a catholic priest is hardly the best person to complain to about "subtle seductions" of children  - they've been known to dabble themselves remember?  Secondly, as for blurring boundaries and impairing young readers' ability to distinguish between them, this is the perfect excuse to cite an article by The Chaser – something that I can only wish I had written:

Harry Potter fans warn against dangerous effects of Bible

OXFORD, Tuesday: A number of concerned British Harry Potter fans have spoken out against the Bible, claiming that the holy text of the Christian Church can cause serious damage to children. “Reading the Bible teaches children to believe in the supernatural,” said one English Literature academic from Oxford University, Lewis Williams. “The tales of Jesus turning water into wine are fairly harmless, but there is a serious risk of children drowning if they try to walk on water,” he said. “And the chance of serious bodily harm isn’t exactly minimised by that whole ‘resurrection-from-the-dead’ story either.”

Christians have responded that reading the Bible assists with literacy skills, but Williams rejects this idea too. “The Bible is only ever read in very small chunks, a few paragraphs at a time. It’s never read as a long sustained narrative like the Harry Potter series. Reading too much of the Bible promotes a very short attention span," he says.

Critics such as Williams warn that without appropriate parental guidance, reading the Bible may make children unable to enjoy quality children’s literature. “Enjoying books such as Harry Potter or the Narnia series requires the ability to suspend disbelief,” he said. “When children are taught that the Bible is absolutely literally true, and that a story like Noah’s Ark actually happened, the imagination is completely stifled – it’s very detrimental.”

Williams has also pointed out that some of the scarier elements in fantasy novels will really frighten children if they think they are true. “Some children may think that murderous Dark Wizards such as Voldemort (the villain of the Potter series) are actually real if they’ve been corrupted by Christians who believe that devils and magic actually exists,” he said.

Yeah. “Blur the boundaries between good and evil and impair young readers' ability to distinguish between the two” my ass.

Comments

[the_blur]

Yeah. “Blur the boundaries between good and evil and impair young readers' ability to distinguish between the two” my ass.

LOL. I laughed like a demon after I read this post, my irony metering device quickly shorted out at the start though, I will have to acquire a MUCH beefier model to keep up with this shit...

[S.T.R.]

and dont forget that the bible teaches xenophobia, and makes genocide seem ok...

[Doodlad]

Speaking of literal interpretations of art, here's a funny article by Gene Weingarten about his visit to the National Gallery of Art:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/12/AR2005071201097.html

At least he is joking. Or is he?

[beajerry]

I love it.

Now, do you think the religious metaphorically challenged people will protest this winter's Chronciles of Narnia movie?
And if they do, how will they explain the christian faith of its author, C.S. Lewis?

[PaulP]

"a catholic priest is hardly the best person to complain to about "subtle seductions" of children - they've been known to dabble themselves remember"

No, you are committing a logical fallacy here, known as the fallacy of composittion. Note the shift from singular - "a catholic priest" - to plural - "they've been known..".
If you still can't see it, replace "catholic priest" by "german" or "man" in the above.

[PaulP]

On second thoughts, it might be the fallacy of aggregation. The idea is that assuming what is true for a group is also true for any memeber of the group is logically invalid, as is the converse.

[ALex]

Long off-topic ramble deleted by Skeptico.