Do Catholics believe in literal demons?

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There is a difference in literal and metaphorical truth. Many stories in mythology exist to teach people some life lessons for examples, you can say that those are true. But, mythology can’t be proven to be literally true.
 
I’d suggest beginning with Dr Kreeft’s book of the same title, and this talk:

 
Life of Hitler is very well documented, there is a built up to holocaust.
l don’t find it very convincing to place the Devil as the cause of all deeds such as holocaust.
 
l cannot take personal experience as a good argument for anything, sorry.
 
The devil doesn’t cause sin. We have to cooperate. I see what you’re saying, and the same could be said about the sex abuse scandal; the devil didn’t force anyone to do terrible things. But, consider that there may be an overarching force that brings things together and becomes mass evil that no human could orchestrate.
 
There is a tendency to give more credit to the devil than is due. Fallen mankind is very capable of horrors.
 
I meant to add that it was just something to look at, not an argument. Sorry.
 
l have phrased it in a different way.
l don’t trust stories like this, ever.
As, if l trust in one than l must trust in all. Which is not going to end well.
 
Why do you believe that humans couldn’t on their own cause such horrors?
If free will is real, there is nothing stopping certain people from doing so.
And psychology can explain a lot of those
 
You seem to have this weird all or nothing approach. Not everyone is equally credible. Some liars could lie about something like going get bread, but surely not everyone who says they got bread are liars.

But you post a very important point as to why a living interpretative tradition is important, such as the Church, so you can be sure of the meaning of stories.

But genre is also important. For instance, the Gospels are written as biographies, and not mythological accounts.
 
Nonatheist said:
Mythology evolves as culture evolves, many aspects of Jewish mythology were taken from older cultures.
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Mythology EVOLVES as Culture DEVOLVES -
There was One God, then as population grew, people forgot this God, invented new gods, invented many things including the modern secular cultural idea that all gods and angels and demons were invented rather than that the one God and his Spiritual Creations (the angels and demons) were real and all others invented as culture deteriorated.
 
The idea of God in which Christians believe in started 2000 or so years ago.
Few hundrends more if you include God without Jesus.
Polytheism is as old if not oldern than monotheism
 
With all due respect, what is your objective here?
Nonatheist said:
As a non-Catholic myself, l am interested if Catholics believe in demons as actually existing entities.
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Your question was answered with a resounding yes.
Nonatheist said:
Where do those beliefs come from?
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Again, answered… mostly with references to the Gospels.
Nonatheist said:
There is a difference in literal and metaphorical truth. Many stories in mythology exist to teach people some life lessons for examples, you can say that those are true. But, mythology can’t be proven to be literally true.
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So was the intent if your OP to inquire about our beliefs, or to challenge and undermine them with an increasingly wider net?
 
l really disagree that Gospels were just a biographies.
They were written 50+ years after the event.
And by the style of their writting, it makes sense to assume that they were written to promote a religion
 
If you are into demon information Fr. Gabriele Amorth who was the Vaticans chief exorcist wrote books. We believe in people being possessed and Hitler is one example of who we believe can be possessed. Demons do exist in Catholicism.

I wanted to add: every once in a while if you pay attention to Catholic news the exorcists will reveal something and the last thing I heard was that they encourage the use of holy scapulars. Fortunately, I’m all set where that’s concerned, I’m enrolled in one.
 
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To increase my knowlage on Catholic thought is my primary objective, secondary would be to have a dicussion.

l want to understand them in a way that makes sense, questioning some aspects of it is a part of it.
 
Demons are literally real. Demonic possession is also real. Right now, the New Age is introducing people to spirits referred to as helpful. All you have to do is invite them in. Of course, they are not called ‘demons.’ Other names are given to them.
 
Nonatheist said:
The idea of God in which Christians believe in started 2000 or so years ago.
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It started when the first Man was created, and devolved into polytheism in the centuries following that, and they wrote about their gods to win popular acceptance, while the descendents of Adam down through Noah and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob did not do popular treatises, since their God had a different use for his followers, that of bringing life to the world. The other religions were people trying to find a way to control reality, with whatever they could invent or make up rather than quietly being servants of the One God that was already known by all, but then forgotten. Moses then wrote of this God, centuries after the popular cults wrote, not to popularize, but to keep the people on track with their mission for the One God, because they were living in the midst of the popular cults, and beginning to devolve their beliefs just as the polytheists lost their knowledge of the One God while inventing others.
 
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