Do Catholics believe in literal demons?

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Catholics believe in Angels. Who are entities created by GOD, beings that have intellect, free will but do not posses a material body.
Demons are really Angels who did not want to obey the will of GOD. We read in the scriptures, that they rebelled against GOD. As a result they were expelled from Heaven and are now trying to bring humans to their side (Rebellion against GOD).
Hope this helps.
Peace!
 
l didn’t mean metaphysical problems, although l have those too. One of them being that he removed metaphysics from physics. Also, that he used aristotelian physics(not metaphysics) to build upon his metaphysics. As for my ‘metaphilosophical’ problems with him, all of his ideas l am familar with are not his own, he made an argument for them yes, but he believed in those things before he made an arguments.
 
Seriously, OP, you are bouncing from topic to topic. You say you are “asking questions.” Your original question has been answered many different ways, but it has been answered nonetheless.

By constantly changing the questions/topics, you make dialog very difficult. At some point, one can change topics enough that it leads the audience to believe that the questions aren’t bona fide. I had a “discussion” like that with an anti catholic person once; it became clear his “questions” were really just attacks framed as questions.
 
Fair enough.
For the sake of reducing confiusion l will stop replaying
 
CatholicSpirit said:
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.
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I’d warn that yours is a personal opinion, not doctrine. There is also some disparity in what is claimed about the late Father and the facts.
 
We are in a time when people say ‘show me scientific proof that God exists’, and at the same time Christians are seen as ridiculous that a pregnant woman is carrying a baby. There’s plenty of science to say that a baby is alive and growing and has it’s own DNA, but that’s the darkness that clouds minds right now.

There is a God, and there is a force of darkness happening in the world. People call it satan or demons. They are much more intelligent than we are, and our thinking is distorted. I can say it’s like being in the matrix.

Once you say God is real, every idea you ever had needs to come into alignment with that truth. Usually that means flipping things upside down for it to be correctly aligned. Scripture speaks of this when it says people will call evil good, and good evil. That describes today.
 
Nonatheist said:
l get that it would be hard to prove, but there must be a way to do so, otherwise it would be just a dogma without anything to support it.
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It is supported by Bible, Tradition, experience of exorcists. After Catholicism is known to be true, proving existence of demons is almost trivial.

And there is no need for proof until then. For now it is fine if you just consistently accept that you do not know if demons exist.
Nonatheist said:
Much of the Bible is metaphorical, it makes sense to assume that demons in it are as well.
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So, they would be a metaphor for what?
Nonatheist said:
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.
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So, you are not going to believe personal stories saying that having COVID-19 is, um, not very pleasant, until you’ll get sick too?

And you do not believe that “Curiosity” reached Mars, for you did not see it there with your own eyes?

Or do you actually trust far more “personal stories” than you imagine?
 
Yes, we don’t know the odds of life just naturally appearing since we’ve never observed it. I’ve seen calculations that make it seem nearly impossible even given the vastness of the universe.
But even this assumes that life is possible naturally, rather than, say, that it can only come about supernaturally.

This topic touched on a lot of different things kinda bouncing around; hopefully this will be my last comment here.
 
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Bible, yes. Tradition is not worth trusting, and exorcists may or may not tell the true or be right.

General things Christianity teaches to be evil.

It’s well known that COVID-19 causes not very pleasent feelings.
There are a video of curiosity reaching Mars.
There is a chance of it all being fake, but it’s more logical to assume it isn’t.
 
Nonatheist said:
Where do those beliefs come from?
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WOW, this thread got long fast… and have not read everything yet, so I’m not sure if this was answered, but demon are biblical. Man has been tempted by evil since Adam and Eve. Jesus cast out demons during His time on earth… so demons are mentioned in the bible.

If this was asked and answered just tell me the post number, but what do you think of when you hear about demons?
 
Nonatheist said:
It’s well known that COVID-19 causes not very pleasent feelings.
There are a video of curiosity reaching Mars.
There is a chance of it all being fake, but it’s more logical to assume it isn’t.
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No. It has nothing to do with Logic.

After all, evidence is still based on those same personal stories. And you have failed to offer any actual logical reason to believe them.

Yet, as we see, you did offer one kind of reason for belief: “It’s well known that X”. But what does it mean? That everyone around you strongly believes it. And you would look foolish if you would disagree.

So, it looks like you do not choose beliefs for logical reasons, but for social reasons.

And so, the real question is: will you be willing to be right while looking like a fool to just about everyone, and perhaps even thinking you’re a fool yourself?

If not, you won’t like Catholicism. And no arguments will change that on their own. The main obstacle is in the will, not in the intellect.
 
To be more specific, COVID-19 causes reactions in the body that produce those negative feelings.
Also, there is a difference between likely and unlikely events. If l claimed l was kidnaped by alians, it doesn’t have same logic worth as someone claimed they feel sick. Because people feeling sick is a common occurrence, while alians are not in any way proven to exist, neither is anyone being kidnaped by them, making this possible but not probable.
l hope this makes sense.
l am wiling to be right no matter the negative effects of that.
 
Sorry I misread that. Your metaphilosophical issues with Aquinas sounds like an interesting discussion in itself. Note how in that particular article on whether incorporeal creatures exist he actually argues against the earlier philosophers and against Aristotle (and against the Sadducees).
 
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I won’t respond to that here but you can start a new thread about it. There are other posters on the forums who are very well read in Thomistic philosophy.
 
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So, is the Bible just a myth? You know a myth isn’t nessarily a “fairy story,” that’s modern usage. A myth is simply a story. A myth may be true, factual, or not, the point is it teaches something, like Esop’s fables, or the parables of Jesus.

According to scripture, when Lucifer fell from heaven he took a third of the Angel’s with him. These “fallen” Angels are referred to as demons.they are spiritual beings, they can influence or possess human beings, as related in the New Testament. There is an entire body of demonology in Christianity. Here’s a Vatican document “Christian Faith and Demonology”

https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/...c_19750626_fede-cristiana-demonologia_en.html

You might want to read it rather than making assumptions about a supposed mythology of demons. There’s a lot of bogus, and, frankly, dangerous information out there.

BTW, Satan’s greatest coup was to convince the majority of mankind that he, and his minions, don’t actually exist!
 
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There is a recent (2019) book by Feser called Aristotle’s Revenge that addresses this critique and the metaphysical foundations of modern science, if you’re interested.
 
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l don’t think Bible is just a myth.
l also don’t think that everything written it should be taken literally
 
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