Who & what are the demons ?

This just doesn't make any sense. On one hand you seem to be saying that demons can't influence what humans decide to do and on the other you seem to be attributing something you witnessed a person do to demonic influence. This seems contradictory.can you clarify what role you believe the demon played in this example of yours?

So at the time you observed him he was acting under the influence of a demon but he had decided to let himself be influenced by said demon - That is what you believe?

Let's accept your predisposition towards believing in the existence of demons.What I am interested in is the basis on which you have concluded that he decided to let himself be influenced by said demon?How have you concluded that he was complicit rather than resistant to this demonic influence?

I don't see how the above can be reconciled with this: How can someone be a victim of demonic influence if the demon can't make them doing anything they hadn't decided to do anyway?To clear this up can you answer the following - Do you think a demon could potentially make me or you do something we didn't want to do?

Not really. Because I still can't square that with this: I don't get the cold/cough analogy because nobody chooses to have a cold/cough....So I'm a bit lost as to the role you believe the demon played in this example of your to be honest. it seems very confused.

No one is disregarding possibilities. No one is saying "Demons cannot and do not exist because they are not possible". That is a strawman.The question is whether they are possibilities that are actually any more deserving of consideration than any of the other unevidenced but unfalsifiable things we can dream up.And the only reason for giving them more consideration than fairies (or whatever) seems to be because people believe they exist. But human belief is a demonstrably unreliable basis for drawing conclusion about reality.

So lets say I'm sitting here watching porn whilst knowingly mocking god and let's also assume I have low demonic resistance.Can a demon now, in your view, start influencing my behaviour to make me do things I don't want to do?What is it you think I am opening myself up to in terms of demonic inflluence here?

Are you now suggesting that everytime I do something that I don't really think is a good idea that I am doing so under demonic influence?I am trying to work out here what role you think demons can play in people's behaviour. It remains very unclear.

Well the same way any definition can be objective.In fact isn't the entire idea of defining things to ensure that we all mean the same thing when we use certain language......? definitions are by definition objective. Otherwise there is no point to them.

Define it? If you mean something we have not yet conceived of then - Of course!! Is that what you mean? I don't think you mean "objectionable". That means distasteful....I think you mean that which it is impossible to provide objective evidence for. If that is what you mean then I would in turn ask you why it cannot be objectively evidenced? What is it about the inherent nature of the thing in question that makes this impossible?Because I would put it to you that anything empirically detectable can be objectively evidenced.

Well do you disagree that anything empirically detectable (i.e. detectable by means of our senses) can in principle be objectively evidenced?Are you proposing some sort of "sixth sense" type means of detection.....?

Blimey!!I'm still trying to garner from you what effect you believe demons can have on one's behaviour. As far as I understand it whenever I do something that rationally I know isn't a good idea I am being potentially influenced by demons.Now you seem to be suggesting that this influence is exerted by mans of some "sixth sense" type phenomenon......Have you ever heard of the mind-body problem? If I were to ask you how some non-materially detectable form of influence could interract with our physical brains what would you say.....?

What do you mean by 'subjective evidence'....?Which subjective experiences qualify as evidence and which don't?If you have a dream about a demon does that qualify as evidence of the actual existence of demons? If you have a dream about Aphrodite (for example) does that qualify as evidence of the actual existence of Aphrodite?

When we sleep there is a state of muscle atonia which stops us physically acting out our dreams. This is, for obvious reasons, a useful thing.Sleep paralysis combined with some form of sexual arousal is what lies behind the Incubus demon myth.Since having children (and thus 6 years and counting of disrupted sleep) I have experienced this in a minor sense myself a few times.The feeling that one is (sort of) conscious whilst also unable to move is a common and a known aspect of REM sleep gone a bit wrong. Throw in the (again entirely involuntary) male erection cycle (or the female clitoral equivalent) and you have some pretty tasty myths around demonic sexual encounters.Subjective evidence says demons...What we know about the nature of sleep says not..

I'm not sure what we are supposed to take from this?That demons are real because the Pope says so...?