Thoughtful Thursday - magic

 I would like to discuss magic and its place in literature. Here are some quotes I've chosen:

I confess that Magic teacheth many superfluous things, and curious prodigies for ostentation; leave them as empty things, yet be not ignorant of their causes. But those things which are for the profit of men -- for the turning away of evil events, for the destroying of sorceries, for the curing of diseases, for the exterminating of phantasms, for the preserving of life, honor, or fortune -- may be done without offense to God or injury to religion, because they are, as profitable, so necessary.

HEINRICH CORNELIUS AGRIPPA, Three Books of Occult Philosophy or Magic

Magic and all that is ascribed to it is a deep presentiment of the powers of science.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Essays

 The trouble with magic is that there's too much it just can't fix. When things go wrong, glimpsing junkyard faerie and crows that can turn into girls and back again doesn't help much. The useful magic's never at hand. The three wishes and the genies in bottles, seven-league boots, invisible cloaks and all. They stay in the stories, while out here in the wide world we have to muddle through as best we can on our own.

CHARLES DE LINT, The Onion Girl

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. 

Arthur C. Clarke

My questions:

• Does magic in books disturb you in any way?
• Do you think that children and their parents should avoid reading books which feature supernatural world and  demons/witchcraft/spiritual entities/ magic spells ?
• Why, in your  opinion, so many children's books like Harry Potter or the Bartimaeus series have been lately accused of spreading unchristian ideas and e.g removed from school libraries as a result ? Do you think the protection of children has been really the main reason behind such actions ?

Image by Okinawa Soba (In Asia and Africa until August) via Flickr