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2. Paranormal News | News submitted by: MIB
It is no mystery that very few good things in life come easily, and much of the hardships in life were attributed to demonic forces in the past. Hardships caused by man himself were attributed to vices, such as lust and greed. These vices were given symbolic representations in the form of demons, and since life was so difficult at times, mankind considered evil powers to be the strongest on earth.
Generation after generation of individuals tried to appease these harsh superhuman gods in hopes that it would bring good luck to their otherwise pain-filled existence. Religious ceremonies, praying, and sacrifice was seen as a way to turn these powerful forces, attempting to destroy mankind, into mankind‘s favor. The occult sciences were formed as a quasi-scientific way to do so.
Where evil and good were once seen as two sides of the same coin, a separation took place somewhere and some time. Baal, for one, represented the Sun, the painter of nature‘s beauty. Baal-zebub represented the insect-breeding power of the same sun, and thus became known as the fly-god. Where one was seen as good, the other became known as evil--even though they both stemmed from the same source--the Sun. Some cult practitioners felt that it would be good to acknowledge both as powers, and not just one or the other. As an example, a story exists concerning a French woman who was found kneeling before a "marble group," and was warned by the priest that she was worshipping the wrong figure--Beelzebub. "Never mind," she replied, "it is well enough to have friends on both sides." This mindset was what caused many Babylonians to worship all figures--good and evil, since they were, as we stated, two sides to the same coin.
Lucifer, known in many cultures as Loki, has come to represent the bright and morning star, seen as the revealer of the deeds of darkness, and in the right-hand place of the Sun. He is known in the bible as the accuser--the one who shows God the evil deeds of mankind, hoping that God will see how horrible his creation truly is. The sun, as well as Venus, comes up in the morning to reveal what the darkness has concealed--the hidden sins of God‘s creation. Perhaps this is why Lucifer has also come to be known as the "light bearer."
At the same time, vices of man that are portrayed and personified as demons--the helpers of Lucifer -- are seen within Christianity as the dominions who do the work for Lucifer--tempt man so that he can accuse them before God of their evil intentions. In this way, Lucifer has come to represent not only as the revealer of evil, but also the prime motivating force of evil, assisting man into utter destruction, with the help of his legion of "Vices."
It is hard to see where exactly the gods of the past degraded into what we consider to be demons. For where they were once one and the same, the two became separate entities. Harvard University‘s Moncure Daniel Conway in the 1880s believed that hints of this process can be found in the German word for idol, "Abgott"--ex-god. "Pagan" meant villager, or, those that stood by their old gods as others transferred their faith into the new belief system. In other words, the Christian priesthood moved in, and in consequence, the gods of old had to move out. In order to appease this process, the decision was made not to deny that the villagers‘ gods existed, but instead, to place them on the intellectual mantel of demons.
Also, because of the fear of rejection, the religious beliefs and rituals that the villagers claimed as their own was not something that missionaries felt the desire to replace. Possibly as a way for the peasants to more easily accept the new belief structure, their rituals were incorporated into the new. As noted by Gregory The Great in a letter to Abbot Mellitus, the second bishop of Canterbury, ‘whereas the people were accustomed to sacrifice many oxen in honor of demons, let them celebrate a religious and solemn festival, and not slay the animals to the devil, but to be eaten by themselves to the glory of God." This, of course, happened during the Yuletide and is now known as Christmas today. In an earlier article, I claimed that the religious ceremony of Christmas was actually a Babylonian celebration, and who we now believe is Santa Claus was actually the Babylonian god Nimrod. This still seems to be the case, since the peasantry received their own beliefs from other cultures--all stemming back to the Babylonian celebration of "The Victory of the Sun." Nimrod was said to be born on December 25th, not Jesus. The peasantry celebrated this in their own cultures; it became incorporated into Christianity by the missionaries.
In numerous instances, there were, of course, a number of peasants who did not accept the new belief system and stuck with their own. They adhered to the ancient rites and beliefs and were known as bigots. Occasionally these peasants found themselves using the new terminology and is a probable cause of the origin of so-called “Satan-worship.” The prevailing attitude was “call them what you will—I will still worship them.”
Much of the artwork of these pagan gods were not originally done by those whom worshipped them. Instead, the missionaries themselves created the artwork in order to depict these “devils” within a horrible light, reversing what they had originally represented. Because they were beautiful in the minds of these peasants, they were painted in a repulsive way, to cause horror in the hearts and minds of many. Even today, you still see this occurring. How many times have you roamed through a bookstore in the religious section and seen the authors depicted with a nice, fuzzy glow, and a backdrop of light shining down from heaven? This is such a prevalent depiction that almost all religious writers have their photos taken in the very same format. On the other side of the coin, we have tabloids photos that do in essence what the missionaries did with their artwork—bastardizing them. Tabloids find and take the most horrendous photos of mankind’s idols--Julia Roberts, Mel Gibson, Oprah--and plaster them all over grocery stores and pharmacies. They are designed to shock—and do they ever.
Demons therefore come from a mixture of things: personified hardships in life; peasantry beliefs and stories, obtained from past cultures that stem all the way back to the days of Babylon and Sumeria; deities that became demons when the missionaries moved in, and missionary depictions of pagan gods, painted in such a devious way that no one in their right mind would be interested in worshipping them. ‘Bigots’ that continued to worship these same beings under their newly given Christian names intensified the disgust and misunderstanding of their practice—demonizing peasantry spiritual paths, only to incorporate their beliefs into the Christian religion under such names as “Christmas” and “Easter.”
In light of the missionaries of old, It will be interesting to see what the Christian churches will do to the alien abduction phenomena once they get a hold of its concepts, how people that have witnessed an alien presence will react to the church, and how the leaders of the UFO movement will compensate. Will it be a repeat of what happened when the missionaries moved in to spread the word of God to the pagan peasants? Will greys be demonized and painted in such a way where large numbers of them sit at the feet of Satan in Christian artwork? If history is any indication, these Christian churches will not deny that something is happening to these people—they will merely redefine what is happening. Those that have been abducted or continue to believe that these beings are from another planet will be forced to say what the peasants said in the past: “Call them what you will. I will continue to believe.” There is no choice. A redefinition is about to occur.
So how should the UFO community react to the redefining of alien life forms as demons? There is, of course, only one solution: If missionaries are about to redefine everything that is happening when people come in contact with aliens—demonizing the entire field--then the UFO community must be prepared to do the same thing to the missionaries: redefine the belief in devils and angels as alien activity. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth: the victor may very well hold the key to what is truly going on with our own spirituality.
http://www.paranormalnews.com/article.asp?ArticleID=128
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