Religions Relations History of Magic to Religion

The most important problem is posed to researchers and scholars of this fascinating subject is the relation of magic to religion, to determine the characteristic phenomena of magic and religion, so that both can be categorized properly.

The English scholar Frazer (born 1 January 1853), contributor to publications of ethnography, history and anthropology, both England and France, to distinguish magic from religion proposes two criteria: a-magical rites character sympathetic and b-the act of coercion, while the religious ritual worship and work for reconciliation, magical rites have immediate mechanical action and an indirect and religious act by a kind of friendly persuasion.

His agent is a spiritual intermediary. Religion is the belief in supernatural beings who govern and direct the world and for the prayers and rituals are trying to gain his will. All this indicates that the course of nature is, to some extent, elastic and variable, and that man can alter imploring the aid of the powers superterrestrial.

This elasticity or variability of nature, is completely contrary to the basic principles of magic and science, because both assume that natural processes are rigid and unchangeable, never to be disturbed either by persuasion or by the threat.

The opposition between these two ways of looking at the universe, is based on the following question: Do the forces governing the world, are conscious and unconscious, personal or impersonal?. As a conclusion of supernatural powers, religion is the first because all conciliation implies that the being who directs the action is a conscious, personal agent, whose mode of action is somewhat uncertain, and can be induced to change in the desired direction through prayer and prayer.

Reconciliation can not be used with inanimate never (those involved in magic), nor with regard to people whose behavior is completely determined and can not change under any circumstances. The opposition of religion and magic is, in this view, irreducible, and that religion is an arbitrary direct power, and magic submission of the passions and whims or immutable laws acting mechanically.

It is true that magic often refers to spirits, which are also personal agents of the same kind that religion is at stake, but the magic is the same way that inanimate agents, that is, forcing and forcing them instead to gain his favor by prayer and supplication.

This means that all beings, whether human or divine, are subject to those impersonal forces which track the progress of things that can be used by those who know how to manipulate them in the help of certain rituals and ceremonies. Among the ancient Egyptian magicians claimed coerce, even the most important deities, threatening them with destruction if they did not obey. I invite you to visit the Digital Library www.magazineofsales.com where you'll find items of proven quality for your personal and spiritual development: Health Sports, Entertainment, Computers, Languages, Work Out and more.