Regarding the question about when you know witchcraft is real: Occultic witchcraft (which HP is NOT, as I will show in a moment) is, unfortunately, real, and we can tell by the fact that they draw their power not from themselves, but from others (demons and evil spirits).

In the HP books however, several things absolutely disprove Rowling's version of magic as being the occultic magick. 1) The spelling of the word is different, implying the same idea of "magic" you get when you go to a magic show, as opposed to occultic "magick." 2) The power to use magic in HP supposedly comes from within, whereas occultic magick is drawn from others. 3) Occultic magick is something learned (and I say that with the greatest distaste), whereas in HP, you're either born with the ability or not.

These are the biggest (though certainly not the only) distinctions that need to be made. I would ask that no more people claim that HP is representative of true occult until and unless they are ready to defend those claims.

Chanfb:

Harry Potter does encourage withcraft! These books are teaching children to cast spells and vexes on others as well as to have them to be changed into other images. I remember not too long ago how when a Harry Potter book was being released children where sleeping in front of books stores to get the book. That is idolzing! We need to teach our children the truth so they can be set free.

About teaching children spells: That is impossible. The "spells" in HP are no more than mangled Latin (and other languages), put together to make funny sounding words. I can shout 'Accio pen' and wave a stick about all I want, but the pen is never going to come to me.

About idolizing: Is camping in front of book stores a strict dychotomy for idolization, or do we need to introduce a different (and possibly arbitrary) brightline?

And to back the few posters above, why is HP worse than fairy tales, or Shakespeare's "Macbeth" and "The Tempest", or the Chronicles of Narnia, or the Lord of the Rings, or ancient mythology, or so many others?