Agreed.
My point here is the obvious dismissal made by sceptics, that if the word 'magic' is used in any sense, that is an automatic 'it didn't happen,' or 'it can't happen,' or 'it's nonsense and we don't have to deal with it."
I just think that, whenever we come up against something someone ELSE ascribes to 'magic,' we make very sure that there is absolutely nothing about it that we can't figure out.
Y'know, Clark had two other laws to go along with his third one:
- When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
- The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
(grin) I'm all for imagination....and pushing it. Those who automatically dismiss, as 'impossible,' everything ever attributed to 'magic' is suffering from a fatal lack of imagination.
I just thought of something that medical science used to put great stock in; leeches. They were used ALL the time, to treat all manner of ailments.
Then things were discovered that put their use out of fashion, not useful for most of the things for which they were prescribed, and in fact, it became an insult to call a doctor a 'leech,' and any outdated, outmoded and old fashioned method of treating anything was called 'using leeches..' it was not considered a compliment.
Now, however, special medical leeches are raised, and used....and people who have hands and limbs reattached or who suffer major bruising from accidents, owe their lives (and limbs) to the use of leeches. Who knew?
The idea here is...don't dismiss stuff just because someone else thinks that stuff is 'supernatural.' It might not be. Or...if it is, we could still learn how to do it.