/christianity/ - Christian Theology

Christianity is inherently supernatural, which has the same surface meaning as paranormal.

I see no biblical reason to say that strange creatures couldn't exist and stories of their sightings couldn't be true, but I have no reason to believe some witness on their testimony alone.

The Bible does NOT leave room for other dimensions or people becoming ghosts. The creation account is exhaustive and only mentions our earth.

For ghosts, it is appointed for man once to die and after that comes judgment.

>>1319

Well that's why I specifically used paranormal rather than supernatural; believing in the miracles of Christ is a prerequisite to be Christian, and miracles are by their nature supernatural (hence why they're miracles, they miraculously defy natural laws), but something like bigfoot would normally be seen as paranormal, and a big ape roaming the woods of BC definitely isn't supernatural, no matter how unlikely it may be.

With regards to ghosts that's a position I've heard before, but I've also seen an interview with Father Chad Ripperger where he theorized that the more "active" entities that people call "ghosts" (aggressive or terrorizing apparitions, poltergeists, etc.) are demons trying to horrify people, whereas more passive apparitions might be the non-conscious "shadow" of dead people. Could it be that these instances are some type of energy "residual" of formerly living people, or even souls in purgatory awaiting to be cleansed of their venial sin? Is it requisite that those in purgatory be totally non-interactive with the physical world based on what we know?

>>1324

I would tell you that purgatory doesn't exist and so that's an impossibility. The dead unrighteous are waiting, the dead righteous are in heaven, and both will see resurrection before the judgment.

>>1325

Okay well agree to disagree on that one, but what about the passive entities then? Like look at the disneyland apparition in this video (the second one):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qds9lSEwBI8&list=PLNnXTKG37XNld21ckfeupbu4Wy64EF-MZ&index=2

It's a great example, hard to fake (appears on multiple separate security monitors), and if real seems to lack any demonic intention (not particularly menacing, and was in an empty park that could easily have been missed by the guards). 666D chess by demons seeking to corrupt people in a non-obvious way, or something else?

>>1326

Fr Gabriele Amorth floated the idea that a lot of poltergeist type activity turns out to be symptoms of demonic obsession. The long and short of demonic obsession is that before you are so far gone as to have lost control of your body to demons, you are tormented by them as they try to break you down. Sometimes this is stuff like suicidal emotions or self destructive tendencies, but other times it's really bizarre phenomena. They can try to make you lose your mind.

Sadly if this is happening to a person ALL THEY NEED TO DO IS EARNESTLY TURN TO GOD AND REPENT, but, well… You know how people are, unfortunately

>>1326

I don't find that video compelling at all, but even if it were clear evidence why should we think dead people can take some other form when the Bible seems to indicate otherwise?

>>1333

I appreciate how you're phrasing this

Assuming it's real, and it can't be a human spirit, it must be a demonic spirit. I think it's interesting, I just don't place a lot of stock as in it compels me to find it believable. The weird video recording a security monitor, it's presence in a "TOP 5" youtube vid, and there's low publicity. I happen to work for the disney company and I feel like I would have heard about it if it were significant.

>>1317

A lot of these figures are a result of hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations that your mind conjures up. Many who experience them are in sleep paralysis as well and don't know that these conditions they're unaware of arise from sleep apnea, poor sleep hygiene, and being fatigued among other things.

>>1357

I don't doubt the phenomenon of sleep paralysis is genuine, but it's become one of the many convenient catch-alls for skeptics to handwave away anything paranormal. Witness an apparition? Sleep paralysis induced hallucination. Witness something terrorizing you in the night while trashing your room? Either sleep walking along with vivid nightmares, or actually you're just a schizophrenic or a liar. Multiple people claiming they witnessed the same paranormal event together? Shared delusions. People who think like this will on principle never accept any evidence as genuine.

And based on the standard that they hold any claim they don't like to, these varied psychological rationalisations haven't even been proven to exist, nonetheless that they're as common as they would need to be to explain every instance of someone witnessing something paranormal. And, to compound the point, to observe that it happens *at all* proves that it isn't in some way caused by a paranormal force (or in principle couldn't ever be), how? It's like saying poisoning can't be real because organs have been shown to spontaneously fail naturally.

And those're just ones that plausibly *might* fit the rationalisations, for things like bigfoot, ufos, or other cryptids, it's barely more than "you just imagined it, lol." Yeah, you're brain just conjured a bear (which as a hunter you've seen a thousand times, or were even intentionally looking for) into a ten foot ape that reeked so bad it burned your nostrils. It also turned a bird into an eight foot monster with glowing red eyes that chased and landed on the roof of your car (also just hearing about it made strangers in the same town see it too lol, firmly established mass delusion again). I'm not committed to believing these things are necessarily monsters or even mundane undiscovered creatures, but strong testimony demands an explanation better than the anemic non-answer of "you just imagined it." If you'll believe that just because it's the supposed "rational" explanation, you'll believe anything.

>>1362

I mean I'm highly skeptical of the phenomena experienced by the witness while in bed which is where the hallucinations I described occur.

>And based on the standard that they hold any claim they don't like to, these varied psychological rationalisations haven't even been proven to exist

The hallucinations (which have both physical and psychological explanations for) occurring in bed highly correlate with physical conditions that the sufferers are not aware of or seek treatment for. I had daily night time hallucinations and they only went away when a doctor explained to me I had sleep apnea among other physical problems associated with sleep. I believed they were all supernatural and not caused by anything physical within me which caused them to keep reoccurring until having a reason to disbelieve them and fix the physical root of the problem. I feel this is mostly the case for hallucinations that occur while out of bed as well and most people who experience such phenomena have a bias towards wanting to believe they're real which makes them not stop reoccuring or are plain out lying.

>strong testimony demands an explanation

The testimonies aren't strong and don't really need an explanation since things like Bigfoot aren't pressing problems other than to those who find it interesting.

>>1317

>Are all ghosts demons in disguise?

No. Witch of Endor. Bible believes in ghosts and medieval Christians did too. Christian disbelief in ghosts is a form of modernism period.