Harry Potter Taught Me More Than Jesus

Hey now, that’s not fair. Snape is way less of a jackass than God.

I’m not so sure god has good intentions. I think he’s more the Voidemort type. “Worship me, don’t break my arbitrary rules, torture and kill in my name…”

If Voldemort is God, does that make Harry Jesus?
“I created you only to destroy you.” – type thing.
But we can’t have Jesus dying in a modern day YA story now, can we? Everyone has to live happily ever after.

Harry actually died in the seventh book – it had lots of similarities with the biblical story. Voluntary sacrifice and all that. He then had a choice to stay dead or come back. I think I even saw a book about that with a Jesus with a lightening bolt scar on the cover.

C.S. Lewis did something similar with Alsan in Narnia.

As for Snape – look around in the fandom. Most of us already think he is a Sex God 😉

Can you apotterists PROVE there is no Harry Potter? Hogwarts is a non-overlapping magisterium.

Actually, Dumbledore isn’t much better than Snape. He may, in theory, have better intentions… But the very first time we see him, he gives the kiddies instructions to avoid – was it the forest that first year, or the 3rd floor? Either way, he tells them “stay away from xxx” without adding the “because it could kill you” and without actually doing anything about the danger. It’s very “don’t eat the fruit of this tree”, with just as little action taken to protect the young and innocent.

As the story goes on, he leaves Harry in the dark about what’s going on whenever possible. He’ll show up, ask Harry for help, and only get around to explaining as they’re on their way, or even after it’s over. Ron & Hermione, who are often in danger because of their connection to Harry, are lucky if they get an “oh, hello,” – forget any sort of explanation.

I’d say god & Dumbledore isn’t a horrible comparison. But then I always did think Dumbledore was a little shady.

The book; “Jesus Potter Harry Christ” by Derek Murphy explores this theme extensively. Much of the book explores ancient literary archetypes and parallels.
Murphy presents a similar conclusion that Harry Potter is a more noble and better role model than Jesus. Harry sacrificed himself for his friends WITHOUT having divine knowledge or any idea that he might one day rise again.

@Kahomono

I have always considered The Lord of the Rings a guide for how to be a good and moral person that is vastly superior to the Bible.

It’s interesting that you say that. LOTR is a biblically influenced book. Tolkien was a Christian writer and he included some explicitly Christian stuff in the books.

Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, etc are all at the same level of respect for me as The Bible.

They’re human-written GUESSES at what constitutes a good person. Also they’re long, boring, self-important texts that are completely irrelevant for modern society.

If someone says “I love LOTR” I know that person automatically has a very skewed view of the world — just like a religious person.

I can’t believe so many otherwise-intelligent people can read (or watch) LOTR and think it’s GOOD.

He didn’t say “borrowed”, he said “just good humanistic values”.

i’m in that tiny minority of people who has never read any of the books or seen the movies. i know about the HP series because people talk about them… everywhere. it’s a tad spooky, in the sense that it hardly matters if i’m reading a political blog, a gardening blog, an atheist blog, a gay blog- sooner or later someone will make the HP reference. i guess i’m just too old or something to be interested in these stories.

C.S. Lewis did something similar with Alsan in Narnia.

Aslan is Jesus. he says so at the end of one of the books, “but now you must return to your own world and learn of me by my other name” he says to the older kids as they leave narnia for the final time. i loved those books as a kid and i agree that they, and the tolkien books, are far superior ways of introducing children to judeo-christian values than the blood, slaughter and incest fest known as the bible.

Which would be rather ironic considering how LTR has a lot of Catholic influence.

Though Tolkien’s morality was also influenced by his WW1 experience as well.

That’s funny. Tim Minchin used that same Harry Potter book alongside a copy of the Qur’an to demonstrate how silly the concept of a “sacred” book was.

My husband and I are co-teaching a whole Harry Potter curriculum in Sunday School this summer. (We are atheist Unitarians.) A lot of UU congregations are using HP as part of their curriculum. The kids love it! (So do the adults!)

We have a savior, and his blue police box is larger on the inside.

But He Himself has said that He isn’t a good man – if He were, He wouldn’t need so many rules… 😉

Of course Harry Potter isn’t real in that naive fashion that anti-Potterists like to portray. They aren’t dealing with the sophisticated, sublime arguments of the deep Potterists. They probably haven’t even read all the important secondary literature like “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” and “Quidditch Through the Ages” and, of course, “The Tales of Beedle the Bard”. I don’t see how we are expected to respond to such individuals. When they say things like “Harry Potter is fictional” they are just betraying their own ignorance. Of course, they’ll continue to focus on naive, common Potterism and not deal with the deeply subtle arguments that real scholars have spent years talking about. So before one spends time on this sort of thing one must first try to appreciate things like the majestic mystery that is the apparently contradictory death dates for Nearly Headless Nick, or appreciate the sublime difficulty of the chronology surrounding the first death of Voldemort and the missing day, or at least learn the basics of the complicated issues surrounding Time Turners and chronological consistency.

Joshua Zelinsky, raises an important point. Nobody has yet produced evidence that Harry Potter does not exist and if they look closely they will find much evidence that shows that he does. I have stood on Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross. I have seen wizards perform incredible feats of magic for the entertainment of children. Dragons are part of the history of the UK and predate even Britain’s Patron Saint. St. Martin’s Lane in London is the real Diagon Alley and I have walked it’s length and seen the wonders on sale in the shops. I just don’t understand how you can be sceptical when the evidence is all around you.

JK Rowlings has said that the Harry Potter series does contain Christian themes. She didn’t (she says) make it too obvious or it would have given away the ending.

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1572107/jk-rowling-talks-about-christian-imagery.jhtml

She is also proud to be on so many banned book lists…

Thanks Enrico for the shoutout – FYI Tom Rees of Epiphenom is giving away a few copies of Jesus Potter Harry Christ; if Hemant wants to offer a similar giveaway on Friendly Atheist, I’ll supply the copies. Should be heavy traffic with the last movie coming out; a lot of Christians who haven’t read the HP books will probably watch the final movie and make the connection between Jesus and Harry for the first time.

@Richard H:

Funny. A lot of books contain “Christian” themes. A savior who sacrifices himself for the good of others. Battles between good and evil, often concentrating on the growth of the main character of the story – with some element of temptation by those evil forces.

These are humanist elements more than “Christian” ones.