Exorcisms booming as Christian faith declines and internet offers easy access to black magic

[trotsky]

(priests told)

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/16/casting-demons-catholic-priests-perform-exorcisms-phone-demand/

Demand for exorcisms is booming as a result of a decline in Christian faith and the internet providing easy access to black magic, the occult and Satanism, a Vatican conference for exorcist priests was told on Monday.

So many people are asking to be liberated from the malign hold of the Devil that some priests are now delivering prayers of liberation – a first step towards exorcism – over the phone.

“There are priests who carry out exorcisms on their mobile phones. That’s possible thanks to Jesus,” said Cardinal Ernest Simoni, an Albanian who was tortured and imprisoned by the Communist authorities but after his release performed frequent exorcisms.

...Topics to be discussed this week include: Angels and demons in Holy Scripture, How to recognise diabolical obsessions, Witchcraft in Africa, Afro-american cults in Latin America and Paedophile pornography used in Satanic and occult rites.

Welcome to the 21st century. The largest Christian church in the world still thinks demons and "black magic" are real.

[safeinOhio]

1. Heads are spinning.

[zipplewrath]

2. 2000 years

2000 years of "Tradition" are hard to over come.

[trotsky]

3. And better than perhaps any other sect...

the RCC understands the power of marketing.

[Cartoonist]

4. Paedophile pornography used in Satanic rites.

OK, I will grant the church expertise in that.

[trotsky]

6. *snort*

Good one.

[progressoid]

11. I was thinking the same thing.

It's funny.

And sad.

[SergeStorms]

5. Translation.......

the collection plates haven't been full lately, so we're going to release some Satanic bullshit to get the FEAR level back up among christians. Republicans and religions both rule by fear. Without it, they're nothing.

[Lordquinton]

7. Losing religion is a sign of demonic possession

So they're hiring men to forcibly keep the flock.

[Major Nikon]

8. Someone released a Kraken in the toilet at work

I wonder if I can get one of these guys to exercise it.

[LuvNewcastle]

9. It may be just a difference in terminology,

but I believe that spirits of some sort do torment people sometimes. I've read accounts of demon possessions that were very interesting and made me re-think some of my attitudes on the subject. I used to think that demon possession wasn't what it seemed, that it was a manifestation of mental illnesses, but I think there are cases which can't be explained without entertaining the possibility that there could be something supernatural at work.

I still don't really like using the word 'demon.' That word, to me, is associated with biblical stories and mythology that seems born from ignorance. I call them spirits. There could be evil spirits and good spirits (angels?) and some beings without bodies that can be good or bad. As people have done since time immemorial, I fill in the unexplained parts of life with theories, but not scientific theories.

I wonder sometimes whether the argument over whether gods exist is simply a question of degrees. What is a god, exactly? Is a god simply a being that is more powerful than man? If that is the case, I think there very well could be gods, maybe lots of them. Can a god only be something that is all-powerful, all-knowing, and omnipresent? I find that sort of god to be very hard to imagine. Could demons, angels, gods, spirits, etc. just be things that aren't easy for us to experience because of the limits of our senses?

[Act_of_Reparation]

10. "Theory"

[LuvNewcastle]

13. I said they weren't scientific theories.

I meant in the the way it's used by laymen. I'm not saying that my ruminations about the existence of gods, demons, etc. are equal in worth to the theory of gravity. And when I say 'ruminations,' I don't mean I was chewing the cud either.

[Act_of_Reparation]

16. So you mean "speculation".

Conjecture without evidence, i.e., "chewing the cud".

[LuvNewcastle]

17. Yes, 'speculation' is the word for it.

Speculation based on other things I've read about but haven't been proven.

[trotsky]

12. I've read some pretty amazing stories, too.

But unless there is actual evidence, that's all they are: stories.

A theory isn't a theory unless it can be tested, even if only hypothetically. Anyone is free to make up whatever they want about what they think exists, but don't you agree that in order to implement policy and live together, we have to come up with a shared reality and facts to base our politics upon?

[LuvNewcastle]

14. Yes, of course we need to share a common reality.

The political problems we have in the U.S. are largely about groups of people who can't agree on basic facts. I'm just saying that I wouldn't completely dismiss the possibility that there are other beings out there that we know little to nothing about.

Of course the people spoken of in the article are obvious charlatans. Exorcisms over your cell phone? Talk about phoning it in. But some people have experiences that can't be sufficiently explained by the knowledge we have. That's all I'm saying.

[trotsky]

15. There are millions, if not billions, of things that people can imagine to exist.

Do we need to treat them all with the equal probability of being true? Or is it OK to categorize at least some of them as "safe to assume it doesn't exist unless some kind of evidence is presented"?

But some people have experiences that can't be sufficiently explained by the knowledge we have. That's all I'm saying.

Hear me out: that's NOT all you're saying. You're ALSO saying that you think it's caused by spirits.

[LuvNewcastle]

19. I think it's caused by spirits because of things I've read

or heard about throughout life. Some of these things have been discussed by serious people and they have come to similar conclusions. They don't have any demonstrable proof that spirits exist, but they think that other unseen intelligences are at work because of experiences that they've had. Now, if I saw some of the things they've seen and if I investigated the situation and couldn't find some sort of physical explanation for those occurrences, I might also think that spirits were involved. And that's all right. I'm not going to say that spirits can't exist because we can't put them in a laboratory and do experiments on them.

[trotsky]

20. We're obviously done here, but I would appreciate it if you could refrain from using straw men.

I'm not going to say that spirits can't exist because we can't put them in a laboratory and do experiments on them.

Literally no one has said otherwise.

[LuvNewcastle]

22. Okay, I'll try to refrain from using straw men.

I guess the devil made me do it.

[edhopper]

18. I've never seen a case

that can't be explained without the supernatural.

And those case where the supernatural is invoked usually don't present all the facts.

[LuvNewcastle]

21. I've talked to people who have had bizarre

things happen in their houses and they weren't able to find any physical reason for it. I've never known anyone who had been possessed, at least not anyone I believed. I've read and heard lots of stories that seemed like they couldn't be explained rationally. If possession does exist, I don't think it's common at all. Most people who think they're possessed are having mental problems, most likely. But there always seem to be some that can't be explained with facts.

[edhopper]

23. I have too

but people are ill equiped to actually know what could cause things.

I have been reading about "haunted house" investigations for decades by people like Joe Nickells.
They all turn out to either have a rational explanation or an intentional hoax.