Once again Suspension of Belief. Shouting its fantasy and we shouldn't apply science is a dishonest debating tactic. Once again we observe the effects and work on basic assumptions using basic scientific principles.
Job and God were discussing science you know. Get the book in the original Hebrew and you would be amazed at how Job knew many scientific principles we take for granted today.
The Bible is also full of spec ops, counter intelligence, espionage, and grand military strategy if you can read between the lines and in the original Hebrew.
Actually I
can read it in the original Hebrew, thank you very much--over a decade of Orthodox Jewish religious school, with religious classes for four to six hours a day, six days a week will do that, but I haven't practiced my
Ivrit in years, ever since I pretty much gave up and walked away due to the rampant hypocrisy. And I
do have the book, in the original Hebrew, with Rashi and a very good translation for when I don't want to muddle through due my lack of practice (thank you Artscroll).
Now that my credentials are somewhat established, let me say this:
I said "Literal reading of the Tanach." No "interpretations", no "reading between the lines", none of that--I said, expanding out, that trying to reconcile and explain the 'miracles' done by magicians in any fantasy setting with the laws and rules of science are as pointless as trying to reconcile a literal reading of the
iEser Ha-Makot with the laws of physics, because, as hard as we might try, we can't turn water into blood, we can't turn sand into lice, we can't make hailstones burn or split the sea and so forth.
Fact of the matter is, quite simply: Once Magic Or Miracles Are Involved, The Rulebook
As We Know It Gets Thrown Out The Window.
Setting the Tanach aside for the moment to get to the real focus of the argument, fantasy universes, whether ones that are familiar like Harry Potter, or as exotic as the Discworld, operate according to a different rulebook. They have a different set of universal constants that, in the Potterverse, for example allow the desires of a child, the chemical impulses in their brain, to directly affect reality via "Magic". This is impossible according to our rulebook... but they're using a different one. "Basic Scientific Principles" don't apply; sure, you can form a hypothesis, but how the heck would you test it? And how would you scientifically analyze something as subjective as Potterverse magic, which can conjure constructs of wood out of nothing (Dumbledore's "drawing up" Trelawney's chair in PoA), create beverages from nothing, so long as there was some already present (the Refilling Charm in HBP), but
can't create other complex organic structures, a.k.a. food?
I suppose that you might be trying to figure out their "rulebook", but, honestly, as I've pointed out on with this group before, such an endeavor can only end badly--the creators never bothered to go into that sort of detail, so trying to figure out what they never bothered can only end with headaches.
The real danger, however, is when one person's theory comes under attack. We had a mild example of it earlier, when people started taking the theory on Magic=EM fields apart. Since there's no way to be sure, then there's no way to end the argument conclusively, which can end with both sides agreeing to disagree, or (more commonly) a massive flame war that often ends with people getting banned. I like to try to avoid those situations, so, personally, when I read a work of fantasy, I look at the rules of magic as presented in the book, analyze them, extrapolate them, think of fun uses for them(ritual samples of explosives from the enemy's warehouse FTW!)--and don't even
try to relate them to the physical laws as I know them.
That's my perspective, and my comment about "IT'S MAGIC!" was to try and remind everyone to step back, relax, and remember the MST3K Motto: "It's just a show/book/movie/etc, I should really just relax." I personally don't want a repeat of the fellow last year who called the Authorlord an idiot in ALLCAPS after he refused to accept the holes in his personal views of the Potterverse physical laws.
Oh, and as for the Book Of Job and the Bible having scientific principles and military strategy "in between the lines"? Now that you've made the statement, back it up. Because, aside from the scouts being sent into Canaan, I'm drawing a blank (of course, mind you, I was taught by those that believe the Earth is 5768 years old and that studying most sciences is dangerous at best, heretical at worst, so maybe their curriculum skipped over a few things. And, no, I'm not bitter. Much.)
(and if I'm a little incoherent, I apologize, it's because I'm exhausted and not a little cranky from trying not to cough up my lungs for the last few days)
EDIT: And I'm apparently really slow tonight. Thank you, Zore.