Contemplating the existence of demons
 

How appropriate. a demon slayer making a thread about demons...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demon
http://www.deliriumsrealm.com/delirium/index.asp

Demons. What are they? Beings usually only mentioned in myth, religeon and folk lore, they are many things. Mythology or not, though, we cannot deny that they don't exist. Honestly, they do. But in what form? They exist in our fears, our dreams, nightmares, and every time we perform the 7 deadly sins. Also, every time we suffer, we are targetted by emotional demons.

But what is the definition of demon?

There are a few interpretations from different cultures, some more standout ones than others. Yet, all interpretations on demons are based only on religeon.

Note that most things, demons, devils and the like are veiwed as spirits, not often visually seen. But for the reason we have never actually seen them, then that would contemplate the fact that they don't. But, people yet accused madness and fits of epilepsy on them, where the person might have been genuinely ill.

My personal definition of a demon: "A demon is hatred made manifest. It's medium is varied. demons can come out in conspiracies, lies, temptation, greed, lust and any possible attrocities. Whether they are actual creatures is debatable, but their works are existant in all forms of deception and evil, causing pain and misery all the places that they go. An emotional demon can sometimes be embued in guilt, which may or may not cause enough emotional strain to think and act rationally."

According to my defentition, where there is wrong doing, there are demons. Also, this is my defenition (so if by any crazy chance you want to use it, give credit where credit is due). According to me, also, a demon does not havevto be concious. It's just an act of evil or wrong that has come to pass. Like I feel insults are demons.

The first site, a wiki article, recognises that there are different interpretations of the demon, and the fact that each culture believes differently about them. The secondary site also views demons from all evidential documents contained within.

These theories of demons... what are they worth? Is the demon really a myth? If so, what is a lie? Is it a nothing, or a demon that it has found it's deceptial medium?

What do you believe is a demon?

Well, from what I've seen, what one would best describe as "demons" tend to exist on this plane in a fashion nearly identical to ghosts. The difference between the two is motive. Your standard ghost is mostly just sorta stuck, often unaware that it's even dead, and will often interact with whatever (or whoever) it can just for the sake of getting attention. If the person was melevolent in nature, then their ghost will be, too. Demons, on the other hand, tend to feed off of things like fear, anger, hatred, frustration, and all that other negative vibey stuff.

The funny thing is that demon legends, often like those found in various religious texts, tend to give demons more credit than they deserve. All sorts of stories abound detailing powerful demons causing all sorts of havok and destruction, sent from the depths of hell by some master of all that is evil. The irony is that it causes many people who believe in demons to fear them all the more, feeding into them and making them just as powerful as they are perceived to be when in fact their usually not much more than cosmic lightweight parasites that are more or less ineffectual if you can just get your head together.

Still, there do tend to be some meatier demonic entities that, for whatever reason, can pierce the veil of reality a little better than others. A lot of your more brutal hauntings are caused by these critters rather than your average ghost. It's one of those things that ghost hunters tend to forget about and then wonder why their tape recorders seem to be playing the soundtrack to "Event Horizon". In those cases, while some people go out looking for a young priest and an old priest, I suggest just finding a new house.

I am probably not going to post in this thread for the following reason: any rational debate on this subject necessitates comparisons with the supernatural, the paranormal, and ultimately, religion. To denounce the concept of demons one has to carefully tread water and not succumb to explicitly stating certain things about certain belief systems. I feel it would be a bastardisation of the intellect and discourse.

But still I am roped in. I'll forego the usual quote-reply and satisfy my own condescending notions.

Interesting. It seems you have it on very high authority. Which scientific discovery was this again? Was it like this, at all?

No, just personal experience. Also, your great-grandmother says hi and that she never loved you.

More seriously, though, all I have to go by is what I've seen over my lifetime since none of it can be proven in any sort of scientific experiment, and of course no one should believe anything anyone says just because they say so. What I posted above was essentially just my conclusions based on my observations. Take it or leave it, if you want. Doesn't bother me any.

However, since the OP's question was essentially "Do you believe in this and why?" I felt I might as well answer. If you have something to contribute other than simply tearing into someone else's response, then I'd be fascinated to hear it. Then again, since it's apparently what all the cooooool kids are doing:

The paradoxical nature of your post may very well tear apart the fabric of all existance. Grats, dude.

I recently finished reading one of Plato's books: The Banquet...the subject of this book is about love, and the so-called God of love: Eros...about in the middle of the book, one of the philosophers( his name is ''Socrate'' in french, I don't know it in english) is honoring this God in front a women called ''Diotime''...then she just starts laughing at him...he asks her why she's laughing, and then she starts explaining to him why Eros isn't a God at all; he's actually a demon.
Socrate, not exactly understanding what she means by this, asks her again to explain her point of view.Diotime starts by saying to him that a God is a result of everything that is joyful and beautiful, that a God does not need to be more beautiful or joyful, because he already has everything he needs inside him. Would a tall person want to be taller than he already is?Same thing with a strong person?
Eros, does not have these qualities, since he is always searching for them; he does not posses love, because he is always looking for it, thus not making him a God or mortal, but a demon.
Now, a demon isn't nessessary an incarnation of great evil, from Diotime's point of view...this particular demon is a link between the Divine and the Mortal, some sort of messenger, if you will. He transmits messages from the Gods to humans, and vice versa...

Well, this would be my prefered definition of what is a demon: an unGodly-God, not nessessary something of pure evil( if you can find the book, it's pretty good..for me..anyway, it's only like one hundred pages, but it's philosophy, so you have to read it a couple times before understanding anything). Maybe some of you guys think what I'm writting is bull, but this is what I read, and this is what I like. Let the criticism fly!!

Show me evidence that angels or demons exist, then we'll talk.

Dude, I mean, I'm right here.

I mean, what more do you need?

Aadmark,If you have nothing to contribute, why the hell did you bother? Can you see a molecule? Just because you can't see something does not mean it isn't there.
YOU have no substantial proof that THEY exist. I haven't seen one and neither have you, (not pictures, actually seen one) and if I don't believe scientists, then where is the proof. *note, I am not debating the existance of molecules, just debating the "I can't see it, it's not there" argument.
For that matter, I have never seen YOU so there is no proof that YOU exist.
So prove that you exist and then We'll talk.

DAMN SEMANTICS

ON to Demons
I believe demons are our own personal self destructive behaviors made manifest by our minds as etherial beings. The legends of demons always have them as the demon of something, usually things that we fear, like storms, avarice, murder, lust, sloth, you know the others. So why they may not be actual entities, their effects are felt. Angels are our good thoughts and feelings made manifest in a similar fashion.

I mean, come on, we all know the religon behind it, but looking at it psycologically, then there is no reason to DISbelieve in them, however as POS said, they feed off our own human desires and inadequecies (sp?)

You draw an analogy to science in a conversation about demons? Go figure. There's plenty of evidence for molecules -- which I don't need to link to because, as you pointed out, you aren't questioning their existence. But I AM questioning the existence of demons. So show me scientific evidence that they exist (so that I can become informed and gather an opinion) or drop it.