Demons - Lingering Evil Inside Mankind

From ancient civilizations to the present day, what mankind does not understand or condone has been mislabeled as demonic. These incorrect attributions can cause their victims to be socially ostracized, discriminated against, injured, or even killed. Demons, if they exist at all, are easiest to find within the demonic accusers themselves and should not be attributed to outside, malevolent forces.

Demons In Ancient Religions

One man’s God is another man’s demon. Ancient deities like Ball, Istar, Manduk, Astarte and Asazel were revered in various cultures until the conquerors of their worshipers renamed them as demons. When the Aryans drove the Dravidians out of Northern India, for example, they forced them to worship new deities and claimed their gods were really demons.

Aboriginal cultures lacked modern scientific knowledge and so what could not be explained was frequently misinterpreted as the work of demons. Likewise, persons contracting illnesses - psychiatric or physical - were considered to be weak or morally corrupt due to a lack of faith or fraternization with evil and supernatural forces; these individuals were often ostracized from social groups. To remedy these symptoms, a holy person was sometimes called in to “cure” the afflicted person in a dramatic ceremony by casting out the ailment-causing demon; exorcisms are excellent examples of these ceremonies. The effectiveness of this cure was dubious at best, however, as the persons involved were either unaffected or physically harmed by the occasionally violent nature of these "cures".

Demons In Contemporary Religions

In West African religious traditions such as Voodoo or Santeria, a Voodoo priest allows their God, Loa, to fill his consciousness. The Montado, or Holy possession, is considered both a common and divine experience. In many Christian religions, this act would be called being filled with the Holy Spirit, however many Westerners observing the ritual become horrified and often mislabel the act as demonic possession.

Ascetic religions sometimes misattribute nonconformity to be caused by the influence of demons. Engaging in hedonistic behaviors such as smoking, drinking, dancing, singing, premarital sex and even movie-going or using the telephone inside your own home, can be ascribed to demonic possession, rather than personal choice, with the offenders being cast out or ostracized by their families.

Questioning the established order, in and of itself, can cause church goers to believe demonic possession is at work. Anabaptist religions such as the Amish and the Hutterites cast out those who even dare to wear clothing different than what is considered to be holy. The outcasts are not allowed to talk with their families, because church members believe their nonconformist loved one to be under the influence of the Devil.

While one might excuse the Anabaptists due to their isolating themselves from modern scientific thought and knowledge, even religious societies with a wealth of scientific knowledge sometimes refuse to consider scientific explanations for natural phenomena. Believers discount secular theories even when these explanations account for the facts in a more complete way that does religious dogma. Even in cases where there is room for both beliefs to exist concurrently, zealots renounce secular interpretations in favor of religious dogma.

Some ardent Evangelicals, for example, refuse to believe dinosaurs existed millions of years ago because geological evidence contradicts the much more modern time frame - mere thousands of years ago - that is cited in the Bible. Some Christians view Charles Darwin as a heretic for proposing that evolution, rather than creationism, better accounts for the adaptation or extinction of species over time.

Odd language usage is frequently seen as evidence of demonic possession. Ironically, what some modern religions call speaking in tongues is misattributed as demonic possession by other religions. Frequently those speaking in unidentifiable languages while participating in modern religious ceremonies are thought to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Illogically, those who speak in known but ancient languages such as Aramaic, Sumerian, foreign or classic languages such as Latin, are thought to be possessed by the Devil.

Although seldom used, some modern religions (like the Catholic church) still practice exorcisms to drive demons out of persons with unexplained physical or scientific illnesses. While natural or psychiatric causes need to first be ruled out, demonic causes are still entertained. Anneliese Michel, a Catholic, thought to be possessed by six demons, underwent a secret exorcism in 1975 that lasted ten months and eventually resulted in her death. While not officially condoned by the church, two Catholic priests carried out the ceremony because they believed the woman was possessed by the Devil. Despite the victim herself agreeing to the exorcism, her two priests and parents were convicted of manslaughter because overwhelming scientific evidence attributed her illnesses to multiple, modern psychiatric illnesses, including an eating disorder.

Summary

While good and evil are indeed real and natural forces, they exist within mankind, not outside of it. Simplistic models that label, isolate and abuse people are not consistent with the nature of true religious practice. Proper religious conduct is instead more complex, compassionate, and ephemeral. Universal Life Church ministers will do well to remember this lesson.