What does demon possession mean to you?

[The Reverend Bob]

Fear isn't a demon but a very explainable physiological response.

It's what demons use to spread their infection to as many as they can.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

It's what demons use to spread their infection to as many as they can.

Doubtful, as fear is probably an evolved trait of survival - of our ancestors those who ran when they saw the grasses bristle likely lived longer than those who stuck around to see what was causing the grass to rustle.

 

[The Reverend Bob]

Doubtful, as fear is probably an evolved trait of survival - of our ancestors those who ran when they saw the grasses bristle likely lived longer than those who stuck around to see what was causing the grass to rustle.

Nope. It is used all the time to sell products and to sell political agendas

Fear sells better than sex does.

Does fear-based marketing actually work?

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Nope. It is used all the time to sell products and to sell political agendas

We didn't have products to sell or political agendas as we were evolving into what we are today. Those didn't come along until yesterday in the overall timeline of our species evolving from early hominids to modern homo sapiens.

 

[The Reverend Bob]

We didn't have products to sell or political agendas as we were evolving into what we are today. Those didn't come along until yesterday in the overall timeline of our species evolving from early hominids to modern homo sapiens.

And what does this have to do with demons? Fear has always been a tool in which to control how a population behaves and what it believes. And civilized humanity always had products and agendas to sell.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

And what does this have to do with demons? Fear has always been a tool in which to control how a population behaves and what it believes. And civilized humanity always had products and agendas to sell.

As I had said earlier, that's doubtful because it appears likely that fear evolved as a survival trait. We have even observed such a thing in labs where fear of a predator appears to get passed down from one generation to the next, with those having a higher rate of survival than the controlled generations who were minimally exposed to predators.

 

[The Reverend Bob]

As I had said earlier, that's doubtful because it appears likely that fear evolved as a survival trait. We have even observed such a thing in labs where fear of a predator appears to get passed down from one generation to the next, with those having a higher rate of survival than the controlled generations who were minimally exposed to predators.

Sorry, but fear is a well known method if social control.

How Political Fear Works

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/brit...politics-5-examples-through-history-1.3251520

Donald Trump's Campaign Is Based on Fear

The Political Effects Of Existential Fear

The politics of fear: How fear goes tribal, allowing us to be manipulated

A trauma-like model of political extremism: psycho-political fault lines in Israel. - PubMed - NCBI

Fear and Social Control

Fear motivates us and is used to control us, the evidence is there and it is solid. Not all these journalists, scholars and scientist can be wrong about it. Fear is used to control a population, there can be no denial of that. People who deny fear controls us are motivated by fear and in denial because they are afraid of the raw truth: we live in a culture of fear and violence. There is no escaping this fundamental truth.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Sorry, but fear is a well known method if social control.

We aren't the only animals to experience fear. It can control, but we have observed this trait being passed down from one generation to the next, with this trait enhancing the survival of those who got it over those exposed to the control of not being exposed to fear.
As for controlling, we can just as easily use joy and hope to subdue and control people. And you are referencing a very modern and very human examination of fear. It's an ages old emotion that is experienced by numerous animals, who as a group almost entirely lack politics and products to sell. A butterfly who holds deathly still to camouflage itself from a predator simply knows nothing of politics or material products.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Yup. But, truly I believe, we are living in a time where we aren't very far away from a collective cultural reexamination of our beliefs as we shed the ideas that we clinging onto yet too scared to let go of because they've been with us for so long. Demonic possession is definitely one of those things, which is already something only the most insistent about supernatural occurrences still believe in anyways.

We are in indeed living in greatly changing times. From a personal perspective, I know that there are paradigms I hold that would be difficult to change, It would be nice to recognize aspects that need upgrading and do it at the flick of a switch, like downloading the upgrade online. But change on the human scale, even when rapid, is slow and uncomfortable by comparison, at best.

Demonic possession is one of those archaic ideas that has clung to life even into modern times. It is weird to see stone age ideas like that persisting in a world where we can talk to people on the other side of the planet as if they were in the room with us.

The notion that our own evil is really external and not us. The primitive urge to find fault that does not start with us must be very compelling and soothing.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Man I just love apologetics. Such creativity!

I like the colored fonts and the changing size of the text. Not for reading. It makes reading more difficult. That may be one point of it. But it has a colorful novelty about it.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Well no worries. None of you are informed on this topic anyway; so it hasn't been tainted.

The fact is people believe a lot of nonsense about demonic possession/oppression and don't know what they're talking about.

Welcome to the club then.

Demonic possession is a lot of nonsense that some people cling to. I know what I am talking about.

 

[74x12]

I have looked. I used to be a believer in pseudo science. I use to even search and look. But consistently my searches at best provided evidence people easily mistake things for objects that will play into the drama of their beliefs. One of the last "haunted sites" I looked at, people swore to me that human hairs appeared on the walls after they did a seance. This "hair" was nothing more than the bristles of a synthetic paint brush left behind on the walls after they had been textured with plaster. Which really sums up the entirety of my search: people want to believe so much their minds will plant non-existent evidence and forego critical examination to uphold their beliefs.

Well, I am sure you can point to an endless stream of examples of mistaken people thinking they have proof of hauntings but it's actually something obvious. But, that doesn't mean everything is so easily explainable.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

so ...you don't believe in freewill?

I am still working that out.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Well, I am sure you can point to an endless stream of examples of mistaken people thinking they have proof of hauntings but it's actually something obvious. But, that doesn't mean everything is so easily explainable.

If it were easily explainable, then there would be no endless stream of examples of people claiming to have proof and continually being debunked.

 

[74x12]

If it were easily explainable, then there would be no endless stream of examples of people claiming to have proof and continually being debunked.

Debunked for you doesn't mean it's really debunked. All too often "debunkers" have pathetically weak arguments. However, they are widely accepted by people who just don't want to believe in whatever it was that was "debunked". In other words you need any explanation and that will be enough for you.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Well no worries. None of you are informed on this topic anyway; so it hasn't been tainted.

The fact is people believe a lot of nonsense about demonic possession/oppression and don't know what they're talking about.

You believe something you have no way to demonstrate to be true. Most of this exists in your own mind as a truth, but that is due to the circularity of your own belief reinforcing a demand that what you see be what you want it to be. I can accept that you believe, but then you go and decide to take actions to make the world fit what you believe. The rest of us that think demons and the devil are metaphors for our own evil don't see your demands as acceptable. I believe things too, but I don't try to make the world fit my beliefs. Why is that so difficult for other people.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

But, that doesn't mean everything is so easily explainable.

My family swore up and down there was a "one footed ghost" haunting the garage because there are several outlines of a right foot on the concrete floor, but no left foot. That one was one of the harder ones for me to solve. After a few months of trying to figure out what's going on, I finally realized they are outlines of a foot, but not actual foot prints, they are all approximately around where cars are pulled in to work on them, and my brother, who strongly favors his right leg over his broken and shattered left leg, works on cars way more frequently than anyone else who uses the garage. So I put my shoed foot on top of the outlined foot, and sure enough it compared to mine the same way my brothers would if his shoes were available.
Give me enough time, I am confident I can explain any such "haunting" I am brought to. It usually doesn't take me long to find evidence to dismiss the presence of any and all supernatural beings. I'm also good at examining videos, audio, and photographs (raw footage and unedited).

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Debunked for you doesn't mean it's really debunked. All too often "debunkers" have pathetically weak arguments. However, they are widely accepted by people who just don't want to believe in whatever it was that was "debunked". In other words you need any explanation and that will be enough for you.

It does not mean it is debunked for you, but that is easy for a person to do. Just continue living in denial. That'll do it.

Many things that make no sense are widely believed by people. Popularity does not equal proof that what is popular is real.

You have no idea what explanations are acceptable to me, but claims of demons and possession would require robust evidence and demonstration. Not the circular logic used by those that would accept any silly idea if it were part of their overall paradigm.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Debunked for you doesn't mean it's really debunked. All too often "debunkers" have pathetically weak arguments. However, they are widely accepted by people who just don't want to believe in whatever it was that was "debunked". In other words you need any explanation and that will be enough for you.

I really doubt that you have reviewed the arguments and evidence that have debunked these things. You just scoffed it off, because it was against what you have long believed without question.

 

[Dan From Smithville]

Sorry but, that's a naive point of view. There is proof. Just ignored and not accepted. I would suggest you do your own research and not rely on the educational system and MSM.

I know. The evidence is ignored. You have to be part of a special club to see it. People are being tricked by the very things they keep claiming have no evidence. Yada yada yada yada yada.