It must be very convenient for authoritarians to label all who disagree, even oven the most minor details, as being 'possessed by demons.'
It also conveniently provides an excuse for any form of abuse upon the 'possessed' be they the victims of Al-Queda in Manhattan or children in day care in Oklahoma City.
I'm sure it is very comforting for the self-righteous to be able to justify any action regardless of the laws of God or man.
The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conservative notions in any culture, because it seeks to turn other ideas - uncertainty, progress, change - into crimes.
Salman Rushdie
This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It’s us. Only us. - the character Rorschach in Watchmen