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→Use as a Pejorative Label: sleight of hand (as entertainment) is not the issue here. And clarify Christian objection to it.
==Use as a Pejorative Label==
==Use as a Pejorative Label==
The word "magic" has become somewhat synonymous with sleights of hand, trickery, and [[deception]]. As a result, by using the label "magic", a person can negatively characterize ritual practices or beliefs that he wishes to condemn. For example, the last Roman Emperor to practice the traditional Roman religion, [[Julian]], characterized the apostles [[Paul]] and [[Peter]] as the greatest magicans who ever lived, in an attempt to reduce the wonders of [[Christianity]] to mere wizardry. Christians themselves are also mistrustful of magic; for example, in [[Dante's Inferno]], sorcerers are punished in the eighth circle of [[Hell]] - lower than [[tyrants]], [[usury|usurers]] and [[simony|simoniacs]].
The word "magic" has become somewhat synonymous with [[deception]]. As a result, by using the label "magic", a person can negatively characterize ritual practices or beliefs that he wishes to condemn. For example, the last Roman Emperor to practice the traditional Roman religion, [[Julian]], characterized the apostles [[Paul]] and [[Peter]] as the greatest magicans who ever lived, in an attempt to reduce the wonders of [[Christianity]] to mere wizardry. Because it invokes evil or false supernatural powers, Christians themselves are also mistrustful of magic; for example, in [[Dante's Inferno]], sorcerers are punished in the eighth circle of [[Hell]] - lower than [[tyrants]], [[usury|usurers]] and [[simony|simoniacs]].
The term magic was commonly used to describe ritual practices practiced outside of the control of state authorities, so that, for example, practitioners of [[healing]] and [[exorcism]] in Classical Greek culture who were not associated with the temples of a Greek city state were commonly, as by [[Plato]], criticized as magicians.
The term magic was commonly used to describe ritual practices practiced outside of the control of state authorities, so that, for example, practitioners of [[healing]] and [[exorcism]] in Classical Greek culture who were not associated with the temples of a Greek city state were commonly, as by [[Plato]], criticized as magicians.
[[Category:Religion]]
[[Category:Religion]]