fibi ducks
Active Member
hi LofJ,It has to do with that line between religion and magic, which is not always clear.
If God or gods perform marvels and miracles, it is called religion, and you need to pray to these gods in
order for them to perform said miracles.
Meanwhile if a mortal is able to manipulate forces in the universe to create his own marvels,
then it is magic.
If these forces are not of the occult (hidden), and instead are of the natural kind (gravity, electricity), then
we know this as science, not magic.
The ancient Greeks talked of this magical substance or force, and it was called dynamis.
I suppose it is where we get our words dynamic and dynamo.
The Egyptians described something similar as heka, and Malinowski's Trobriand islanders called it mana; a word
beloved by video game lovers and other gamesters.
The 19th century occultist called it the astral light.
i'm not sure if you're presenting your own point of view or not here. but - on the difference between science and magic - are they the same thing, just that they look different to us when understanding is hidden? Or is there a realm of science - and then again a realm of magic that can't be made into science? the first one seems straightforwardish to me. the second a bit more mysterious.
what you say about the gods not doing magic as such seems right to me. i reckon that the gods are not entirely known to us, that they keep on surprising us with their abilities (and occasionally failings), and that we don't really know how they do things. so we just say they are powerful and leave it at that. actually i think it would be quite funny if it were discovered that a god had done something by using a magic spell. i think the god would be pretty embarassed about it. am thinking as i type this out.
i'll look up 'dynamis' when i have time