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On the contrary, your take on this is pretty interesting. It still proves a commonly believed point that wizards, real wizards with fireballs and lightning bolts have never existed in any culture. As you said, Wizards were linked to mystery and the unexplained. Most stories in which men were said to wield magical powers are probably just different takes on a purely scientific discovery made by a commoner or an uneducated person, who were the most likely people in the period (say 13th to 15th century) to pass on a story by word of mouth.
Magic has always been used as an explaination to something that cannot be readily understood or explained by a common man. Are people like David Copperfield true magicians? No. Everyone knows that. They do not claim to be magicians or wizards. They are Illusionists(not the AD&D kind), they use trickery and guile to produce an effect that cannot be logically explained by the average human being watching it being performed, and call it magic.
Can we explain the human in two pieces trick? The one where a saw goes through a man and he comes out unscathed? No. Do we really believe that the saw went through the man? No. But can we firmly, without a trace of reasonable doubt say that it did not? No.
Same for a soldier on an ancient battlefield(many were superstitious by the way, and that would have helped tales and stories of feats on the battlefield evolve into tales of magic and the unexplained). Say a Japanese Samurai, who often served as guards for Shogunn or warlords. To them, and to many soldiers, Ninja were said to have supernatural powers. Were they really able to walk on water or disappear into thin air? No. Say to a Chinese Soldier on a battlefield, where the enemy uses inciendiary devices (they did exist, Greek Fire was believed to have been an early version of Napalm, but till today nobody knows the true composition of it, and it would have been a legendary weapon with links in magic in it's own era). Say if that same Soldier saw planes and nuclear bombs and machine guns. Would he have any explaination for them BUT magical fireballs and invisible arrows?
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Why?
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