Notes from Evil Bender

This post is going to be about demons, so bear with me for one moment as I relate a story. A friend of mine–who I’ve known for years–claims to be anti-science because “scientists just completely change their minds every twenty years.” Leaving aside the obvious flaws there, I tried to show him how the scientific world view, with its emphasis on evidence and its self-correcting nature, demonstrates its strength every time a flawed idea is overturned. Science, I told him, is self correcting. It gets results.

Let’s compare that to religion, shall we?

PZ turned me on to Holly Pivec’s defense of the doctrines of demons and exorcisms:

Oddly, while non-Christians are becoming more open to the supernatural, part of the church — the church in the West— is becoming more skeptical. This concerns many Biola alumni and professors, like Arnold, who believe that Christian academia has been swayed by the “philosophical naturalism” of secular academia. (Philosophical naturalism is the belief that everything that happens can be explained by natural causes, with no supernatural intervention.)

“Many Western Christians have adopted elements of an antisupernatural bias, perhaps even unwittingly, through the influence of our prevailing culture,” Arnold said.

An “antisupernatural bias,” eh? By that you mean a bias against that which is indistinguishable from shit I just made up?

The “evidence” of demonic possession is nonexistent. It involves anecdotes, confirmation bias, lies and staggering psychological problems. To put it bluntly, it is no more credible than my claim that ninjas are responsible for disease, Hitler, and the decline of the pirate population (and therefore global warming!). But if you call my claim foolish, I will claim you’re biased against my ludicrous point of view.

To be clear: that which one cannot provide evidence for, that which supposedly exists but produces no observable effects, can reasonably said to be nonexistent. There might indeed be an invisible dragon in my garage, but if it doesn’t do anything that can be observed, it makes no difference whether it exists or not.

There are those who would ask us to blame demons for our problems–thus putting in jeopardy those who listen to them instead of doctors and scientists–and they are putting peoples’ lives at risk. Their indefensible religious beliefs unquestionably make the word a worse place.

My favorite example of how this idiocy masquerades as rational thought below the fold.

“In non-western countries, there has been such an outright commitment to the worshipping of false gods and false spirits that the demonic presences who are behind these false objects of worship are much more capable of manifesting,” Hayward said. …
Lewis agrees that demonic activity in America will increase as more people become involved in paganism, which, he said, always goes together with occult practices.“They are asking the spirits to visit them, so it will necessarily follow that there will be an increase in demonic activity,” Lewis said.

It “necessarily follows.” That’s right: demons, the super-powerful minions of the Devil show up like the pizza guy at your door any time you call.

And people wonder why I am so hostile to religion.