they could be led astray BY demons.
"led astray" implies influence, perhaps of data? or memes?
For example the allegations that Iraq was a threat because it possessed WMD influenced Senators to vote to authorize military action. Iraq had possessed these weapons in sufficient quanitity to be a threat in previous decades, they had been obstructing as much as they could the UN inspectors. However, most believed rightly that they had no offensive capablities (possession of quantities of sarin to little to be a threat doesn't count). So did demons suggest this idea as a way to create war? What about the arguments by those who pointed to the current state of Iraq in virtue of the sanctions and inspections that WPD were not a threat. The thing is here is an example of ideas that have an effect in the real world.
Feelings and sensations are subjective and can influence perception. Sometimes a mood or too much caffeine results in my experiencing a mild anxiety. One form that takes is after leaving my house a part of my brain suggests I haven't turned off the stove, another part argues I been back and forth in the kitchen no burners were emitting heat. The other part insists I should return. It's a mild obsession that eventually evaporates as I get active. I believe this belief in demons is a hold over from prescientific times when it was an explanation for the brain and malfunctions of the brain, or unexplained natural activities that seemed unnatural like ball lighting.
I believe the churches promulgating this view now a days do it for power and influence over their members. After the movie the Excorcist there was even a small business boom in excorcisms. The current hypnotism for buried memories of abuse or alien abduction is the same sort of thing. And if you are exposed to people who believe these things the mind can get active along those lines. There are well documented studies and undocumented anecdotes of perceptual changes due to brain and hormones. Adrenlin can affect perception. If those happens in a climate of belief in entities then you have a bit of a positive feed forward. The beliefs increase anxiety or arousal resulting in more perceptual alterations resulting in stronger beliefs and around it goes.
To accept a demonic theory of hallucinations means explaining how tranquillizers and anti psychotics drive out demons and do so far more reliablity than excorcising them in the name of a deity.
I believe that in a modern country for a church to advocate belief in demons is irresponsible propagandizing to maintain power that can be harmful in the sense that it increases anxiety in sensitive people. They should be using something like rational emotive therapy to help people deal with anxieties or stress in a functional manner and not be using methods that will increase church attendance at the cost of the well being of their members.
lfen
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