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View Full Version : Scalia and Satan: Why Do People Believe in the Devil?



skywizard
10th October 2013, 15:16
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In a recent interview in New York magazine, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia acknowledged his belief in Satan.

Scalia said that “I even believe in the Devil…..Of course! Yeah, he’s a real person. Hey, c’mon, that’s standard Catholic doctrine! Every Catholic believes that…. In the Gospels, the Devil is doing all sorts of things. He’s making pigs run off cliffs, he’s possessing people and whatnot. And that doesn’t happen very much anymore…. What he’s doing now is getting people not to believe in him or in God. He’s much more successful that way.”

Dualistic theology — the idea that the world is divided into two parts, good and evil, and that humans are affected by a constant struggle between the two for domination — is common to many religions, and especially prominent in Roman Catholicism.

In their book “Paranormal America,” sociologists Christopher Bader, F. Carson Mencken, and Joseph Baker note:

“Americans are deeply divided on the nature of evil. Researchers have found that a person’s views about the nature of evil and the role of evil impact other behaviors and beliefs. For instance, beliefs about Satan were a strong predictor of participation in social movements, rallies, petitions, pickets, and membership associated with the Moral Majority. More recently, strong views of religious evil have been found to be associated with intolerance of homosexuality.”

While much in religion and theology is considered metaphorical and allegorical, as Scalia noted belief in Satan as a literal incarnation of evil is common among many Roman Catholics. Fundamentalist Christian literature contains countless books describing Satan, demons, and devils as real, literal, incarnate entities that cause a wide variety of ills ranging from marital strife and “unclean thoughts” to depression, disease and death.

Belief in a literal Satan also plays an important role in Christian eschatology, the study of end-of-days prophecies. Those who believe that the end times are upon us have been especially popular.

Many Christians also believe that occult divination tools such as Tarot cards, pendulums, and Ouija boards can connect with, and even summon, evil spirits including Satan. Some even promote conspiracy theories involving Satan, claiming for example that credit cards and bar codes are not only “marks of the Beast” (i.e., Satan), but signs of an impending and demonic New World Order.

This is part of a broader trend of biblical literalism. Many believe that Earth was created by God in only seven days, in the case of so-called “intelligent design” creationism, less than 10,000 years ago. Another common belief is that Noah’s Ark really existed (and that it’s periodically re-discovered on a Turkish mountain), and so on.

People still believe in the Devil because there’s still a need for him to exist. He still plays an important role in many people’s belief systems and even daily lives. Writer and Christian apologist C.S. Lewis, in his 1942 book “The Screwtape Letters,” wrote:

“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors.”


Full Story: http://news.discovery.com/human/psychology/scalia-and-satan-why-do-people-still-believe-in-the-devil-131009.htm



peace...
skywizard