Sigh...demon This, Demon That.

[Guest CutiePie]

To those that don't really know me I have an interest in paranormal shows. No, I don't believe that ghost exist or anything of the matter, I just have an interest in those shows even though a good percentage of it is just dramatised, I watch the shows simply for my entertainment.

I like video games, I also enjoy anime, I also enjoy my favorite TV show called Teen Titans. I've watched and read some Harry Potter books way back when I was younger, don't read much of it now anymore, although I did enjoy it.

My favorite holiday is Halloween and I'm pretty sure a good portion of you can tell where this is heading.

"Don't do this because demons will enter you and our home" I'm so sick and tired of hearing this.

I've been watching paranormal/horror movies or shows since I was a little a girl. As I said earlier my favorite show is Teen Titans, I remember this one episode with Raven and her father Trigon, she was in here soul well or whatever it's called again, my mother saw the screen and said how it's evil.

Ooh! This show called The Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy, she saw the reaper and called it evil.

This one time last year or so, I drew a Pokemon called Charmeleon, she told me how it's evil.....what the fuck?!?!

"Do you watch porn, don't read Harry Potter, don't watch those horror shows..." Etc.

I'm tired of having to hear this. She might as well ask me what my favorite video game is too, DC Universe Online, where we have Trigon that looks like a demon or whatever. Circe our goddess her power is sorcery, oh no. Demons.

If Christianity is all about God and stuff why do they focus so much more on the so called devil?

Also, I don't feel not want to tell my mom that I'm not a Christian anymore. I don't feel like dealing with the aftermath of telling her, I don't want to be treated differently, looked at differently, I don't feel like being told that I should go back to God or whatever. I'm still the same person, I never knew that telling your parent about your deconversion can be such a big thing for them.

This was just a rant. Faking it for me is no pressure, but at times I do feel as if I might just crack.

Edit - I'm sorry if there are any spelling errors or anything of the sort, type this out on phone

[♦ Fuego ♦]

Believers say that God is all-powerful, but they spend a LOT of their time worried about the devil. In the olden days even Christian believers had all kinds of anti-devil magic they would use. Talismans, symbols, nails in the ground, plants and herbs, all to counter curses or set curses. In the modern era, the church had let the whole devil thing slide until he suddenly became really popular again back in the mid-late 1980s. Everywhere you'd look in churches they were talking about spiritual warfare, and many evening sermons were focused on exposing how demons enter your home and deceive your children. It makes believers feel like they are actually making a difference by fighting an enemy, instead of just believing a set of doctrines. I spent a lot of money on teachings and books, spent many a day getting up at 3am to pray for the city (we were taught that we should strike before the demon-infested people got up... sheesh).

 

When I first left the faith, I started listening to a lot of heavy metal music that I had passed over in my teens. Loved it. Devoured Harry Potter about 15 times in the last 7 years. But I had no one over my head anymore giving me warnings and threats, so I was free to enjoy.

 

Hang in there! Realize that you have a much better grip on reality than mom.

[Guest CutiePie]

Believers say that God is all-powerful, but they spend a LOT of their time worried about the devil. In the olden days even Christian believers had all kinds of anti-devil magic they would use. Talismans, symbols, nails in the ground, plants and herbs, all to counter curses or set curses. In the modern era, the church had let the whole devil thing slide until he suddenly became really popular again back in the mid-late 1980s. Everywhere you'd look in churches they were talking about spiritual warfare, and many evening sermons were focused on exposing how demons enter your home and deceive your children. It makes believers feel like they are actually making a difference by fighting an enemy, instead of just believing a set of doctrines. I spent a lot of money on teachings and books, spent many a day getting up at 3am to pray for the city (we were taught that we should strike before the demon-infested people got up... sheesh).

 

When I first left the faith, I started listening to a lot of heavy metal music that I had passed over in my teens. Loved it. Devoured Harry Potter about 15 times in the last 7 years. But I had no one over my head anymore giving me warnings and threats, so I was free to enjoy.

 

Hang in there! Realize that you have a much better grip on reality than mom.

Omg, basically that. It's very annoying to me because I don't understand why they focus on something that's negative to them. Whenever I see people trying to pass on the word, I tend to see posters like "Is Satan real?" Just in general...why use something so negative...why use fear? 

 

When I left the faith, I finally started to enjoy things that I isolated myself from. 

 

Thanks! Like I said in my OP, no pressure, just in certain situations that pop up, feel as if I might crack. 

 

 

 

[mymistake]

Christians hold many beliefs that contradict each other.  God is all powerful and wants what is best for us . . . but in practice the slightest thing will give the Devil the chance to undo all the good God has done . . . but don't think about the implications because God is all powerful and could crush the Devil in an instant . . . . but God won't do that because it isn't his perfect plan . . . but people are suffering right now in God's perfect plan . . . because the Devil did it . . . or because God is testing us . . . but God is all knowing . . . 

 

blah blah blah

 

 

I've been listening to the (now oldies) radio station and catching up on all the Devil music I had denied myself back when I was a teen.  It's so funny listening to the DJ talking about these artist getting old and I was so afraid that their music had evil magic that would harm me.

[Guest CutiePie]

Christians hold many beliefs that contradict each other.  God is all powerful and wants what is best for us . . . but in practice the slightest thing will give the Devil the chance to undo all the good God has done . . . but don't think about the implications because God is all powerful and could crush the Devil in an instant . . . . but God won't do that because it isn't his perfect plan . . . but people are suffering right now in God's perfect plan . . . because the Devil did it . . . or because God is testing us . . . but God is all knowing . . . 

 

blah blah blah

 

 

I've been listening to the (now oldies) radio station and catching up on all the Devil music I had denied myself back when I was a teen.  It's so funny listening to the DJ talking about these artist getting old and I was so afraid that their music had evil magic that would harm me.

I wish I could upvote that! Omg! My feels of it all. These damn contradictions that I can't stand. 

 

I also had that same mindset, I thought listening to some of that music would harm me in some type of way and it left me scared out of my mind. 

[Sheerbliss]

Devil music is still a thing? I thought that went out with helmet hair. You probably don't remember people hearing "messages" when they played records backwards, calls for records to be labeled with warnings, rumors of satanists eating babies--I'm not making this up. (Various musicians said that if they were to put subliminal messages in their music, it would be "buy our records.")

 

It's all very funny until you remember that the McMartins were sentenced to long prison terms over similar hysterical accusations. And it was scary stuff if you had sleep paralysis.

 

In any case, I saw Alice Cooper and Marilyn Manson in concert last year--loved it. My favorite TV series is Death Note. The shinigami  (death gods) would freak out your mother, though.

[Thurisaz]

Morontheist cosmology et al never makes sense. And to them (at least the hardcore ones) it needn't make sense at all.

 

Technically it's daring of me to say that as I've never been a morontheist but from what I see and hear and read the hardcore morontheist determines the value of an idea or statement solely based on its source, ignoring the question of evidence. If you start from that position you can accept all kinds of crap as true at the same time, no matter how internally inconsistent the ideas may be. Add some Orwellian doublethink™ and crimestop™ to the mix and, in an ironically true way of quoting the early morontheists, "everything is possible". Sadly.

 

So yeah, if gaaaawd is so omni-everything why is there even still a sataaan™ and why is he allowed to threaten humans in any way? But I don't try to ask a morontheist that kind of question anymore; reason doesn't get through the belief armor, unless the morontheist secretly doubts already.

[◊ crazyguy123 ◊]

It's amusing, the Christian god is supposed to be omnipotent, but the devil is given just as much, if not more, power in the minds of the believers. The question that should be asked here is: What if the Christian god is in fact the devil? It would certainly explain a few things.

[Margee]

Check out this thread I made almost 3 years ago......It's too funny!!

 

http://www.ex-christian.net/topic/49770-be-careful-demons-on-the-loose/?hl=%2Bthousands+%2Bof+%2Bdemons#.VKAfnF4ALg

[Ellinas]

Once more, and as with so much about the religion, the issue is one of control and of enforced conformity.  Talk of demons is just a way of inspiring fear to that end.  Of course, those that make these statements may well genuinely believe that laughing at the antics of a ghost hunter or enjoying the gory graphics of some cartoon will cause a serious case of possession - but they are still just perpetuating the social control mechanism; its' victims become its' propagators.

[Falloutdude]

Idk, Charmeleon is pretty evil, Sweets.

[Wertbag]

I was amazed that over the years the church has labeled tons of things as evil, immoral and unchristian that are really tame by todays standards.  Things like the Beatles with their sexy lyrics and rebel image (then I see the videos of them, clean cut guys in suits singing "I love you", pure evil), Elvis with his sexy gyrating hips (clean cut, well spoken guy singing love songs) or hell just any rock 'n roll is pure evil.  As per everything Christians can't agree on what actually is okay and what is evil.  Some say that stories are fine, others freak out over every little mention of magic. 

[Casey]

I occasionally play video games, Second World War FPS in the main. No magic involved, except IMT's. (Infantry Minor Tactics, or the way the rifle, gun and scout groups should move in an Infantry Section.) The last I saw, the modern version of these was invented by a certain Von Hutier during the Great War. I don't know if he was related to Satan. Christians don't criticize these games, so these tactics must represent "White Man's Magic," and therefore be all right. 

 

I'm not a believer of any sort, but I do happen to have read of certain occult beliefs and traditions which I have now and then used as the basis for Halloween and other ghost stories.http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?80378-Old-Smoke&p=1273413&highlight=#post1273413  I write these merely for the pleasure of others, and that of myself, but I suppose I am destined to be damned nonetheless.

 

Casey

[midniterider]

To those that don't really know me I have an interest in paranormal shows. No, I don't believe that ghost exist or anything of the matter, I just have an interest in those shows even though a good percentage of it is just dramatised, I watch the shows simply for my entertainment.

 

I like video games, I also enjoy anime, I also enjoy my favorite TV show called Teen Titans. I've watched and read some Harry Potter books way back when I was younger, don't read much of it now anymore, although I did enjoy it.

 

My favorite holiday is Halloween and I'm pretty sure a good portion of you can tell where this is heading.

 

"Don't do this because demons will enter you and our home" I'm so sick and tired of hearing this.

 

I've been watching paranormal/horror movies or shows since I was a little a girl. As I said earlier my favorite show is Teen Titans, I remember this one episode with Raven and her father Trigon, she was in here soul well or whatever it's called again, my mother saw the screen and said how it's evil.

 

Ooh! This show called The Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy, she saw the reaper and called it evil.

 

This one time last year or so, I drew a Pokemon called Charmeleon, she told me how it's evil.....what the fuck?!?!

 

"Do you watch porn, don't read Harry Potter, don't watch those horror shows..." Etc.

 

I'm tired of having to hear this. She might as well ask me what my favorite video game is too, DC Universe Online, where we have Trigon that looks like a demon or whatever. Circe our goddess her power is sorcery, oh no. Demons.

 

If Christianity is all about God and stuff why do they focus so much more on the so called devil?

 

Also, I don't feel not want to tell my mom that I'm not a Christian anymore. I don't feel like dealing with the aftermath of telling her, I don't want to be treated differently, looked at differently, I don't feel like being told that I should go back to God or whatever. I'm still the same person, I never knew that telling your parent about your deconversion can be such a big thing for them.

 

This was just a rant. Faking it for me is no pressure, but at times I do feel as if I might just crack.

 

Edit - I'm sorry if there are any spelling errors or anything of the sort, type this out on phone

 

If you are interested in anything besides Jebus it must be evil. You must obsess about Jebus and only Jebus 24/7.

[rerics]

It just goes to show that Christianity is di-theistic, not mono-theistic.  Satan seems to have as much if not more power as a god than the one they call "God".

 

As for the Teen Titans show mentioned in the original post, I watch that show with my 11-year-old, and it cracks me up every time.  Although reading about the first poster's mother tsk tsking about how evil the show is, I have to admit I wonder what my fundy family members would say if they saw my son and I watching it.  Wouldn't stop us though.

[outofeden]

Not sure how it's lost on so many Christians and theologians that there's no devil or hell in the OT. 

 

I came from a Pentacostal church. I had a prolonged physical disability to which I went for prayer, to the elders, as per James chapter 5. 

 

I was told I had demons and likely generational curses, and to come back the following week for deliverance.

 

I left the Church.

 

Shortly after my deconversion I began recovering from this disability fantastically. No need to submit to God's will and God's timing anymore for healing :-) Or wait, I guess now the demons can ease off their grip on my body now that I'm back on their team. Ha!

[Thurisaz]

Well let's be honest - the buybull is one huge book, and not exactly the easiest read. If you (think you can) trust your pastor, why wouldn't you just accept what he tells you about it as true? And bang, the door's wide open for "fuck what the book really says, I'll go with the commonly-accepted narrative!".

[gall]

Devil music is still a thing? I thought that went out with helmet hair. You probably don't remember people hearing "messages" when they played records backwards, calls for records to be labeled with warnings, rumors of satanists eating babies--I'm not making this up. (Various musicians said that if they were to put subliminal messages in their music, it would be "buy our records.")

 

It's all very funny until you remember that the McMartins were sentenced to long prison terms over similar hysterical accusations. And it was scary stuff if you had sleep paralysis.

 

In any case, I saw Alice Cooper and Marilyn Manson in concert last year--loved it. My favorite TV series is Death Note. The shinigami  (death gods) would freak out your mother, though.

 

For anyone that has actually met and spoken with or hung out with "Alice Cooper" (his real name is Vincent actually) you would find a soft spoken calm and mild mannered senior citizen these days. Those that understand showman ship understand that this is what men like Alice and Marilyn are actually selling not some fucked up message unlike christianity.

 

I can't get over it when people say things about Vincent that make him sound like he worships devils... they have never met the man nor conversed with him at any length. Last time I saw him it was after a show, a small show in a tiny city. He came out into the sitting area that also had tables and sat with the remaining fans there and had a drink and told some stories about his recent touring. Answered a few questions and thanked everyone and smiled a LOT like seriously a lot. He was wonderfully happy that people still liked his show and his theatrics. It brought him much joy to see his effort pleasing others.

 

In reality I can't say I even like him music that much but one thing I can say is he is lot more down to earth and real than any christian i have ever met. THere is no devil about him or worship of anything but the gods of entertainment for one more year loving what he does.

 

The fact that morons use to call his music and the music of such bands as KISS and so forth devil music is a joke. it isn't even hardcore music by a long shot its all about showmanship nothing more.

[traveller2]

I recall sitting in a christian conferance,it was during lunchbreak ,reading an alternative world fantasy book and a previously and seemingly sane woman I had spoken to before came over to have a coffee with me and asked me what I was reading.I hate that but showed her the cover and she straightaway told me , 'thats on the list' with a sillly chastising look on her face. Coz what I never realised was that as I was sitting there reading it demons were pure cannon balling into my body constantly.......i felt fine but....

[mymistake]

 

If you are interested in anything besides Jebus it must be evil. You must obsess about Jebus and only Jebus 24/7.

 

 

 

Actually that was how I was raised.  No joke.

[traveller2]

I recall a quote from the film 300 that fits how i felt thing were in the cult regarding prohibiting everything bar the bible and christian music out of fear of getting filled with demons,seemed it was a case of 'take from them EVERYTHING and give them nothing!'. If you followed all these prohibitions you literally been left with left with nothing in your life that was enjoyable.

[traveller2]

 

 

If you are interested in anything besides Jebus it must be evil. You must obsess about Jebus and only Jebus 24/7.

 

 

 

Actually that was how I was raised.  No joke.

 

 

I lived like that for a good few years too.

[Guest Furball]

Mew too =)

[GoldenWolf]

I'm really into fantasy, so I loved those fake witchcraft books, Harry Potter and just everything to do with magic and mythical creatures.

I knew people who would give up anything that had a demonic undertone, including books, movies, music etc.. We had CRE at school once and the CRE teacher's son was there and he looked exactly like Ron Weasley, someone pointed it out and the teacher didn't know who that was. When the kid said from Harry Potter, the woman was like "no I don't watch that demonic stuff." 

When I was going through my "hardcore and edgy" phase, I listened to a lot of screamo and heavy metal which I was told I'd get demons from. 

One church sermon was talking about how we shouldn't love ourselves because it was a Buddhist practice and we should let God loves us instead and just carry on with our lives. Like what? If I love and accept myself I'm narcissistic and Buddhist - yeah that makes perfect sense.