Why can't science detect angels and demons?

[EGross]

It's never god daying these things - as far as I know he doesn't write well and has no decent Internet connection (it always seems to be down).

[Brian37]

are you sure?
how do you know?
did you somehow personally verify that?
demons in the swine had to go somewhere

I like this. We can't definitively prove that certain evil people weren't supernatural entities that we couldn't possibly test for, and so for some reason the obvious answer is that they must be demons.

Occam's Razor!

Seriously, what's more likely: they were men, or that they were magic?

That is what fans of invisible friends do not want to consider.

1. Invisible beings exist

2. Or humans merely concoct their imaginary friends and delude themselves into believing they are real?

[The Grand Nudger]

You know, I was looking at that list of demons, and it occurred to me that they were all dead and/or relics. Things already gone by. This gives us a way to test the hypothesis. Please kindly point to a living breathing demon. We'll test that asshole. Surely, given how easily you identified past demons, you would have some insight into present demons. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[EGross]

Barney?

[junkyardboy]

I like this. We can't definitively prove that certain evil people weren't supernatural entities that we couldn't possibly test for, and so for some reason the obvious answer is that they must be demons.

Occam's Razor!

Seriously, what's more likely: they were men, or that they were magic?

That is what fans of invisible friends do not want to consider.

1. Invisible beings exist

2. Or humans merely concoct their imaginary friends and delude themselves into believing they are real?

every civilization since antiquity?
perhaps it is you that is out of touch with reality?

[Brian37]

That is what fans of invisible friends do not want to consider.

1. Invisible beings exist

2. Or humans merely concoct their imaginary friends and delude themselves into believing they are real?

every civilization since antiquity?
perhaps it is you that is out of touch with reality?

Nope. I am an adult. It is understandable when kids have imaginary friends, it looks stupid to me when you are an adult. It was understandable back then when we didn't know better, but we do now. To me believing in a god today is like still insisting the earth is flat.

[thesummerqueen]

Every civilization since antiquity, as far as I know, has been comprised of humans with the same brain structure as the rest.Therefore, it's entirely plausible that every civilization would suffer from similar sorts of delusion.

[Brian37]

Every civilization since antiquity, as far as I know, has been comprised of humans with the same brain structure as the rest.Therefore, it's entirely plausible that every civilization would suffer from similar sorts of delusion.

It is not only plausible it is fact. People believed in cave gods and painted them on cave walls. People believed that volcanos were gods. People believed the sun was a god. People believed there gods living on MT Olympus. People thought Thor made lightening.

Modern theists take them to bey legends and myths, but the only difference between superstition then and now is time. The ones believed now will morph and change and or die out, just like the ones in the past.

[thesummerqueen]

I am in complete agreement. junkyard is using a rather junky sort of argument ad populum by way of history, is all I was commenting on.

Humanity hasn't really changed for the past several thousand years, except to, if you believe statistics, actually become gradually less violent. Perhaps we're starting to scare the shit out of ourselves with our capacity to create weapons. Perhaps the oxytocin is ramping up. Who knows.

Either way, I do know that homo sapiens is homo sapiens and getting rid of religion would still leave people with fantasy prone personalities replacing gods with other shit. Not because the supernatural exists, but because our brains are pattern seeking and are still wired for pareidolia and many other chemically reacting mindsets - whether it's a feeling of oneness with the universe or a tripped trigger that makes you hear voices that aren't actually there.

For all a lot of theists and believers like to believe humans are fragile and something stronger and supernatural must exist, they are quite keen to ignore the actual fragility of the human brain which might just be fragile enough to trick them into all sorts of things.

[The Grand Nudger]

Or sturdy enough to resist reality so impressively, angles..angles.