Religion in HP

[anguis_1 at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 17055

> Seattle de Taeloure wrote:
> 
> > I know this has been brought up before in a way, but I
> > was wondering about Wizard religion.
> 
> <snip>
> 
> > Then I got to thinking, what if the wizarding world
> > has religions, similar to those of the muggles, and
> > yet without all that "witches are evil" stuff.  For
> > example, are there Catholic and Muslim and Jewish
> > witches?  Mayhaps they have their own kinds of
> > religions?

Right now, I don't think we're in a position to really know.  So far, 
our perspective is mostly from inside Hogwarts.  If wizarding
religion 
were to be somewhat parallel to "Muggle" religion, Hogwarts would be
a 
school for families who aren't too serious about religion.  First of 
all, it's not associated with a particular religion (e.g. has weekly 
services, a pastor/priest/etc., religion classes).  Secondly, the 
children have no access to regular religious services.  First and 
Second Years can't leave the school at all, and Hogsmeade visits are 
irregular for the older students.  Many religions (although not all), 
encourage regular attendance at some sort of community worship.  A 
family that is serious about their religion would probably not send 
their child to a place where he would not be able to fully practice
his 
religion.
Anyway, (I think) my point was that Hogwarts students probably don't 
have very strong religious backgrounds, so we can't base our
judgement 
of the existence of wizarding religion on its absence from HP.
Also, does anyone know if JKR professes to be a practicing member of
a  
particular religion?  If she doesn't, it would be natural for her to 
not include religion as a facet of daily life.
[I apologize for the incoherent ramble, but I've been doing my
calculus 
homework and my logic has taken a vacation.]