QotD: Magic
Posted July 3rd, 2005 @ 12:50pm by Erik J. Barzeski
Question: Do you believe in magic?
My Answer: Not really. I believe that magic in the traditional sense - card tricks and bunnies from hats - is all just illusion, and that's fine. It's still entertainment. Magic in the mystical sense - casting spells and voodoo and enchanted forests - are also great entertainment, but really the purview of children. I can still pretend - any time we read fiction or a movie we're engrossing ourselves in a bit of make-believe, magic, and pretend. So, I "believe" in magic in that I'm willing to allow myself to be entertained now and then, but I don't think magic is "real."
You are encouraged to answer the Question of the Day for yourself in the comments or on your blog.
Donate Life
Posted 04 Jul 2005 at 12:37pm #
Sometimes I think that the world may be stranger than we allow; sometimes, I don't. On balance, no.
The phrasing of the question somehow prompts a second thought: "Do you believe in 'free will'?"
This is Kant's problem: on the one hand, he wanted to give dignity back to natural science by arguing for causality (thereby taking issue with Hume); on the other, he wanted to affirm the reality of moral choice, which is tied up with notions of freedom of the will. He ends up with two incompatible and irreconcilable views of the world, and can only suggest that they somehow open on to the same reality.