board77

So I just saw a poll put on by AOL following a story about an "attempted" exorcism of a 3 year old. When the police came, they found her grandfather strangling her. He was tasered and later died. I would have freakin shot him and feel very little sadness for the fact that he died. But that's beside the point.

The poll asked 2 questions.



In this day in age, with all we know about the mind and the body, I find these statistics very disturbing.

I can't imagine a properly represented poll would give these results. I'm guessing AOL must have an unusually higher fundamentalist-conservative base than the general population.

BUT I'd like to know what y'all think. Do you believe in demons? Do you believe they can possess someone?

Click

Very scary story...I had seen it earlier and could only shake my head in, well, disbelief. I can't help but think that such "ad hoc" exorcisms are excuses for child abuse.

People, as is obvious by this story, create enough of their own evil. We don't need any help from Satan, demon's or any other mythological creatures.

I find it very strange that a majority of the people polled believe in demonic possession, and a majority of the people believe that they can't be exorcised.

I thought the two beliefs kind of went hand in hand. If everyone polled was asked the two questions, you'd think they'd have similar numberical results on each question.

As it is, it appears that some people believe others are possessed by demons and there is nothing you can do about it!

THAT disturbs me, for some reason, more than the fact that a lot of people believe in demons and possesion. People will always believe in silly stuff. It's when they start feeling cornered, they get dangerous. What if the only way to deal with "demonically possessed" people is to kill them?

I wouldn't read too much into it - you have to vote twice to answer both questions, and I imagine many people, me included, only voted for the first question and not for the second at all.

A more accurate poll would enable the user to answer both questions, and only have to press the "Vote" button once.

Okay, yes, I believe in demons, and I think they can possess someone. However, I think it's quite rare. Very rare.

Exorcisms involving physical abuse of any kind are bogus. Why attack physically something that is non-material in nature? It's done by prayer and a lot of it, by serious prayer warriors. (Meaning, I would NEVER attempt to exorcise a demon.)

That being said, I have felt demonic presences, but I have only met one or two people that exuded evil to the point where I wondered if they were demon-possessed.

I didn't read the story you linked to, but, from what you've said, it sounds completely awful. It was abuse to a child.


Lali

They are certainly real (I've created several myself), though whether they go by that name or another depends on which operating system you're using (you misspelled the word, by the way. Common mistake).

They also screwed up the polls themelves. They put Yes first and then No for Demons, but then flipped it and put No first and Yes second for exorcisms. I would venture to guess that many people voted No instead of Yes because the mind does strange things to you.

It's like those questions about finding all the F's in a sentence or whatever it is and the mind always skips the F in if.... that may be the wrong word and letter but I think you know what I mean.

Way to screw up the results of a poll

The moral is - never trust internet polls.

I'm sure it will come as no surprise to anyone following my saga that the church I used to frequent believed that demon possession was common and was also behind just about everything from disrespectful behaviour to drug addiction.

yovargas wrote:

The moral is - never trust internet polls.

What a great idea for a thread.

I voted no but I was just being devilish.