Is understanding science contradict with believing in magic?

Question

I mean yellow magic, black magic or white magic.

hey quicksandvalley: Chemistry originated from Alchemy(a form of magic), magicians talked about time travel just like scientists and using force or force fields to shield against magic attacks.

Answer 1

I hope not, or we will never believe in magic again. There are things that science can't explain well, and things that make perfect sense when viewed scientifically. But that isn't the point.

The point is this: when you view a natural creation such as a flower, fruit, or tree, you can contemplate the mysterious aspects of its life cycle and what it represents to you and to countless generations of people. Eventually, magic is the energy you have focused on this thing, and it is present in your thoughts and understanding about it. This can occur EVEN IF you have a perfectly functioning understanding of the biological and chemical reactions involved in the life of a plant.

There is no need to worry--if something is truly magical, how could it be banished by knowledge? Knowledge and magic are both valuable.

Geology, to me, is particularly conducive to a cosmic awareness because the cycle of rocks has such epic proportions in terms of time and the transformation of matter from one state to another. Astonomy can have the same effect.

Answer 2

Black magic can be seen as either a science or an art, but most of all it is a lie. It is a power which acts against both art and science, bad art and bad science. Its greatest enemy is the truth. Darkness does not endure light. Blesing and Curse are two sides of the same coin. There is art and there is knowledge to magic, I know from practice. It used to be called the dark arts, and yes Crowley described it as the science of the mind and will. I used to tickle my young cousins from across the room, and they would laugh until they hollered stop. In meditation I could posit my consciousness in a different time and space (something called astral projection) and could tell you precisely what took place there. I likewise could connect my thought with that of others, some more sensitive and open than others (ESP). From my grandmother I am a traditional Shaman. I am also a professional priest. Art and Knowledge, with just enough claptrap to ride the hobbyhorse correctly (although I never learned to levitate as my grandmother could, she died when I was too young). Children in their nurseries with their games and rhymes could come up with better rituals than most so-called witches and wizards, and they have the advantage of intelligence which says they're only playing. There is always the danger of hubris, false pride, as one projects and persuades and then comes up against a consciousness more powerful which reflects and throws everything back with a force that is destructive if not possessive. That is why I call magic a lie that destroys.

Answer 3

Not at all, until the 1800s magnets were considered magic because science didn't have a way to explain them. Now that they are explained they can still be used in magick. True magick comes with an understanding of the Universe around us.

Some people hold to the idea that once science explains how something works the magick of it is gone. I prefer to think that once science explains how somethings works the magic is still there because it just shows that it is a natural thing and that magick is natural.

(Yes I know I have spell magic with a 'k' at the end, this is to separate stage magic from true magick.)

Answer 4

Have you ever read Who's afraid of Beawolf by Tom Holt. That says that an ancient magician powers all science and electricity and that technology is magic by another name. Magic could just have been a word for technology back then. Magic was the unexplained and now that we can explain it we call it science? (personally i prefer Tom Holt's idea, its much more amusing and less stark). Anyway, hope that helped a bit. xx

Answer 5

I don't think so. Science started out as magic. It was all about alchemy, the search for the method to turn lead to gold. It is also about learning to understand thing that in ancient times was considered to be magic, or farts of the gods.

Answer 6

People believe in magic because they don't understand what is really happening. People who understand science know that mixing two chemicals together to make something totally different isn't magic, but it sure seems like it to someone who has no idea about chemistry.

Answer 7

Well, there is scientific magic, and then there is PFM.

Scientific magic is based on scientific principles, but is magic to a layman, who doesn't know how it works. I include stage magic here, because I know there is a trick there somewhere.

PFM is the whimsical magic of fairies, dragons, elves, and all the other inhabitants of our imaginations.

I don't see why a person who understands science couldn't have an imagination, do you?

Answer 8

No answer to this, but Alchemy is not a form of magic. It was an art of distilation and is still practiced today. Below is a website for a well funded orginization dedicated to the study of alchemy

http://www.levity.com/alchemy/index.html

Answer 9

Not necessarily. To quote Arthur C Clarke, one of the greatest scifi writers of all time:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Television, or radio, or computers would have seemed to be magic to someone living in the late 1800, and that's only a little over 100 years ago.

Answer 10

Science and magic are searate subjects.

Science is the understanding of a tiny spec of the amazing things that God has created. Through it we beging to realize just how simple-minded and small we are in cmparison to the Almighty God.

True magic (not just TV magicians) and witchery are from the devil and are works of his angels.