Will Some Always Believe in Demons



My late brother explained to me various aspects of being a doctor. One was that when a tragedy happens, especially when it ends in a death, survivors feel they must blame someone. That is, random bad luck does not fill emotional need of the moment. The doctor's job is to listen to these explanations usually without arguing.

I don't claim to have powerful insight into humans, but I have license like everyone else to toss in my two cents. Perhaps we all need someone or something to blame for every bad thing that happens whether it is about someone close to us or society at large. When something we don't like comes along, we need a universal and safe villain. It can't be ourselves, that would be painful. But it can't be someone we know either because then there is obligation to link cause and effect. So, we humans scan the invisible horizon and grab whatever is available. We find Satan or something else invisible. 

Reading the link, written by what seems a self-promoting preacher and writer, got me to wondering how many people make a living talking and writing about a Satan. It is an industry. Those who supply Satan to the market enjoy providing it. Those who consume Satan are happy to pay for it. I'm calling all "forces of evil" with the term Satan. 

Pope Francis made casual remarks to the traveling press a few years back that, yes, Satan is real. Maybe Pope Leo has said the same thing. A Satan is a good thing to have. Clergy can talk about it without providing proof of any kind. An imaginary Satan is simply added to an imaginary God/Jesus. Add in an imaginary sins and imaginary life after death with places and we have an entire world of the mind. Some of us can chuckle but those preaching Satan make more money than we do. 


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Will We Ever Know How Accurate Current Bibles Are

Image
When I discuss the many times the Bible was copied and recopied by scribes over a couple of thousand years, the reply is often, "I have a book by this (or that) expert who says the Bible is 99% accurate to its original writers." The 99% claim appears in various places defending the Bible. There is one thing we know absolutely: There is no surviving original copy of the Bible. Even the oldest surviving material is a generation or two after the time some of the Bible was written. This means no one can claim he has, or ever will, compare the current Bible to the original Bible and find the two are 99% the same. We cannot claim either that it is not 99% accurate. For the sake of discussion, however, assume the current Bible is 99% accurate. That would mean the one word out of every 100 was inaccurate. It could still mean an important misreading of the original text. An example is the passage referring to punishment for a man who kills a fetus. In the oldest know materia...
Read more

Talarico Looks Like an Obama II

Image
We all have our ideas about what is good or smart politics. I'm no different. Those who read this blog have to hear mine. My thinking is millions of voters will go to the polls in the next two elections for the specific purpose of voting against Trump. Most of these voters, however, will not admit that is why or how they are voting. They will have convinced themselves they are voting for some reason more idealistic and loftier. An example of what they might say to themselves is, "I'm voting for a better country." The job of Democrats, Libertarians, Socialists and whomever is to give those voters something that ends the sentence, "I'm voting for someone other than a Republican because..."  The sentence will not end in "...I hate Trump." It will be something else. That is what Texas Govitorial Candidate Talarico is doing so well.   Talarico is telling Texans their state is too big and too important to yield to the narrow views of the far right. T...
Read more

Time to Forget the Christian Nation Thing

Image
While women are forbidden from being priests/preachers in some branches of Christianity thank goodness they are not forbidden from writing and lecturing about Christianity. A great article about the "Christian nation" notion shows us the U.S. is not a Christian nation and hopefully never will be. It is written by a woman with nerve and was published on a very Christian site, Christian Post.  Among the pilgrims were a few that wanted to establish a utopian Christian society. Some of their brethren stayed behind in Europe hoping the push aside worldly forces there and bring sinners to God. Today, whether it is the anti abortion, anti gay/trans, anti immigration or the put prayer back in schools branch there are those who want a version of what some pilgrims wanted, a utopian Christian society. The pilgrims were disappointed. Today's Christian utopians will be also. Here is why. The children of pilgrims did not believe the same things as their parents. Parents were roundly d...
Read more