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NancyLebovitz comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 15, chapter 84 - Less Wrong Discussion

3 Post author: FAWS 11 April 2012 03:39AM

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Comment author: NancyLebovitz 11 April 2012 03:11:06PM *  13 points [-]

I wouldn't expect Wizards to be big fans of birth control or abortion.

Are you assuming vaguely medieval tech = Catholic = opposed to birth control and abortion?

The Catholic Church didn't declare that all abortion was murder until the Renaissance, and I don't think there's any reason to think that wizards are generally Catholics. ETA Nor is there any reason to think that Catholics are reliably obedient to Popes.

The simplest explanation might be that wizards (like Tolkien's elves, but less so) just aren't very fertile.

Comment author: Percent_Carbon 12 April 2012 07:19:04AM *  4 points [-]

Church of England, surely.

As an American I can tell you confidently that the wizards and witches of magical Britain have one quality above all others: they are British.

Comment author: Velorien 12 April 2012 01:50:34PM 3 points [-]

This would explain why religion never comes up in canon.

Comment author: gjm 12 April 2012 04:13:25PM 4 points [-]

It does, a little bit. I think there's one church service, seen from the outside, and some important grave -- Harry's parents? -- has a quotation from the New Testament on it. ("The last enemy to be defeated is death", which of course plenty of not-at-all-religious people would have much sympathy with.) But yes, religion in the UK tends to be rather less conspicuous than in the US.