Last night I watched, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” with my daughter. We have seen all the Potter movies repeatedly, read the books, listened to the unabridged audios, but still the story holds our interest. I wonder if one of the reasons it does is that the plot carries the possibility of magic in the world. I feel a Santa Clause like glee when I am engaged with the Harry Potter stories. Almost like they contain a truth about the world if one were to believe enough in the possibility.
I have heard from my atheist/humanist friends that people turn to religion because they don’t have the guts to face the fact they are alone in the world. There is no god, no transcendent mystery and no miracles that can be relied upon. I’ve heard the same people say to me that religious people are too afraid to accept their own responsibility as humans. They pawn things off to chance, to god or to a savior. Religion becomes, from this viewpoint, a serious copout.
I’ll tell you that I agree on many levels. Religion, for many people, replaces human rationality, human commonsense and becomes a kaleidoscope of must-dos and must-bes. However, I wonder if people become religious not because they are shirking their human responsibility, but because they are trying to find the magic in living. Is the quest for a spiritual life a search for an experience that will shake the foundations of knowing and uncover the true enchanted nature of the world? Is religion living in the hope that one day you will find out that you are not a muggle but wizard?
I think this is the case for me. It is why I continue on this path. My spirituality is a journey toward uncovering the magic that exists in the world. I will tell you that I have found bits and pieces. Granted, there have been no stags pouring out of wands, or cloaks that make me disappear, but there has been magic. Enough magic, in fact, for me to know that I am heading in the right direction
