Is Fantasy Wrong?

[GuineaCat12]

I have always enjoyed fantasy - Chornicals of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit (though I know those authors are both christian as well), Once Upon a Time, Grimm, Game of Thrones, Suikoden, Final Fantasy, dragons, griffons, unicorns, elves, fairies, dwarves, so on. (Even Gaiaonline actually) But I know some of those include magic which in real life would be which craft, wiccans, and paganism. As much as I love and adore magic in the shows, books and games - real life magic is terrifying and I wouldnt actually go anywhere near it. But is enjoying fantasy a sin, even if I wouldnt actually do it?

I know that Satan likes to be in disguise, making sin seem okay, normal, and desirable. I also know sin starts in the heart. Maybe I'm just being insecure, but I just want to make sure I'm not doing something wrong by liking these stories...  

[Ratsah]

So long as you know it is just fantasy, and you're able to separate facts from fantasy I think you'll be just fine.  

[Rednal]

Most stories are mediums to convey an idea, or at the very least, to entertain the reader. Let's start with some of the classics: Fairy Tales. There are often some very magical things here, such as shoes that take you long distances or plants that grow to ludicrously huge sizes. Why? Because the stories are trying to make a point, generally about some social idea or to teach good behavior. Heck, Jesus taught using stories. We refer to them as the Parables. I think that's a pretty straightforward indication that the idea of using fictional circumstances to make a point can be positive.

Let's look at something more obviously fictional, though. In "The Dresden Files", the main character is a magic-user. God, angels, fallen angels, and a variety of monsters are all present within the setting. Magic can, and has been, used to do bad things... but also to do good things. The protagonist, Harry Dresden, wears a pendant in the shape of a five-pointed star (facing up, I believe), surrounded by a circle. This has an important symbolic meaning for him, showing the power of magic constrained and guided by human willpower. He knows that there are things you Should Not Do with magic, and within the series, magic is generally presented as a neutral force. It's what you do with the power that really matters, not the power itself.

This is actually very common in fiction. Power is power, whether it's a fireball from a wand or a sword that's used to chop things up. Neither is inherently good or evil (most of the time; it depends on the setting). If it makes you feel better, there are some indications that in the original language that the Bible was written in, some references to magic and such were primarily geared towards negative things, not positive ones. On top of this, you could say that the actions of God would be a form of magic (divine magic, mainly, which is sometimes an important distinction), and that certain churches think that God sometimes answers prayers and causes supernatural things to happen.

In the end? There's a lot of hysteria over the idea of magic and an assumption that it's somehow inherently bad in fiction; witness some people who objected to Harry Potter, where the "magic" could generally have been replaced by something else and made minimal differences to the anti-racism story. I don't think enjoying magic in fiction is bad as long as you recognize what it is and how the characters are using it. Better works will go into the morality of the uses that such power can provide, but I think it's fine even if you just question it yourself. ^^ So don't worry about it too much.  

[Aquatic_blue]

Honestly, I believe it depends how you treat fantasy stories, movies, and games, etc. Action and intent is important here. If you take these stories as something to learn from and to point out all the Christian aspects of them and learn more about God's word through that then that's perfectly fine. Now, if you lay around - do nothing, and fantasize about marrying the characters, trying to copy the dark stuff put in fantasy, or putting fantasy before God then you have a problem and should think about what you can do about it.

I enjoy The Chronicles of Narnia - although, I prefer the books over the movies because they convey a strong message. The Ice Queen being the one who tempts - resembling the devil. Appears to be beautiful, good, and gives you what you desire (turkish delight in this case). However, inside she is evil and will use someone else for evil when given the chance. Aslan represents the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. There is so much more to C.S. Lewis' books that we can learn from as far as Christianity goes. Same Goes for Tolkien - he created a fantasy world of many things, but notice that he added spiritual warfare between the good and the bad side. Smeagol/Golem displays the person whose physical appearance took on what was truly in their heart - making them hideous and ugly. They are an example of people who love sin too much to give it up. They will die and go to Hell gladly to enjoy that sin for a moment. In this case, the ring. There are many things we can learn.

I'm a fan of some fantasy stuff, and I'm not sure where I stand 100% with the magic stuff in games. I know in Final Fantasy I remembered the names of the spells like the back of my hand and what was effective. Although, my favorite is "Holy" because it's strong, and powerful. Anyway, in a game - I can distinguish between the game and reality. I would never touch any type of magic in real life either because it's evil, God doesn't want us doing it, and it always comes with a price.

In fantasy, we can learn about certain aspects about Christianity. Understanding these stories by C.S. Lewis or J.R.R Tolkien I believe can help us witness to people today or come up with examples in our mind that make it easy to explain the gospel to others. Being able to explain without using heavy duty Christian lingo at first. After all, Jesus used parables so that people would understand, and he would often explain the meanings of these parables because someone asked, or because he felt he needed to explain to clarify his point.

Even in the Holy Bible we realize what not to do because of mistakes others have made. Some sacrificed their children in a burning flame,some were absorbed into astrology, and lets not even forget The Witch of Endore and what that taught us.