Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: horsch@cs.ubc.ca (Michael Horsch) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: The demons Message-ID: Date: 14 May 91 04:08:36 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., Canada Lines: 37 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article boudreau@sunbow.central.sun.com (Val Boudreau) writes: :>In article horsch@cs.ubc.ca (Michael C. Horsch) writes: :>Demons are mythical creatures (I'd even say "metaphorical creatures"). :>The question "where did they come from?" entirely misses the point of :>the myth (or metaphor). It's much more useful and interesting to ask: :>"Why does scripture mention them?" and "What do these metaphorical :>creatures represent today?" Then we can dispense with the metaphor :>and deal with the real concerns that we've been able to identify. : :I have come into this conversation late - if I am reading the above :correctly, you are stating that demons are creatures which don't exist, :but are mentioned in the Bible for allegoric purpose only. :[...] You almost have it the way I meant it. I am claiming that literal demons, real bad supernatural creatures, you know, don't really exist. This is not to say anything about why the writers of the Bible wrote about them. In their context (as a culture whose mythos included these creatures) they are quite reasonable. In our culture, with our mythos of "science and technology" we have nothing to say about demons as literal creatures, and it is legitimate to treat them as metaphor. We can pretend that demons are still part of our mythos today, but I don't think it is really necessary. I can identify several "demons" which "harass" me from time to time. These are attitudes, conscious and unconscious, learned and instinctive, which cause me to sin. If you want to call this literally, then we're talking about the same thing anyway. The important part is not what we call them, but how we deal with them, right? Mike (just ask me) -- Michael C. Horsch Department of Computer Science horsch@cs.ubc.ca University of British Columbia