I made the mistake of watching the Supreme Court confirmation hearing yesterday, which left me feeling a little... oppressed. What kind of oppression? The demonic kind, of course. I think I may have gotten a little infected, but my immune system is fighting it -- them -- off.
You will have noticed that no one has yet asked the nominee if she believes in demons. First of all, she's Catholic, so we know the answer. More to the point, she staring them in the face, batting away their stupid, loaded, hypocritical, duplicitous, and vicious pseudo-questions, e.g., "have you sexually assaulted anyone lately?," or "do you condemn white supremacy?"
No one has ever accused me of having "judicial temperament." Admittedly, I struggle with patience toward imbeciles and psychopaths. If Hirono had asked me if I'd ever sexually assaulted anyone, I would have said, "sure," just to see the expression on her face.
If Booker had asked me if I condemn White Supremacism, I would have responded, "of course not. Have you ever seen how fast a Haitian can pick cotton?"
A few weeks ago I read an 800 page monster of a book called Introduction to the Science of Mental Health, which has a whole section devoted to Demonic Influences.
Wait -- science? Sure, why not, for what is a science? It is "an organized body of knowledge of things through their causes." Therefore, "if a person engages in the practice of a science refusing to consider possible causes, he is by that very fact unscientific."
What causes leftists to be the way they are? For me it is self-evident that there are supernatural causes -- just as it is impossible to explain the sanctified brilliance of, say, Thomas Aquinas, without recourse to supernatural graces.
By the way, when I say "self-evident," I mean something analogous to seeing as opposed to discursive reasoning; however, this seeing is in no way contrary to reason (more on this later).
The demon -- speaking through the oracle of scientism -- will respond that bOb is the unscientific one, since science by definition denies the existence of demonic influences. But this makes no more sense than claiming that beauty, justice, and morality don't exist just because science can't measure them.
So, put away your slide rule, brainiac. It can't help you here. Keep an open mind. At the very least, you should acknowledge the phenomena even if you reject our hexplanation. Just don't pretend your explanation is adequate. If you think psychology provides an adequate explanation of Hitler, you understand neither Hitler nor psychology.
And if you think Trump is Hitler, you might want to check under your hoodie for demonic influences. That's beyond crazy, but not in a way the psychologist in me can rationally explain.
Modern psychology asserts conclusions about demonic influences which are not supported by the evidence. In this sense, the "belief" about the lack of demonic influence as well as many other aspects of their various psychological systems is nothing short of superstition, insofar as it is a form of irrational (contrary to first principles) belief based on ignorance (Ripperger).
What? You're a skeptic? Good. You're just not skeptical enough. Nor ironical enough. You need to take your naturalism with a grain of salt.
By the way, I'm not claiming any special expertise here. I'm not a demonologist, let alone an exorcist, although I did get Cousin Dupree to stop using so many durn cuss words. I just have an open mind and some common sense, that's all.
Moreover, I suppose I have a bit of first hand experience, being that I was once open to the demonic, or at least had no principled opposition to it. My entire generation -- the boomers -- rejected the cultural immune system that had been bequeathed to us by prior generations that had engaged in warfare with the Invisible Enemy.
First, some metaphysical housekeeping: if demonic influences exist, by virtue of what principle are they possible? What is their sufficient reason? Well, first of all they are immaterial. If you acknowledge the existence of "good" immaterial forms, energies, influences, and vibes, then you should have no principled reason to deny the existence of bad and uncool vibes. Vibes are vibes. No one says they must all be pleasant.
How do we discern these vibes? Ripperger says they act directly upon the body and bodily organs, whereas they cannot touch the intellect except indirectly. Our head is indeed a safe space, unless we choose otherwise. Other times we don't so much choose to let them in as choose not to acknowledge their existence or influence, as in the example given above about clueless boomers.
When we say that demons can only act directly on the body, this covers a broader range than you might believe, since there are aspects of our minds that are material, others that are partly or completely immaterial. The soul, for example, is immaterial, as is the light of reason.
Conversely, imagination, memory, senses, and appetites are all more or less material. But you can imagine how, for example, the appetite might come under demonic influence, which then might lead to rationalization of the impulse, compulsion, or addiction. In this way the intellect is indirectly highjacked.
Which actually goes to the confirmation hearing. For example, let's say the demon likes nothing more than killing babies. Or, he believes the black man has no rights the white man is bound to respect. Therefore, it is permissible to kill babies or enslave blacks. Now, the intellect knows, and cannot not know, that these are wrong. But where there's demonic willfulness there's a rationalized way, as exemplified by the Dred Scott and Roe v. Wade decisions.
We're out of time. To be continued.
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