Church Fight Club!
What can we learn from this video? I think it clearly demonstrates that there simply is no way that someone can have a ‘supernatural’ experience that is not connected to reality, and that there is just things that psychology, sociology, and science can’t explain! If history proves anything it surely proves that all experiences are legitimate and definitely connected to reality.
I mean, they felt it, they experienced it, therefore, it has to be real. Outside of any materialistic realm, but real none the less.
There is simply no way that human beings can be indoctrinated, socialized, or brainwashed with inadequate categories to interpret the natural phenomena around them, therefore, their experiences of these demons are real and cannot be explained by anything other than ‘God using it to confound the wise.’
scotteriology.wordpress.com 
are you serious…
Check the categories at the bottom, folk. Or assume things are going on as normal on this blog.
Hemorrhoids? Really? Now there’s spiritual Preparation H?
You can get possessed via martial arts? I guess that explains what happened to the green Power Ranger, but man, is there any object or activity that doesn’t invite demons? Are there cupcake demons? Can you get a demon through your dental floss? Do my little ponies generate my little demons? Does reading this blog give me a hockey demon? Will I get hockey hair and crave bacon and maple syrup and want to move to Canada?
(Apologies to Scott about the hockey/Canada stuff…I couldn’t resist).
Seriously, this looks like a major problem. Those people apparently have multiple demons removed weekly. I’ve never had that done. I’m probably so clogged up with demons by now that my internal organs are becoming impacted. 0_o
For a small fee, I can let you have an extra helping of Demon-O to unclog you. You know it makes sense.
I am a Harvard educated physician, and I believe in demons. I don’t think there is a demon behind every human issue, but they do exist and do affect human experience and life. One analogy I use is from the world of microbiology. It is not a perfect analogy, but I just want to shake up the paradigms we live with.
To the natural eye, micro-organisms are not visible, though we see the effects of them: pus, illness, odors, etc. Just a few centuries ago Anton van Leeuwenhoek first saw bacteria with his microscopes. Before that, however, scientists knew that there were invisible organisms that caused disease because they saw the effects of them. Even ancients had a sense that there were contagious diseases, though at the time they could not “see” the cause.
Sadly, today there are developing societies that still really don’t believe in the presence and power of these organisms, and they often suffer for it, as evidenced by their higher rates of disease and death because of infectious diseases, that go beyond lack of resources. When I visited a hospital in a developing country, I was shocked that nurses in the ICU did not use gloves from patient to patient and would touch different IVs, and that after washing their hands before visiting a patient, visitors were given the same cloth towel to use. The rate of patients dying from staph infections in that hospital was very high. They either did not know about, or did not really believe, in the power of micro-organisms, and therefore they did not safeguard against them. They lack of belief did not protect them.
I think that the spirit world is the same. Just because you can’t see it does not mean it is not there. And just because you do not believe does not mean that you are not affected by them. There are good and bad forces, we cannot see them, but we do see the EFFECTS of them. People have addictions (food, drugs, porn, etc.) that they can’t shake? Maybe they are “infected” spiritually, and need spiritual-level help? We do not yet have the technology to “see” them, but this lack does not protect us from the effects of them.
As the minister in the video alluded to, it is those who are vulnerable who more easily are affected by demons. We see that in the medical world too. If someone has a break in their skin, or if they have a compromised immune system, they are more easily affected by infection. Those of us with certain emotionally hurts or who are exposed to certain elements that have an unseen spiritual side, possibly they are vulnerable too to spiritual illness that affects their lives. Just something to think about.
Colour me skeptical about your claims, especially after this statement “There are good and bad forces, we cannot see them, but we do see the EFFECTS of them.” I assume you haven’t been following the conversation here or know that an actual Harvard physician hangs out here…
Is that a reference to me?
FYI, I’m just a programmer in a neuroscience lab, and also the lab IT nerd. I went to a third-rate engineering school.
I often wear a shirt to work with a comic-style thought balloon on the chest saying “HULK UNDERSTANDS NONE OF THIS”, which is a pretty good summary of what I’m thinking at Friday beer hour when all the scientists are talking science.
That said, I think demons are nonsense, and I’m confident that my lab mates would agree, even the Christian girl.
And even Harvard Med grads can turn to the woo side, like Andrew Weil.
But we CAN see microorganisms, even viruses, with the right equipment. We can see radiation and it’s effects on living tissue, toxic chemicals, shock waves, etc. We’re even learning more about the brain chemistry that is involved in addictions and mental illness. Like gods, demons can only exist in the ever-shrinking gaps in our knowledge.
Harvard undergrad or Harvard med school?
OK, so some hospitals in developing countries don’t bother with antisepsis, while hospitals in the developed world take the proper antimicrobial precautions. And we see the expected effect: nosocomial infections are a much bigger problem in the developing world than in the developed world.
“There are good and bad forces, we cannot see them, but we do see the EFFECTS of them. People have addictions (food, drugs, porn, etc.) that they can’t shake? Maybe they are “infected” spiritually, and need spiritual-level help? We do not yet have the technology to “see” them, but this lack does not protect us from the effects of them.”
If addictions are the result of ‘spiritual infection’ and not a pharmacological effect on the brain (especially in the case of drug addiction), shouldn’t the faith healing community, or the whole lot of Christians, or religious people in general, be better off than their corresponding outgroups in terms of addiction? This doesn’t seem to be the case; it is known, for example, that U.S. porn sales are highest in the midwestern ‘Bible belt’ states. And if addiction is a sign of ‘spiritual illness,’ we wouldn’t expect propensity to addiction to be heritable. But we see that it is quite heritable; just check the human genetics literature. Protection against addiction can be heritable too: for example, there is a single mutation in the gene acetaldehyde dehydrogenase that slows breakdown of a toxic product of alcohol metabolism. This slowdown causes the ‘flushing reaction’ seen in people with the mutation after they’ve had a couple drinks (the mutation is present at a very high frequency in Asians compared to other ethnic groups, so the people you see get the flushing reaction are usually Asian). The flushing reaction is uncomfortable for the person having it (pretty funny for everyone else, though), and gives him/her reason to avoid alcohol. Studies have shown that this mutation is protective against alcohol addiction. How many Asians do you see at an AA meetings?
Coming from a long background in Pentecostal/Evangelical ministry, and having been trained as a hypnotherapist, it is always interesting/sad to me to see how suggestible people are. Then people’s suggestibility is used as a self-fulfilling feedback loop of “proof” of the “reality” of the suggestion.
Evil in our world is a given. And spiritual forces which embody, promote and fulfill that evil may not be too much of a stretch. But, even given that, this is not much more than stage hypnosis and suggestibility taken to its own “logical” conclusion.
I don’t think that there’s evil in and of itself, but there are people who do evil things. Natural disasters aren’t evil, they’re just natural.
And if you find the idea of spiritual forces not too much of a stretch, then I think that your elastic needs replacing.