A short thought on magic and science: It doesn't WORK that way

I have a backdraft post hanging around somewhere on the subject of terminology and how it's misuse drives me nuts. I can't remember if I ever posted it or not. Ah well.

Anyway. When confronted with "Well, if magic worked, then why can't you turn me into a toad - get all A's - date the head cheerleader -whatever", my first impulse is always to sputter and try to explain, "It doesn't work like that!" The response is generally some kind of patronizing look. Hey, I never said I was terribly persuasive in argument, especially in person.

In fact, the whole exchange bears remarkable resemblance to one you can see daily on the internet between hardcore Christian fundies and science-minded types. This argument can be summed up best by the inestimable example used by too many people to count:

"If evolution is real, then why aren't we all born as monkey's, huh?"

The sound you just heard was thousands of science-minded types choking on the words "It doesn't WORK like that!" because that's the first reasonable thing that comes to mind.

And it makes the creationists look all skeptical, with a "well then, what is it good for anyway?" sort of vibe.

For me, the question of magic working in a repeatable, laboratory-style fashion is about as relevant as wondering why we don't evolve from monkeys in a single lifetime. The basic premise is wrong. You could probably find several basic premises that are wrong.

At it's heart, magic is contextual. Spells work within the universe happening at that very second, and it is not repeatedable in it's very nature. It's like asking the ocean to repeat a wave, and then saying that since they can't be repeated exactly, they don't count. There's too many factors, and most of all, there's too many factors that we don't know about and really, truly don't understand.

This is the nature of mystery. It can't be explained, or told. It has to be experienced to be understood. Magic is mysterious, science is not. And I love them both, very much - in their separate areas, thank you. :)

Blessed be,
Pennanti