Loading... If the bible was replaced by one of harry porters books would you still believe ?

I think there is definitely an age factor working in the bible's favor. No one who was around when it was written is still here to discredit it in any way, so it has taken on a sort of immunity when questioning its validity. People can analyze the era in which it was introduced and how its teachings hold up today, but no one can definitively disprove it without a time machine. However age alone isn't why its so instrumental in religion. If Harry Potter was thousands of years old, it would likely be regarded as an epic or a fable, similar to the odyssey. Because it is written as a narrative, and makes no claim to being real, I doubt it would develop its own religion. Maybe it could become a cautionary tale (don't be like Voldemort) but that is probably all. However, if a book were written that did claim to be real and used a number of fictional stories to convey life lessons and make claims to a real god, I do think that it could develop into a religion over time. For example, if the works of H. P. Lovecraft were to be aged a few thousand years and all records of the author were destroyed, it could definitely become a religion because of his consistency of gods and intergalactic beings. Though admittedly, the Cthulhu religion would be far more depressing.

"Harry *Potter,*" not "Porter!"

No, I don't think so. Love the Harry Potter books, but a novel (or series) of them doesn't simply substitute for a collection of holy texts such as the Bible or Koran or the Book of Mormon--or whatever.

They make quite different claims on the reader--and of course, Scriptures (good, bad, or indifferent) always arise within the frame of some sort of social context--a proto-religion, a group of believers.

In other words (and in my opinion) we don't believe doctrines because of a mysterious book; rather, we produce Scripture to codify and explain beliefs of groups which already exist. Note that you can have religion without Scripture--but there has never (to my knowledge) been Scripture without religion. (Though there can be spiritual thought and writing without religion--and such writing can be incorporated into Scripture if adopted by a religious community.)

The bible claims to be the word of God, whereas no other books makes that claim.

The comparison to Harry potter seems strange to me because the bible forbids wizardry.

The quest is to find the truth, and in the bible, if you look at the original writing in Hebrew, you will find the true name of the Almighty hidden by the English translation LORD. The true name of the Almighty is Yehowah. Seek and ye shall find.