Magic or religion?

Everyone needs a miracle. And the miracle service providers are two8212;magic and religion. Because practitioners and believers of magical...

Everyone needs a miracle. And the miracle service providers are two8212;magic and religion. Because practitioners and believers of magical activities, which include crystals, Vaastu, Feng Shui, palmistry, cards, and so on, try and turn processes into Truths, magic is often likened to religion. But the two, as a brilliantly-written recent paper by Eli Berman of University of California and Laurence R. Iannaccone of George Mason University, argues, are different what8217;s new?, and how that8217;s what.

In Religious Extremism: The Good,The Bad,and The Deadly, the authors differentiate between the two: 8220;Religion consists of beliefs, practices, and institutions that relate to one or more supernatural beings. Magic, by contrast, consists of beliefs, practices, and institutions that concern impersonal supernatural forces.8221; And, while the former involves supernatural production which is impersonal, the latter entails supernatural exchange interpersonal.

It is here that within the wider classification of 8216;new age8217;, a Reiki master, an astrologer or a face reader has to combat the fuzzy line that divides the two. If after a few lakhs that financed a few broken walls, the consumer of Vaastu services turns wealthy, his advisor becomes a permanent part of his future strategy and has to diversify into, or outsource from, other services like astrology, palmistry, Feng Shui. But if the wealth doesn8217;t turn up, there is an immediate loss of confidence in not only the service provider but the whole process, even the force.

Religion is different. Even when a master8212;living or an institution based on one8212;fails to deliver the goods, there is generally no loss of confidence or feeling cheated simply because 8220;failure can be explained in terms of the gods8217; autonomy and personality8221;. Maybe it8217;s not right for you, maybe the time8217;s not right, you don8217;t know what8217;s best for you8212;we all know the spiel.

Non-performance by magicians, most of who try and project themselves as masters of their art and often call it a science, is not acceptable. To a consumer, the force8212;if it is indeed one and not a placebo8212;should work 8220;here and not just there, now and not just then8221;. The same consumer, when he approaches God through religion, is more compassionate, more accepting of his failures, of not getting a good deal.

How unfair!