I like what Dave and Bruce wrote.
Regarding the people who believe in satan based demons, if they really existed and were trying to carry out the agenda of satan, would they resort to stupid tactics like animal grunts and spitting?
Or would they be a lot smarter about it and do something that isn't so noticeable so they wouldn't be caught in the act of carrying out satan's agenda?
If an exorcist came along, why wouldn't a demon just play dead, or go away for a while, as oppossed to making their presence so noticeable?
The mind is a complicated thing. Would a spirit who is so dimwitted that it does stupid things like grunt like an animal, actually have the ability to do something as complicated as take over a person's mind?
On the other hand, there are these preachers and ministers etc. who like to control their flock through fear. I once saw this minister on TV. He supposedly exorcised over 200 demons over the past year. They showed a scene where flock members were pressing a Bible on top of a person's head. The impression I got is that if flock members got out of line, the minister would declare them possessed. This minister seemed very cold, unloving and controlling to me.
Remember the actress Vanity. I saw her on a talk show one day. She wore all black clothing and held a Bible. She talked about how she used to do all of these negative things, because demons controlled her, as oppossed to taking responsibility for her own actions. They showed her church. Once a week her minister would supposedly do demon disspossesion. The ceremony looked very Hollywoodish. It was obvious that she was brainwashed. She was possessed by her minister. Not by a demon.
Isn't it strange that there are churches where all sorts of demon possession occur, with a preacher at the helm who preaches such nonsense, and there are also churches where possession doesn't happen at all?
Psychologists reported that after the Exorcist came out the occurence of imagined possession went up significantly. Never underestimate the power of your mind to create unsavory delusions.
I agree there are earthbound spirits who grab onto people's energy, but they are too weak and confused to have any real impact. Plus they would be dependent on whatever tendencies a person already has going on.
The preachers who preach all that fearmonger stuff do people a lot of psychological harm. It would be good if they had a change of heart.
Regarding the myth of satan, not even the Bible has one viewpoint of what satan is. Here's a good article about satan.
http://www.geocities.com/shadowfaux.geo/satan.htmlSome people believe that God created Satan so that in the end God can prove his superiority. Does this make sense?
Some people believe satan is a fallen angle who will some day end up in hell for all of eternity. Does it make sense that an angel who was created by God and knew about God's greatness would fall as bad as satan supposedly did? And God, as a being of infinite wisdom and love, would he sentence one of his children to the fires of hell for all of eternity? And even if such a spirit did fall, would God allow him to do such harm to his other children?
Some people say satan is allowed to do so so he could test us. But isn't life complicated and difficult enough without such tests?
There are some portions of the Bible where satan simply means adversary of any kind, not the mythological character who hung out on the beach too long one day, without any sun tan lotion.
Regarding the true story beyond the movie the Exorcist, the source of what a lot people think demons look and act like, here's a good article on the story. It seems to me that there has been a lot of embelishment.
http://holtz.org/Library/Social%20Science/History/Atomic%20Age/Exorcist/The%20Ha...Perhaps they should call the exorcist "How to act like a demon 101."