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Ok, this came up in an earlier posting, some people who were Christians.

I was interested to see who else is a regular on this board and were also Christians ... or other faith for that matter.

Please note though, this is not an excuse for anyone to start slating someone else's beliefs, no matter what. It is a friendly enquiry!

It would be interesting to know how your faith affects (or has no affect) on your approach to your magic, be it performance, attitude towards spectators, or whatever.

So be you Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Buddhist etc, then lets here from you please.

I applaude you for your savvy byron0512 but we unfortunately live in a time in which the cynic seems to hold roost and the drive is to compell any and all interested in this craft, to believe in nothing other than man and intellect.

I'm far from being anything remotely Christian (as it is commonly understood and accepted) but my elements of faith have been challenged and seriously slandered time and again by many in the magic world, mostly due to this current trend (and confusion) as to what it means to be both, a magician and a skeptic (or as some wish to dream, a "Debunker").

I've spent much of the past month talking to members of the JREF and CSICOPS on this very issue and even some of these people are in agreement that certain people have taken things just a big too far when it comes to putting down and threatening people's beliefs.

I will be keeping an eye on this thread...

i am agnostic.

I'm agnostic as well

Christian here... can't say it has any real effect on my magic. I make a point of waving my fish armband around though lol

I am an atheist and I have to say that has affected my interest in magic and my fascination with the methods that underpin some of our best effects. I have been reading Conan Doyle's Edge of the Unknown, which explains the breakdown of his friendship with Harry Houdini over spiritualism.

Houdini was obsessed with contacting his dead mother and the mediums of the day frustrated him. One medium claimed to to have contacted her and gave a full recitation in English. When Houdini asked why she was speaking English since all she ever spoke was Hebrew. The medium responded by saying that everyone speaks English in heaven. Houdini was obsessed with exposing mediums and anyone claiming to have pyschic power. Doyle, despite creating the rational deductive Holmes, was an active believer in spiritualism.

I guess my own position is in the absence of evidence, I remain an atheist. The classic riposte to this position is that in the absence of evidence that such things do not exist, then faith continues. I just fall on the former side of this divide.

If you pardon the pun, our profession is a broad church, and it seems that there is a host of interesting and productive connections between the various belief systems and icons and magical effects. Religion offers an infinite set of ideas for magicians to weave history, theology, and philosophy into their work.

...i am an on-line ordained reverend, but my beliefs would label me an atheist (even though i can sometimes not spell it)...

i believe everyone has beliefs, even if you believe there is no God, that in itself is a belief...

...some of my relatives were spiritualists, and reportedly my great-grandmother had the 'sight' and would also read tea-leaves...

...part of me agrees with Lenny Bruce when he said "I think it's about time we gave up religion and got back to God..."

yet i also agree with what Friedrich Nietzsche said "In Christianity neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point." Which was said against the organised part of religion i believe...

On the other hand though, im very interested in Zen Buddhism too...

So there you go, i am an atheist priest with Zen Buddhist tendencies...

I think we've still got the human mind to explore and discover what it's truly capable of before anything else...

I've got a half open-mind when it comes to our 'spirit' for want of a better word, and what happens to it when you snuff it...

at the moment i'd say "nah....you're worm food and that's it!" but its always fascinating to hear and discuss other people's world too though...

A little while ago, someone close to me was very seriously ill, i did actually pray for her, because she's religious - so i prayed in my way, but to her God if that makes sense...probably not eh...

So, to finally answer your question - i don't feel religion has any concious influence over me in what i discuss with or perform for people as such, but possibly on a wider (subconcious) scale, my beliefs obviously effect part of my reasoning and who i am...

it's just gone 8am...coffee please...

Well, I was an atheist for a good 17/18 years. And then I had some experiences, which I won't blather on about here (though if anyone wants to know they can ask). I was a staunch atheist too, did not believe in religious experience, thought that everyone who had a faith of any kind was a fool. Well, after what happened I had a change of heart. It's definitely made me a better, happier, more thoughtful person. I imagine this reflects on anything I do.

Would it sound smug if I said I don't really do ad hoc belief wherever possible?

EckoZero wrote:Christian here... can't say it has any real effect on my magic.

Me too!

I am a member (along with a few people on here) of the Fellowship of christian magicians.

Some of us (not all) perform "gospel" magic, which is a magic trick in order to get across a christian message.
Some of you who do schools work may do tricks to show "road safety"
Its a bit like that.

I'm a Christian and my faith has an effect on my life, so, naturally, my beliefs affect how i perform magic - not in a huge way but they do.

For example I wouldn't try to undermine a spectators intelligence as some do but try and make them have a good time and enjoy the magic.

Some Christians would have a problem with "the lieing aspect" of magic I would say a few things here. Firstly it's bad performance technique to say I'm shuffling the cards, when, in fact Im doing a Zarrow shuffle because it draws attention to the fact and therefore spectators infere that something dogy is taking place.

Secondly people enjoy being lied to when they watcgh magic - it would be a lie if I said what I was dong was "real magic" - but I don't so there's no issue.

Hope that answers your question.

EDIT: I too am a member of FCMUK
AND: Everyone has a faith IMHO even if that isn't a published one some people merely put their faith in the scientists or in the fact that there is no after life etc. It is, I feel, impossible to be belief-less.

Hmmm. Just out of interest does anyone know about the faiths of famous magicians?

I can't see Criss Angel as being religious but then I could be wrong!

Yup, Christian here too.

Think magic is a great way to liven up a stuff church service.....

Taiven_Grant wrote:Hmmm. Just out of interest does anyone know about the faiths of famous magicians?

I can't see Criss Angel as being religious but then I could be wrong!

he wears a cross. so...

So does Ozzy Osbourne...

...and he's Jewish!