The universe didn’t force you not to believe in magic. You could have spent your whole life believing magnets are magical stones, that the electromagnetic force is magical energy, and that computer engineers are wizards who conjure spirits from magic. And you could have been 100% factually and scientifically correct.
But you chose to believe that magic is by definition not real, because you didn’t want to live in a world of whimsy and wonder. You defined magic as supernatural, in opposition to the natural world. While every scientist knows that nature is just a word for everything that exists. You chose to define magic in a way that it wouldn’t exist, denying it through tautology and not through science.
Why did you choose that?
Why are people hating on this? OP is right! Non of you have any idea what gravity is, besides being some attractive force that starts existing with mass. How? Why? Wtf even is it? NON OF YA KNOW! How is that different from a wizard utilizing limited knowledge of “magic” to create a fire ball spell? All the wizard knows is that some words and imagining some flow inside the body mixed with a bit of contraction produces sparks out of the finger tips. How? Why? Wtf even is it? The wizard sure as hell can’t tell! But can utilize this knowledge to predict processes and make new things! Just like a scientist! Scientists are just a lot more advanced since they view stuff like peer review as a necessity.
This goes hand it hand with the quote “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”, read some old legends and be absolutely bored by what they considered magic.
In conclusion scientists are wizards. To a certain extend engineers too, since they practice said “magic”. I mean many iconic wizards in stories didn’t invent the spells and rituals they use.
Actually, in Dungeons and Dragons wizards understand magic very well. It takes years of academic study in order to cast a single cantrip. Magic is governed by the Weave, a sort of field that extends across the multiverse and carries arcane energies of life, necrosis, law, order, good, and evil. For a wizard, spellcasting is based on intelligence. Book smarts and deep understanding.
Didn’t cross my mind that there are settings that explain EVERYTHING. D&D qualifies as less “magical” than real life! xD
Honestly it brings me great joy thinking of me and my programmer buddies as little mages, and wizards respectively. Creating my own world inside my lighting infused rune stone.
I mean. I’m sure those wizards up in the tower are asking. “ok, but WHY does this field cross over planes when others don’t. Why does it carry energy? Why am I able to access this energy the way that I am?” And in the process of answering those questions they discover new ones they never even knew to ask.