Mudflappus Posted September 24, 2009 Share Posted September 24, 2009 In just about every religion I've come across, there are Demons, Body Thetans, Past Life Intrusions and a whole host of other supernatural critters that all magically have the ability to somehow inhabit the body of a host and wreak all sorts of unpleasantries on the public at large. By acknowledging these things, the religious masses make exceptions for the actions of their possessed brothers and sisters and absolve them of any complicity in what is usually some rather nasty and bizarre behavior. A convenient excuse to deny culpability. They're victims after all right? How could any of this be their fault if they were being controlled by something that can not be seen, heard, felt or proven? I think the hyper religious folks have been playing the poor victim longer than any other social group. "I didn't mean to rob that gas station and kill the attendant, the devil made me do it." "I didn't want to rape that woman but she was dressed provocatively and a lustful demon took hold of me." Convenient excuses to deny willful involvement in some truly heinous acts. God never seems to get blamed when some dimwit whacks a doctor who performs abortions. Nope. Even when the murderer claims that it was God that told him to perform the act. Must have been teh debil. Personal accountability has never been the subject of a sermon that I ever had to sit through and yet a great many problems would be solved if everybody would just practice a little of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vixentrox Posted September 24, 2009 Share Posted September 24, 2009 I agree with some of what you said but there is the opposite side of the coin where the faithful used the same supernatural things to torture and kill people (witches, heritics, demon possesed). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franko47 Posted September 24, 2009 Share Posted September 24, 2009 Yeah, that's pretty well become an aspect of most religion and mysticism. The idea that thoughts and feelings are coming from "out there", as opposed to being generated from within. It's funny how many conservative Christians are so big on personal responsibility and so on, yet claim the existence of external influences, good and bad, including God and Beezle playing online poker for our souls. It's a curious negation of "faith" when they suddenly claim that their "mishaps" are a result of "nether-world temptation". Or that they've been "attacked" by evil forces. I thought that Jesus was supposed to shield them from all that stuff. Plus, God does not attack his own. I've had many an argument with Xtians over that one. I mean, what would be the point of worshipping a celestial being who might allow invisible monsters from another dimension to fuck you over occasionally. What's up with that ? Oh, but I'm certain our resident apologists have some lame explanation for that as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OpheliaGinger Posted September 24, 2009 Share Posted September 24, 2009 People would rather believe that they are possessed than they are mentally ill. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deva Posted September 24, 2009 Share Posted September 24, 2009 I think the root of this idea of something from the outside coming in and controlling us is quite natural. It comes from personal experience. The God or Demon explanation is only something people use to explain the unexplainable. How often have you been totally overcome with a compulsion of one kind or another. Something just comes into your mind and you find yourself acting out of your usual character? Sometimes extreme emotion causes an altered state of consciousness. How many times have we heard a murderer say, "I don't know why I did it". Could be true. I am all for personal responsibility, but sometimes things happen. That's just a fact of life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HRDWarrior Posted September 24, 2009 Share Posted September 24, 2009 I would hazard a guess that a lot of that probably started when dealing with people who had true mental issues, such as schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder, bipolar, etc. Since they didn't have any science to explain why these things happened, for them it would have only made sense if the influence was outside of said person. As science has moved on, however, like many things, religious groups have continued to cling to ancient ideas that were outdated years ago...but since much of their religion is based on those things being real, it's nearly impossible to seperate the two. Plus, like you said, there's a large element of it being a conveniant excuse for behavior, good or bad. That's why christians just can't accept that someone who left the faith is actually a BETTER person than they were as a christian - it'd blow that entire concept out of the water, so they stick their heads in the sand and pretend we all grow invisible horns. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mudflappus Posted September 25, 2009 Author Share Posted September 25, 2009 I think the root of this idea of something from the outside coming in and controlling us is quite natural. It comes from personal experience. The God or Demon explanation is only something people use to explain the unexplainable. How often have you been totally overcome with a compulsion of one kind or another. Something just comes into your mind and you find yourself acting out of your usual character? Sometimes extreme emotion causes an altered state of consciousness. How many times have we heard a murderer say, "I don't know why I did it". Could be true. I am all for personal responsibility, but sometimes things happen. That's just a fact of life. I can agree that certain external influences have the ability to cause compulsory behavior especially in the realm of the subliminal however I'm speaking of those individuals who have crossed way over the line of full conscious awareness of their actions. Mental illness as we know is a provable affliction. It can be diagnosed and sometimes corrected however the illness of which I speak stems from dogmatic indoctrination. Not mental illness. If you are taught from an early age that you are inherently evil and that there is a large contingent of spooks and monsters that enjoy nothing more than getting inside of you and causing you to sin, how easy is it then to simply write off your own bad behavior? Your counterparts will do the same and certainly forgive you as they are excusing their own poor choices the same way. Honestly, I have never been so overcome with a compulsion that I have intentionally hurt another human being. Oh I've acted on impulse and have done some things that I definitely regretted shortly thereafter (mostly on a dirt bike) but I can honestly say that I have never been so overwhelmed by the urge to grab a large blunt object and beat the sunshine and puppy dog kisses out of a smug, self righteous Christian mouthpiece that I actually did it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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