Are demons real?

[SpeaksForTheTrees]

1. I personaly have never witnessed anything that couldnt be explained as nothing more than my imagination

 

[Muffled]

Demons are the slimy coatings on the sewage of one's mind.
And the outward actions caused by the applications of that slime.
It's not spiritual, it's mechanical, human created mahem.
A cut across the throat of humanity, demonic waste in action.
No spiritualistic cause or effect.
~
Just a thought out loud.
~
'mud

I do believe that makes sense for someone mired in materialism. Just put on the dark glasses and you can see the world differently without all the bright light blinding.

 

[Muffled]

Look out! Behind you!

It's a leprechaun!

I believe I am not aware of what leprechauns represent but I have read Irish myths and they can be pretty fanciful although I suspect there may be a basis of truth behind them.

By the way, I believe leprechauns are not in the Bible and not in my experience.

 

[Muffled]

Do demons breathe air?

I believe demons do not have bodies because they are spirits so they don't breathe air.

 

[Muffled]

Viruses, bacteria and parasites are the original demons. I think fear of demons is associated with that instinct to be afraid of even very tiny things such as spiders, however viruses, bacteria and mental illnesses account for most demonic activity, whereas fear of demons is responsible for books and movies about demons.

I don't believe I have ever heard of a connection of viruses or bacteria t demons. I would like to hear that explained if you can.

I don't believe fear of demons is the same thing as demon but I can imagine that demons do frighten people. Certainly my wife reported being frightened by one. I wasn't frightened by mine in my experience but it was a bother.

I believe there is an association of demons with mental illness but I doubt one will ever get a materialist to admit it and most professionals in the field are materialists.

 

[SkepticX]

If you apply Hume's Maxim On Miracles (or just due diligence, frankly) you get a pretty clear conclusion in these cases, and in many others as well.

Ironically(?) it's all about forming hasty, falsely confident conclusions, which is why I posted that Qualia Soup video on open-mindedness a bit back (at least I think I posted it in here--hereyago just in case).

 

[Brickjectivity]

I don't believe I have ever heard of a connection of viruses or bacteria t demons. I would like to hear that explained if you can.

Viruses have only been described microscopically in recent times. In older times people had only limited ways of understanding viruses. A virus is a nightmare disease, perfectly invisible, that seems to come and go with a will of its own. The body fights it with terrible symptomatic attempts such as fever, weakness, vomiting, trembling and sort throat. Fever can cause brain damage. How was a doctor in those times to differentiate between epileptic seizures and the shaking associated with high fever? What means did they have to understand plagues? For all they could tell a disease could live in one person, then for no apparent reason leave them and enter someone else. That is one reason to think that demons might be blamed for virus-like contagions and some infections. People are naturally superstitious, and if you look at other regions of the world viruses are often blamed upon the action of supernatural entities. This happens even in modern times, yet you and I know that viruses are tiny complex chemicals loaded with mutant genetic code.

I also think that in the gospels there is evidence that suggests certain mental illnesses were attributed to demons, and this might also have explained (for doctors) the cause of viral symptoms. Demons and illnesses are grouped together in some gospel quotes and diseases and demons appear to be interchangeable in some conversations. Additionally the gospel written by Luke (a doctor) describes demon possession in medically precise descriptions as opposed to the other gospels where the medical indications are left out. The fact that Luke leaves them in suggests that he views them as a medical problem, something that a doctor might be called out to help with.

 

[Brickjectivity]

I don't believe fear of demons is the same thing as demon but I can imagine that demons do frighten people. Certainly my wife reported being frightened by one. I wasn't frightened by mine in my experience but it was a bother.

I myself had a very frightening awakening in the middle of the night, and I felt as if there were a dark clawed animal on my chest as I lay in my bed. I decided at that moment to believe I was protected (since it had never happened before), and forced myself to immediately return to sleep. I guess either I imagined it, or that act of either faith or stubbornness somehow threw it off. I've always felt fear of the dark. Personally I think it was a 'Night terror'. Its never happened since. So whether there are really demons out there clawing at people in their beds I don't know.

I believe there is an association of demons with mental illness but I doubt one will ever get a materialist to admit it and most professionals in the field are materialists.

Maybe? I'm glad however that medical professionals have started over with a cautious process of observations and are ignoring the various superstitions about mental disease. Instead they develop theories based on observations, and then they try to come up with workable treatments. Its resulted in much more common sense treatment, whereas in the past lunatics were often quarantined together with criminals. Lunacy was not well understood. Perhaps people thought it was contagious.

 

[Bunyip]

I believe I am not aware of what leprechauns represent but I have read Irish myths and they can be pretty fanciful although I suspect there may be a basis of truth behind them.

By the way, I believe leprechauns are not in the Bible and not in my experience.

Leprechauns are a kind of Irish demon. They are no more or less fanciful than demons in any other tradition.

 

[Muffled]

Leprechauns are a kind of Irish demon. They are no more or less fanciful than demons in any other tradition.

A leprechaun (Irish: leipreachán) is a type of fairy ... (Wikipedia)

I believe you ought to get your facts in order before trying to take advantage of my ignoarance.

 

[Muffled]

This is a tricky thing in that demons are as real as you wish them to be. If they figure prominently in your belief system you may indeed experience "contact" of some kind or other. Think of it as confirmation bias on steroids. This should not be taken as meaning that I support the ideas of evil and demons. I don't. However, if you believe in such things, the validity of said things is relative to the amount of belief you put into them. Unwittingly folks put a large amount of energy into an rather unsavory relationship and one that can - quite literally - come back to haunt you.

I believe that is a nice theory but it doesn't work with my wife. My wife doesn't read the Bible so her belief bout demons would be that they were fantsy that you found in movies. She was a materialist and an agnostic but after her experience with a demon she changed her mind and decided if demons were real God could be real as well.

 

[Whiterain]

Since I've developed schizophrenia ive also been attacked by these invisible creatures.

This disgusting ****ing wyrm thing I want to call a stygian haunted me for a while and it came from another dimension.

Another time I felt a tentacle wrap around my leg, it was extremely painful.

Then an invisible woman grabbed my arm and it felt as if it was being ripped off but I shook her loose and took off.

It's crazy how powerful this illness is.

 

[Muffled]

hey Muff,
You think that God believes in redeeming or atoning for a fault or mistake ?
I get the idea that God regrets the acts mentioned, creating demons and evil.
Do you really think that God made a mistake in these doings.
Or.....do you think that He created demons and evil for deliverence from sin ?
Some sort of salvation, maybe to appease mankind for doing it to them ?
As usual...I'm somewhat confused...could you expand on that thinking ?
~
'mud

I do not believe that God created evil. I believe it was developed by those wishing to abnegate God.

 

[Muffled]

They are the instinctual, habitual impulses that are in opposition to spirit and our spiritual attempts to raise consciousness. They can gain strength, especially the longer certain habits are repeated.
Evil urges of the natural man's lower self nature, desires and emotions, the beast of the bottomless pit... A human that's never satisfied by fleshly and worldy things.
There are spirits of all sorts, jealousy, anger, pride, ego, conceit, lust, greed, lying, list goes on and on.

I don't believe in the personalization of spiritual characteristics.

 

[Muffled]

Mental illness....AKA Demons

I believe that has not been proven and I don't believe that all cases of mental illness involve demons. The person who thought I was broadcasting thought into his mind probably could read minds, didn't know it and was disturbed by it but no demon was involved that I could detect. On the other hand the girl who was listening to a voice, was obviously picking up something from outside herself and it definitely was evil. It managed to get her put in jail because the court decided she was sane.

 

[`mud]

hey Muff,
I have been told a couple of thousands of times now that God created everything,
but didn't create evil or demons, I guess that's the devil's doing, right ?
I think I'm catching on to what you're trying to say, quite interesting.
Sooooo.....didn't God create the devil ?
Or....where did he come from, before the creation ?
I continue to be confused by the wizardry of Christian thinking.
'Splainittome
~
'mud

 

[Awoon]

hey Muff,
I have been told a couple of thousands of times now that God created everything,
but didn't create evil or demons, I guess that's the devil's doing, right ?
I think I'm catching on to what you're trying to say, quite interesting.
Sooooo.....didn't God create the devil ?
Or....where did he come from, before the creation ?
I continue to be confused by the wizardry of Christian thinking.
'Splainittome
~
'mud

'mud you need to know the secret code/handshake for it to be explained. In other words you must "believe" what the Christian is telling you is from God or from Satan. And quit asking so many questions.

Think of it like this....You have an electrical wire going out in all directions from only one source and connected to everything individually. Then one or many but not all the wires have a slight break that causes the connection to whoever the receiver, to flicker and act unstable.

That is called today "mental illness." Back then it was called, "evil" or "demon." So there is no source for evil, just cracked, broken connections from the source. Remember the "Source" is amoral, never judging, condemning, killing, or choosing one being over another, but allowing itself to be tapped into, like the electrical plug on the wall.

However, this source is always connected with humanity without asking, praying or begging it to be something or do that it is not.

Humans feel/hear the source through the nervous system (the only way it can communicate.) It never demands anything from any Human because it needs no-thing. It is the Self-Existing Essence Principle of Being. Without any name that any Human can give it or that any Religion can say it has the truth of it exclusively to itself.

Now that's my rambling.
nuff said.

 

[`mud]

I can buy most of that argument,
it remains me of my three strokes, everywhere and every way.
No central connection there, and despite that, no wires !
And I'll add to that,
Nuff Stuff
~
'mud

 

[Muffled]

hey Muff,
I have been told a couple of thousands of times now that God created everything,
but didn't create evil or demons, I guess that's the devil's doing, right ?
I think I'm catching on to what you're trying to say, quite interesting.
Sooooo.....didn't God create the devil ?
Or....where did he come from, before the creation ?
I continue to be confused by the wizardry of Christian thinking.
'Splainittome
~
'mud

I believe God created beings with the ability to think. Unfortunately that means t he beings can also think evil. Evil is not a creation but the abnegation of creation by thinking beings.

 

[Muffled]

Since I've developed schizophrenia ive also been attacked by these invisible creatures.

This disgusting ****ing wyrm thing I want to call a stygian haunted me for a while and it came from another dimension.

Another time I felt a tentacle wrap around my leg, it was extremely painful.

Then an invisible woman grabbed my arm and it felt as if it was being ripped off but I shook her loose and took off.

It's crazy how powerful this illness is.

I believe just as I must analyze my experience especially instead of guessing, that you need to do that also. In mentAl illness it is not the condition of the mind but not being able to cope with the condition. Granted these are troubling conditions that are difficult to manage. Usually the way to d o that is by using drugs to alter the physical condition. Now the evidence is that not e very schizophrenic has your experience so there is no direct connection. In other words the physical condition makes the phenomena possible but does not Invoke it.