Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: boudreau@gandalf.central.sun.com (Val Boudreau) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: The demons Message-ID: Date: 24 May 91 04:27:56 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, Ca. Lines: 34 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu >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? > I tend to disagree with your comments on this. When the Bible tells of Jesus casting out demons from a person, I do not believe he was casting a conscious and/or unconscious attitude from the person, but casting a physical supernatural being (fallen angels in this case). The demons (Legion) that he cast from the one man into the pigs surely wasn't an attitude. I almost get the feeling that you are trying to say that "science and technology" has disproved many of the writings of the Bible. I also disagree on this point. The Bible doesn't make any contradications to science, such as a statement like "the world is flat". Anywhere that people feel that there is a contradiction is most likely an area where mankind truly doesn't see the big picture. There are alot of areas which are grey to mankind. Regards, Val Boudreau