Infiel

I would like to put forward the challenge that the Harry Potter books are the inerrant and inspired word of J.K Rowling, and are profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

Rules:

* Passages cannot always be taken at surface value, the context must be considered.
* A genuine contradiction only exists when there is absolutely no way to effect a harmony between passages that appear to be in conflict.

seebs

Is the question here merely one of internal contradictions, or also one of our experience? For instance, if the books refer to something being reported "in Muggle papers", should we expect to be able to find it in some British newspaper?

Infiel

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. The books are wholly inerrant, both internally and externally.

seebs

Cute, but I don't think it'll hold up without some fairly abusive stretching, and I don't think it's hugely relevant.

Infiel

True (although when the wizard equivelant of red flashy things are involved...). I'll confine my challenge to internal consistancy. Why don't you think it is relevant?

Infiel

"A mistake in HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE occurred when it was released in July 2000. The mistake appears in a passage late in the book (page 579 FIRST British version; page 667 FIRST American version), during Harry's dramatic encounter with the dark wizard Lord Voldemort.

In this scene, Harry sees the ghosts of his parents (murdered by Voldemort when Harry was just a baby) emerge from Voldemort's wand --- father James Potter first, then Lily Potter.
The ghosts of Voldemort's victims are supposed to emerge from his wand in the reverse order they were killed, and you know that James Potter was killed before his wife."

From www.hogwarts.esmartweb.com/mistakes.htm

This is not an error. It is clear from this passage that James Potter was initially mortally wounded, and died shortly afterward. Obviously not all wizard spells kill instantly.

This kind of "error" is very typical of the attacks on Harry Potter, however if one actually delves into the passage, it becomes quite clear that there is in fact no error

WinAce

N3wb. There are no contradictions in Star Trek is a far superior apologetic.

Yours has potential too though.

mike_decock

Well, since this Forum is dedicated to Biblical criticism, rather than Potteral criticism, I'm sending it off to ~~Elsewhere~~.

-Mike...

Balrog of Morgoth

The deatheaters should just get machine guns and mow down the stupid wizards of The Order of The Phoenix that came to fuck with them to save a little boy who Voldemort should have shot with a gun years ago. Hello, Voldemort; guns exist in the muggle world and they're vastly superior to throwing spells around. Use them.

variant 13

I would like to put forward that the books are mediocre at best (crap in general) and are very obvious, that they have no more intrinsic value than any other story about morality, less in fact because they are too long (coz she can make them that long).

Too fucking right