Originally Posted by HarryT
That's interesting, Neko, because there are lots of instances in the Bible where people OTHER than believers in the Judeo-Christian God do "magic" too, and there no particular suggestion that it's "wrong" that I can recall.
Eg, the scene in Exodus (I forget the reference, but I'm sure you know the bit I mean) where Moses goes to Pharoah's court and requests him to let the Israelites leave. Pharoah's magicians turn their staffs into snakes, and stuff like that. Of course, Moses counters them with better tricks, but there's absolutely no suggestion that what the others are doing is not "real magic".
I wonder how the fundamentalists would counter that?
Actually some people extend their beliefs beyond what the Bible teaches. It is basically true of human nature to some degree and goes toward any thing of authority. What the Bible really condemns is fortune telling but this gets extended to all forms of magic by some and others are against card playing specifically because cards were used by fortune tellers although they themselves may no longer even know why they are against card playing. These kinds of things take on a life of their own and shape beliefs just because someone said so. By the way miracles are different from magic.