Gabriele Amorth, Benedict XVI's senior exorcist, president of the International Association of Exorcists, and a man who claims to have exorcized over 30,000 demons, says:
"I am convinced that the Nazis were all possessed. All you have to do is think about what Hitler - and Stalin did. Almost certainly they were possessed by the devil.
You can tell by their behavior and their actions, from the horrors they committed and the atrocities that were committed on their orders. That's why we need to defend society from demons."
So, the Nazi's were possessed by demons (a.k.a. invisible spirits). Being possessed, of course, implies that they cannot be held accountable for their actions.
Oh, and "[b]ehind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil."
This is the 21st Century, Benedict supports exorcism, and we are expected to take anything he says about science seriously? I think not.
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Hey, at least he doesn't blame Darwin. Or maybe he thinks Darwin was a demon?
They did bad things, so they were possessed. This is proof of the existence of demons.
My own mind is unable to achieve such clarity.
The Wikipedia article on Fr. Amorth claims his favorite movie is The Exorcist. Based on his comments, Raiders of the Lost Ark just might run a close second. :)
Poor Pope Benedict. Caught between a rock and a hard place. Pun intended.
Once you've got a job description like that, you have to find someone who is bent or can bend himself enough to fill it. Then you have an incumbent who will work to find what he is employed to find. Not likely he is going to report that the non-existence of demons means he should be reassigned.
It all started when there was no natural explanation for mental illness. Unfortunately some people with psychoses are still being tormented by their priests, instead of getting treatment by evidence-based medicine.
For the Catholics, if God is real, then so is Satan. Since Satan is a demon, then demons exist. They likely won't be abandoning this bit of irrationality any time soon. Besides, everyone knows that demons can't resist evil people.
There is only one reason to take seriously what he says about anything.
Power, and the wielding of it.
Those who accept him as authority may or may not ally usefully, in some way and in some times with those who support science. Their political power base is substantially more effective than any alliance of science supporters, which needs to be considered.
So what principles are we willing to sacrifice (bend, be discrete about) for politics? I wouldn't bother. Today, the Internet allows so many individual voices to be heard that there is little point in shushing each other. Any such conspiracy will be blown by Google to any who care to search.
IMO it's probably best to just point out each and every irrationality the forces of unreason come up with, even if it is unkind of us to laugh at them too.
Keep up the good works.
Pope slams Old Testament
The actual headline on that article was "Pope slams Muslim violence", but I think mine makes just as much sense.