I have to revive this after that:
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This is from Kierkegaard’s piece, “Repetition:”
I shall not dwell any longer on such examples but shall proceed to speak a little of the investigative journey I made to test the possibility and meaning of repetition. Without anyone’s knowing about it (lest any gossip render me incapable of the experiment and in another way weary of repetition), I went by steamship to Stralsund and took a seat in the Schnellpost [express coach] to Berlin. The learned disagree on which seat is the most comfortable in a stagecoach; in my Ansicht [opinion], they are all wretched, the whole lot. Last time I had an end seat forward inside the carriage (some regard this as the big prize) and after thirty-six hours was so jounced together with those sitting next to me that when I arrived in Hamburg I had lost not only my mind but my legs as well. During those thirty-six hours, we six people sitting inside the carriage were so worked together into one body that I got a notion of what happened to the Wise Men of Gotham, who after having sat together a long time could not recognize their own legs. Hoping at least to remain a limb on a lesser body, I chose a seat in the forward compartment. That was a change. Everything, however, repeated itself. The postilion blew his horn. I shut my eyes, surrendered to despair, and thought the thoughts I usually think on such occasions: God knows if you can endure it, if you actually will get to Berlin, and in that case if you will ever be human again, able to disengage yourself in the singleness of isolation, or if you will carry a memory of your being a limb on a larger body
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Hum. Does make you stop and think.
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I took a break from thinking on this one and just had a good laugh.
I do think it’s fascinating to hear a then contemporary perspective on things like the state coach that don’t exist any more. What was normal life like for a person who had to travel and didn’t own their own means of getting around? The mundane aspects of life that don’t make it into novels are often the most interesting to me. What were people’s day to day lives like? You don’t learn what made people tick by learning about battle strategies and courtroom dealings. Those are the result of what makes people tick.
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That narrows it down. Do you realize that an atheist who believes in demon possession is by definition not an atheist? It’s like claiming one is a vegetarian meat-eater.
If you don’t think BioLogos supports demon possession check out this thread from 2016
My own position is that angels and demons do exist, but there is no such thing as demon possession. The ancients attributed things like mental illness and epilepsy to demon possession because they didn’t know any better. But Jesus really did heal these people from what they were actually suffering from.
Simply believing in demon possession, witchcraft, and the like can cause terrible suffering. Just watch this very short video Report Decries Treatment of Mentally Ill in Ghana and see the terrible things people endure when there is inadequate care for the mentally ill. It’s just heartbreaking-- mentally ill folks are actually chained up in prayer camps!
Demons aren’t God or gods. To use an illustration, deity is like fruit pies and demons are like custard pies; one can object to fruit pies without objecting to custard pies.
I’m still laughing at this: “supports” can mean “is in favor of” – that’s why I don’t think “supports” is quite the right word here.
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This is the humor thread however. 
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A small percentage of atheists believe in demons but how many of them believe in demon possession besides your friend? Who would do an exorcism?
You should read the thread. I was clearly in the minority when I said there is no demon possession. At least two of the moderators openly expressed belief in demon possession as did most of the regular participants. That guy Caspar was a moderator. Really big into defending biblical demon possession. Even the demonized pigs that flew off the cliff.
You can flag anything I write and it will disappear like magic.
Keeping in mind the wise reminder it wasn’t a true bird, I thought this extension of @jpm’s meme was funny, too
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It was funny, so it fit the thread well and should stay.
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I’ll take it as a subversive commentary on forms of religious art that I don’t like. In which case I think it may be as meaningful as the original.
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“Early bird” is also in the name of Eoornis; it got the worm even though not everyone got the jokes. Eoörnis pterovelox gobiensis - Wikipedia gives a brief summary, and copies of the original monograph are not hard to find online; a thorough search through my papers might turn up a copy, if it hasn’t been lost.
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