Sunday, April 8, 2012

The Superstition of Demon Possession

Last night I chanced upon a Christian blog, with one of the posts talking about demon possession. After quickly reading through it, then reading the 10 or so comments, I was stunned at the amount of people that really believe in this superstition, of a literal demon taking over a person's body. So I gave a short comment about this subject, with my thoughts about it. After several hours of my comment "pending" it finally got deleted, as I thought it would. It would seem that Christians don't like their beliefs being questioned, nor do they want a discussion about it with anybody not a Christian. I figure that, at least with this one website, they only allow comments from other Christians. It was at that time of my comment being deleted that I knew what my next post would be - Demon Possession.

a drawing of a demon
Let me begin by saying that there is no such thing as demon possession, because there are no demons. Look at my previous post here concerning demons, and angels as well. There is, however, something called mental illnesses. It is this illness that people, especially religious people, like to falsely call demon possession. A person with a mental illness needs help and compassion, and not being pointed to and being told they have a demon inside them, and in some cases being put in a show of "casting out a demon".

Mankind has always been superstitious; things they don't understand they blame the supernatural on. And mental illnesses has always been on the top of that list. It seems that in many cases, superstition over-rules common sense and logic when it comes to many Christian teachings and beliefs. Ignorance and superstition has ruled religion for thousands of years.

There is absolutely no proof of demons or demon possession. What Christians call demon possession, the educated call it mental illness. In this day and age, we know better; science easily backs up many kinds of illness as a diagnosis.

Now what angers me is not that Christians misinform and/or lie to the public and the masses about demons, telling them it's truth when in fact the evidence states otherwise. Okay, that does anger me. But what angers me more is that many Christians take it one step further and claim to be casting out demons. People like Bob Larson and Benny Hinn, which many people trust and hold faith in, actively lies by stating people have demons in them, then goes on a great act of "casting those demons out". Both individuals are a good showman, but are a disgrace to the Christian religion. (In another post I will speak about Benny Hinn's false "slaying of the spirit"). Click on this link that I found that shows Bob Larson "casting out demons" for a quick look at how this works, and then questioned by a reporter about how he has used his ministries money.

Bob Larson casting out a demonAnybody with charisma, skill, patience to practice, and a powerful presence, such as Bob Larson, can easily mentally overpower a weaker-minded individual and force them to act in ways which he wants. They really put on a good show, especially with a large crowd. People with a mental illness (or even those that do not, but are having some personal problems) go to these events, brainwashed into believing they have a demon in them, and hoping that their "demon" can be cast out.

It is a psychological ploy by the "exorcist", who preys on weak-minded individuals that has some sort of illness, using emotion, persuasion, fear, & intimidation to overpower that person. Finally the poor person falls down in exhaustion. Then the exorcist, after claiming he cast that demon out, says something to comfort that person such as "you are now free, my child" or other comforting words. It is one of the greatest hoaxes in the Christian community!

I said if before, and I will say it again - there is no such thing as demon possession. There are no demons. There are no supernatural forces that takes over a persons body. It is all false. There is no evidence for this, while all of the scientific evidence points towards many types of mental illnesses instead. Show me a demon possessed person, and I will show you that in reality, that that person instead is mentally sick, and needs medical help.

Let us stop this foolishness of believing in demon possession, and instead, really help these mentally ill people. Don't treat them like a circus act, but rather, treat them with love, compassion, and understanding. And to the Christian community, stop the lies of saying that literal demons exist and that they take over people's bodies. Stop the scare tactics! It is totally ludicrous. I challenge anybody to show me one demon, or a true case of demon possession.

And finally, let us move away from ignorance and superstition, and move towards education, critical thinking, and self-evaluation instead.

Friday, April 6, 2012

The Falsehood of God's Grand Punishments

God's judgement on the Earth
If you're like me, and have either been involved in a religion or associated with religious people, then we have been told that God punishes bad people, the wicked, heretics, and the list just goes on and on. Even to the extent of "God will punish people that don't believe exactly as I do". And a lot of people truly believe this, to the detriment of humanity.

First off, God does not punish, if even one exists. Many people think that if a natural disaster happens in a certain region of the globe, that there was some kind of God behind it. They say things like "those people must have been really wicked" or "they forsake God and He's now punishing them", and the like. You know who I mean; we see them all over the place.

an Indonesian village being flattened after the 2004 earthquake & tsunami
One example is the 2004 Indonesian Tsunami. I remember a lot of Christians at this time were saying that God caused the earthquake and tsunami, because mostly it was the Muslims who died in that tragedy. And likewise, the Muslims say the same things against the Christians if a natural disaster happened to be in a country or region that had a large Christian population. And there are just numerous examples of this on both sides. This kind of thought process is very dangerous for at least a couple of reasons.
an Indonesian baby being orphaned after the 2004 tsunami

The first is that it is unsupported by facts, which I won't go into much here as that is pretty much self-explanatory. Anybody who is at least slightly educated knows how earthquakes happen, and how tsunami's form. A natural disaster is just that, a natural disaster. God, or a god, does not need to be present for these types of tragedies to happen. They happen quite naturally, all by themselves, without needing some sort of supernatural power behind it.

The second is because it is this kind of intolerant and illogical thinking that leads to more hate and division, rather than peace and unity. This backwards thinking only harms humanity as it builds higher walls of mistrust. We need to come together in peace and forgiveness, and not point fingers anymore with the thinking "look at God punishing those people."

This post is just one small example of how religion is slowly destroying the world. Education is the key to our survival. Education and unity.