[Magdalen] Exorcism

[Sally Davies]

Me too, Arthur.

It's also interesting that in my environment of Africa, few people inside
the churches or even outside them are inclined to question the
independent existence of evil and of evil entities. It doesn't sit
comfortably with rationality but in this part of the world the supernatural
and the natural are not separated to the same extent as in the "rational"
West.

I don't understand it, but there again I don't understand most of Reality
and that's OK.

My main problem with all of this is not so much philosophy or theodicy but
psychology. I'm a devotee and servant of the human brain in all its
miraculous strangeness, including its ability to connect with other brains
in ways that aren't obvious to the five senses or easily explained.

It so aggravating when phenomena that are much more elegantly explained by
recourse to these lesser known psycho-social competencies and
vulnerabilities, are ascribed to either God or the Devil.

I don't mean to imply that this leaves us with a "Satan of the gaps". To my
mind, one of Satan's cleverest tricks is to get us searching for Hannibal
Lector when someone like Donald Trump is a much more worthy candidate. He's
convinced a lot of people to believe in the "light" he claims to be shining
on Reality (Truth is completely irrelevant in his campaign) - and they will
give him the highest power in the land if they have the chance. Screwtape
and his team must be well pleased with him!!

Ian: you asked the original question, what do you think of The Screwtape
Letters?

Sally D

On Wednesday, December 9, 2015, Arthur Laurent <ALaurent at npr.org> wrote:

> I believe in the devil and other creatures of pure evil, because I've been
> in the presence of evil, and was glad when I could walk away. This is not
> an intellectual belief (none of my spiritual beliefs are intellectual), but
> is based on personal experience.
>
> James wrote, "...Thinking one can behave their way into heaven is an
> insult to the whole idea of salvation," and I agree. There is nothing we
> can do by ourselves that will get us into heaven. That's why we have Jesus
> as our Advocate.
>
> Of course, some of us are going to take a lot more advocacy than others.
>
> Arthur