Poonis Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 It is my opinion that demonic experience is a term that fundamentalists use when unknowingly experiencing cognitive dissonance. For example, when they feel that they are being enticed by demons with "evil thoughts" (ie, basically anything that conflicts with what they have been indoctrinated with), they attribute this to demons trying to pull them away from god's flock. By changing the words "evil thoughts" to something that conflicts with their indoctrination such as "experiencing sex out of wedlock", it is easier to understand that this is cognitive dissonance by the pull they feel in relation to their world-view between what is natural (sex in general) and what is unnatural (waiting for sex until marriage). cognitive dissonance ref: http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/dissonance.htm http://tip.psychology.org/festinge.html http://changingminds.org/explanations/theo..._dissonance.htm Any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
currentchristian Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 I oppose for many reasons (including theological ones) the Wilsonian (not as in President Wilson, but Flip Wilson -- most over 40 will know who Flip Wilson was) default response of "the devil made me do it." It bugs me when some Christians (most don't do this) talk about what the devil's doing to them. I don't deny the existence of an "evil force" in the universe, but, come on, there are three dozen reasons for a problem that make more sense 99.99% of the time than blaming something on the devil. Regarding specifically cognitive dissonance and adjusting one's behavior or beliefs to eliminate it: We all do this. Every last one of us. Often. It might, however, be true that "fundamentalists" experience more cognitive dissonance than those who do not hold tightly to a written code of conduct that often seems out of date. (For example, the Southern Baptist parents who love their son and know he's a great person and was baptised and loves Jesus but is now proclaiming that he's gay.) I'll be interested to read what others think! -CC in MA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poonis Posted January 29, 2007 Author Share Posted January 29, 2007 Regarding specifically cognitive dissonance and adjusting one's behavior or beliefs to eliminate it: We all do this. I wholeheartedly agree that everyone has experienced or is experiencing cognitive dissonance. I wrote this in regards to a recent thread on this board regarding the experience of demonic experience. Update: this was in reference to the Demonic Experience topic in the Lion's Den. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts