And how do we know that what they were modeled after were not real. For instance many people say the devil isn’t real because he was just taken from the pagan horned god Pan. So, how do we know Pan isn’t real? And if the concept of Pan came from a different religion, how do we know that one wasn’t real? How do we know all these religions aren’t really talking about the same demon? How do we know someone 50,000 years ago didn’t really see a demon?
Posted: February 24th 2011
Eric_PK
I think you’re asking the wrong question. I might ask you how you know that there isn’t an invisible purple unicorn in the room with you right now.
It comes down to the level of evidence that is required to believe that
something is real. If devils and demons exist in this world, then we should have good evidence (and by that I means physical evidence) of their existence.
There are an infinite number of things that could exist, so the only rational approach is to only believe in the existence of things that have evidence.
Posted: February 28th 2011
brian thomson www
I saw an engraving, years ago, that portrayed someone suffering from Gout as having a little devil chewing on his foot. It’s such a famous image that I see it appears on the Wikipedia page I linked to. The artist anthropomorphised the pain of a real medical condition – one which is now very treatable, now that we know what causes it. To someone suffering from Gout, the pain must be so intense as to seem personal: it’s too severe to seem “natural”, so someone must be doing it to you! If you give that “someone” a form, this is the result of a fertile imagination.
To answer your question: in absolute terms, we don’t know and don’t claim to know; but we can make judgements based on what we have learned over the years. Besides, most of the characterisations we think of as “diabolical” are not from the Bible, but from more recent sources such as Dante’s Inferno or the work of Aleister Crowley.
Humans tend to project “personality” in to things and animals where it doesn’t actually exist. Ever heard the scream of a “Tasmanian Devil”? Words such as “godawful” and “unholy” describe it adequately, and you don’t need to be religious to think so.
Posted: February 28th 2011
Mike the Infidel www
We don’t have to prove things don’t exist if nobody has given evidence that they do.
Posted: February 28th 2011
SmartLX www
We don’t know any such thing.
We do know three things: that many contemporary images and characterisations of demons are based on earlier ones, that certain insects and sea creatures (even horses) are readily mistaken for mythical creatures by those unfamiliar with them and that it’s the work of a few minutes to fabricate a new demon from whole cloth, so to speak.
Therefore, the probability that any demon in our public consciousness is either real or based on a real demon has to compete with the rather high probability that it was either invented, based on a complete fiction or based on an honest misconception of a natural creature. To me, there’s no contest.
Posted: February 27th 2011