Demons

Elmud,

Only as metaphors can the users of such terms be considered sane.

Evil seems utterly alien and incomprehensible to most people. I don't mean petty theft, or pride, or anger- but rather mass murder, rape, kidnap and torture. People doing such things seem like monsters- utterly alien. It is highly unsuprising that people should believe in demons and demonic possesion when faced by such individuals. Moreover the concept of the devil- the idea that evil is an active, intelligent force trying to undermine, tempt and corrupt us has more than a slight ring of truth to most of us. Certainly this cosmology seems to offer very satisfying explanations for evil. Whereas our modern views- mental illness, childhood abuse, or resenment and frustration, hardly seem sufficent to explain the nature of evil. Is it that the modern view is true but unpallatable, or is it insufficent- too limited to truly explain what we see when we look upon the face of evil?

YO!

The same people who deny evolutionary biology, psychology, global warming, continental drift and Christ knows what else, are a wonder to me that they find their way home at night----------lol!!

My grandchild is a demon.

LOL. Shame on ye.

Demons are a metaphor for explaining why some one seems possessed to do certain things. The belief in demons is most likely a remnant of when the majority of people believed in witchcraft.

Also, historically they were a great way for evangelical faiths to, erm, demonise the pantheons of older or competing faiths.

I just wanted to add that there are quite a few people who accept both. Things are not as contradictory as they appear on the surface.

I think demon is a loose term; loads of different 'beings' from various religions, mythologies, etc are called demons in English. Some are actual monstrous beings, the existence of which being debatable, though most just assume they don't exist. Some are personifications of 'evil' behaviour such as lust. Some are spirits (like in Christianity) and some are simply an older way of defining psychological illness (I think the last two are the same - or were originally).