Generally speaking, I believe we are to be very careful what we as Christians read...put into our minds. There is an old say...."Garbage in...garbage out". We can be influenced by wrong teachings no matter where it comes from. Does reading a fantasy novel affect a person's beliefs? It is possible but not necessarily so. It can depend on someone's strength and foundation. We all just need to be cautious on what we allow in our brains whether it is through reading, watching TV or the radio.
Im a big Harry Potter fan. Read fantasy books and stuff.
When I hit about 16 I got really worried. I asked my preacher is reading these books affecting my relationship with God. He looked at me and laughed. "Lauren as long as you don't practice magic you will be fine."
So I'm still a big Harry Potter fan. Big Twilight Fan. And still believe in God.
I just want to know what guys mainly think of that.
I love reading fantasy books also. I never got into harry potter but I love reading those types of books. I do think you should be careful what you read because it can have an influence on you. I would avoid those books which teach about God but hide from Jesus Christ. Books that are overly sexual would also be ones to avoid. At least for me.
The best thing about being with someone who likes to read is that you can read a book together!!!
Yeah I agree with him. Be careful what you read. I used to be into witchcraft before I got saved. I still like fantasy some of it seems allright but if you get a conviction run. I was reading a fantasy about magick (by the way proper spelling for real magic ends with a k) and I realized I was casting without noticing. I don't know if you have ever played a magick based video game but the ball of energy around their hand was being described in the book and I suddenly caught myself rolling one around my hand (the way I used to in witch craft) and I liked it. I stopped reading immediatly and haven't read that series since even though the books were amazing. I do love a woman that reads though. To me it is very attractive very sensual.
I think reading is awesome! I also think that a women who reads are awesome! The only thing I don't do is read a book before I see the movie. Seems to me they can't make a movie as good as my imagination! Although, Lord of the Rings was pretty darn good (the movie, book was amazing)
Also, I have to disagree a little with the previous posts. I read a lot of books that most Christians do not. Such as, The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins (staunch athiest). It REALLY forced me to review what I believed in and why. In the end, I became a stronger Christian and I really believe that God wants us to test our beliefs. It is sort of like Pascal's Wager (read about in the book): If you are believing just to believe are you truly a believer? You 'believe' because it is beats going to hell. Of course you don't need to read books to test your beliefs. We are tested every day, but it also helps me relate to non-believers and understand (although not agree) with what they believe and gives me an advantange to introducing God to theml comes in handy on missions!
However, that being said, the last couple posts are concerned with witchcraft. I don't read books like that although. The closest was "The Serpent and the Rainbow" which studied 'vodoo' and Haiti. Very informative and cleared up a couple common misunderstood words such as vodoo. I didn't believe everything I read and I definetly didn't want to practice magic after reading it, but it was great to see how other religions believe in 'spirits' etc.
Wow, long post. Sorry, I'm just not tired tonight and non of my friend are on AIM, so I'm bored lol.
But I read fantasy books all the time and like anything else my opinion is if you are reading it as fiction and not as reality you should be fine.
I dislike that some churches ban Harry Potter and other books like that, I don't believe in censoring reading and as long as you aren't taking the books seriously all should be fine.
As an example, I went to church in a shirt that had stylized dragons on it once and got told off cause they are 'the creatures of the devil' or some such.. I just loved the colours and to me dragons don't exist so why not?
As far as girls that enjoy reading, I really love a good story and I enjoy being able to share that with someone. As long as the person I'm with isn't totally absorbed in the books and ignoring the relationship reading is wonderful. That goes both ways I suppose lol
Now as for fantasy books I've also read Harry Potter, Twilight etc. and the problem I found was that I became SO involved with the reading I forgot to do other things. I completely agree with the "garbage in.. garbage out" philosophy! I do however love to read and there are some absolutely fantastic Christian authors including Frank Peretti, Ted Dekker, and Dee Henderson.
I also think reading books on atheism, other religions, etc can be dangerous. We had a great discussion about this at my Bible college one day where half the class agreed you need to read those books to help you understand how to outreach to those people! However the other half agreed that if God is going to work through you in sharing Christ with a non-believer it doens't matter what you know or don't, God will make it happen.
