Not sure whether this is sad or funny

[Ellinas]

Mrs E and I have just returned from a trip to a care home to visit her elderly aunt.

The undeniably sad part is that she is immobile (her legs don't work any more) and is in a home largely geared towards dementia patients, despite being sharp of mind herself - not ideal surroundings for her.

But...

This elderly aunt, a long-time fundamentalist Christian of the "old school" (no television, never go to the cinema, no entertainment beyond singing a hymn or two, wouldn't allow a pack of playing cards in the house - you get the picture) was very worried the other evening when the activities at the home involved a magic show.  She was also very relieved when she found an excuse to go to her room instead.  "After all", she told us, "you never know what people are dabbling in, do you?"

Well, stuffed rabbits, bunches of fake flowers and  a couple of top hats, probably.  Though I don't think my suggesting that has altered her fear of conjuring tricks at all.

[midniterider]

Rather sad when someone is afraid to actually enjoy life.

[Wertbag]

Satan is after your soul using cheap parlour tricks and a top hat. 

Satan went from challenging god, to destroying humanity, to inconveniencing old ladies in a rest home. Sad how far hes fallen. 

[Lerk]

There are people who actually believe that the illusions (aka "sleight of hand") performed by magicians are real magic. Magic is sometimes referred to as "the dark arts" and people believe that demons are making things appear and disappear.

 

Even people who don't think it has anything to do with demons seem to think it's real sometimes. If you've ever seen magicians performing on "America's Got Talent" (and probably other shows like that) you'll notice that the judges seem to think -- not that they're seeing amazing illusions, but -- that they're seeing real magic.

 

Even when I was a Christian I never believed that kind of thing, so I was really shocked when I found out that some people did!

[Wertbag]

There is a YouTube channel devoted to "demon magic". He posts clip after clip of magicians doing shows, claiming it is all impossible. People have sent him behind the scenes trick revealed shows, or trick tutorials and all he comes back with is "well yes, maybe that one is, but what about this one!" 

[MOHO]

Mrs. MOHO refuses to listen to any Van Morrison tunes because of that one song  "Into the Mystic".

 

I really think that some folks can fully replace any entertainment or joy they might have otherwise experienced by applying this false control that they employ over their, as well as our lives, via supersitican. 

 

[florduh]

Funny, unless it's someone you happen to care about. I find those people hard to care about, though.

[LogicalFallacy]

It's both funny that humans in 2019 are about the same as the terrified superstitious ancestors of 10,000 years ago, and sad as well.

 

My family is like that with certain things - can't enjoy the TV show Supernatural cause it has demonic stuff in it. It's all made up stuff!

 

We laugh about some of the weird silly fears that humans of yesteryear had... but in the future they will probably do face palms about the irrational beliefs held in the 21st century.