(May 1, 2015 at 3:39 am)Razzle Wrote: A question for Christians.
Exorcism of demons is mentioned in several Bible verses, and I know most Christians would say that's because demon possession is a real phenomenon. However, most Christians in developed nations no longer attribute all manner of diseases, especially neurological diseases like epilepsy and psychotic illnesses, to demons in the vast majority of cases. So presumably, most of you believe that most sufferers of such conditions who are having torturous and sometimes deadly exorcisms performed on them in Africa, by people pointing to Jesus' healing of demon-possessed people who were symptomatically indistinguishable from epileptics, are not possessed and should see doctors instead.
So why did God allow verses like that to end up in the Bible without clarifying that a) it's not always demons (or the result of sin, a related belief about some illnesses that people get from the Bible) and b) if you must exorcise a demon, don't hurt the person. He knew toddlers would be getting tortured to death as a result of the miracles as they are described in the New Testament, right?
I can guess at the answers of most Christians on this site
1. We live in a fallen world so humans are the cause of everything
2. God is testing those parents
3. Punishment for something
4. It is the will of god
5. Another argument that goes in circles
