Demons are the Pagan Gods of Ancient Times

[dothedew]

Let’s put on our hats and dive into the realm of what if’s, shall we?

Now I’ve been going back and forth and thinking on this for a while, and it just makes sense (to me, at least)

It’s my belief that the Demons of the Bible are the Gods of days passed. Oh yeah, we’re going deep into this one. You’re welcome. Happy Tuesday.

Many, many moons ago, there were people all over the world living their lives the way they wanted to, worshipping who they wanted to. From the Sumerians to the villages of Africa, Muslims and Jews, to Rome and Greece, the Aztec, Eastern Indians, the list goes on.

Looking at these different (and more popular) religions, there seems to be a recurring theme, one that we’ve all noticed and one that can’t be ignored – partly because it’s a big point of contention:
“Blah blah blah, my God is the one true God.”
In and of itself, it doesn’t make you raise your head too much as that’s something you would expect from a religion. That said specific one is the only correct one, the rest are false, basically a line of a “pick me” religion. But what if there was more to that?

In the Christian Bible, for one of MANY instances, there is multiple mentions of not following any other Gods but the one true God; no others shall be placed before him, etc. This in and of itself is nothing but an admission that other gods do in fact exist, in my opinion.
Let’s go a step further… What do the ancient gods and “Demons” have in common? A lot, to put it simply. You can summon them. You can build them altars. You can offer them sacrifices and gifts. You can commune with them and ask them for favors. They each have individual areas of expertise (so to speak). They are both not to be toyed with. According to a lot of tales and books, they’ve each been around since the beginning, if not beforehand.

Side note - Could that explain verified cases of possession? Essentially just pissed off Gods from thousands of years ago that went from being worshipped and having offerings presented on a regular basis, to being demonized (pun intended) and turned away from... That would definitely explain the hatred towards anything with a Holy connotation to it.

On that note, what better way to get people to turn away from all of these ancient Gods/Entities than to claim they are pure evil and wash the masses into believing you?

When you look at everything and say it all out loud, it makes sense. To me, anyway.
 
Thoughts?

[NobodySpecial]

One might say there are no such things as "demons".

And

"Demonic" is in the eye of the beholder.

[dothedew]

One might say there are no such things as "demons".

And

"Demonic" is in the eye of  the beholder.

And that there is the beauty - that word and it's meaning will mean something to one, and either nothing or something completely different to the other.

What is a "Demon" other than something vilified by a set group of people? People that don't like a subset of Gods and wants them to be turned away from and vilified.....

[Byrd]

Looking at these different (and more popular) religions, there seems to be a recurring theme, one that we’ve all noticed and one that can’t be ignored – partly because it’s a big point of contention:
“Blah blah blah, my God is the one true God.”

Historically speaking, this is not the case.

Wars and conflicts in the ancient world are mostly about territory (and occasionally about revenge on a multigenerational scale.)  We see many civilizations adopt gods from other civilizations (Rome adopted some of the Greek gods and made them their own, Egypt's own Isis became part of other pantheons as did Sumerian Astarte and so on.  Anubis shows up as a god for the Romans somewhere after 200 BC.

Here's a lovely example... yes, that's Anubis and it was carved in Rome sometime after 100 AD


In addition, demons in the ancient world really weren't reworked deities.  They were quite often embodiments of human afflictions (diseases, etc)

Let’s go a step further… What do the ancient gods and “Demons” have in common? A lot, to put it simply. You can summon them. You can build them altars. You can offer them sacrifices and gifts. You can commune with them and ask them for favors. They each have individual areas of expertise (so to speak). They are both not to be toyed with. According to a lot of tales and books, they’ve each been around since the beginning, if not beforehand.

Grunge ( 12 Terrifying Ancient Demons In Roman-Egyptian Folklore (grunge.com)) has a rather ... indifferent article on demons but does have this interesting distinction between gods and demons:  nobody sets up altars and temples to demons and they don't have cults (shrines and priests and worshipers.)

Now... we should make a distinction here:  Originally, gods COULD control demons and sometimes had spirits that followed them (Bast, I'm looking at you and Sekhmet as well... and Tutu) and could be used as tools for either good or retribution (hunting up evil Discover Sekhmet: Goddess of Retribution and Protector of Egypt (ancient-egypt-online.com)   But for the most part, demons were something that humans captured and destroyed (here's one of the tools, a "demon bowl")



The kinds of interactions you are describing are fairly late Christian (Middle Ages sort of thing), where demons were summoned to answer questions/bring gold/etc, etc.

Side note - Could that explain verified cases of possession? Essentially just pissed off Gods from thousands of years ago that went from being worshipped and having offerings presented on a regular basis, to being demonized (pun intended) and turned away from... That would definitely explain the hatred towards anything with a Holy connotation to it.

I'd say "no" since most of them were never turned into demons (the exception being the actions of the "People of the Book" (Jewish/Christian/Muslim))  Furthermore, you get legitimate examples of people being possessed by gods... everything from the sibyls of ancient Greece to the modern Voodoo practitioners.  Demonic possession seems to be a psychological problem and not associated with actual spirits.



And if you are on Facebook and like mythology, you might give Mr. P's account a good looky-loo: Facebook

[IdeomotorPrisoner]

Dead post..

[IdeomotorPrisoner]

When I see demon I just think Daemon. So the intermediary between meat world and "the acausal" universe of divine form and archetype.  

Like an old time operator. Only you dial 6. And through this emissary, well call it, your conscious/will is connected to chaos and ordered collapse. 

Like contemporary concepts to Daemons/Demons are like Jinn, Golem, Tulpas, Thoughtforms, and Orishas (Catholic Saint demons). Based on Elegua/Papa Legba

They're basically anything between human world and the spirit world

Between the two worlds.  

[Kenzo]

Let’s put on our hats and dive into the realm of what if’s, shall we?

Now I’ve been going back and forth and thinking on this for a while, and it just makes sense (to me, at least)

It’s my belief that the Demons of the Bible are the Gods of days passed. Oh yeah, we’re going deep into this one. You’re welcome. Happy Tuesday.

Many, many moons ago, there were people all over the world living their lives the way they wanted to, worshipping who they wanted to. From the Sumerians to the villages of Africa, Muslims and Jews, to Rome and Greece, the Aztec, Eastern Indians, the list goes on.

Looking at these different (and more popular) religions, there seems to be a recurring theme, one that we’ve all noticed and one that can’t be ignored – partly because it’s a big point of contention:
“Blah blah blah, my God is the one true God.”
In and of itself, it doesn’t make you raise your head too much as that’s something you would expect from a religion. That said specific one is the only correct one, the rest are false, basically a line of a “pick me” religion. But what if there was more to that?

In the Christian Bible, for one of MANY instances, there is multiple mentions of not following any other Gods but the one true God; no others shall be placed before him, etc. This in and of itself is nothing but an admission that other gods do in fact exist, in my opinion.
Let’s go a step further… What do the ancient gods and “Demons” have in common? A lot, to put it simply. You can summon them. You can build them altars. You can offer them sacrifices and gifts. You can commune with them and ask them for favors. They each have individual areas of expertise (so to speak). They are both not to be toyed with. According to a lot of tales and books, they’ve each been around since the beginning, if not beforehand.

Side note - Could that explain verified cases of possession? Essentially just pissed off Gods from thousands of years ago that went from being worshipped and having offerings presented on a regular basis, to being demonized (pun intended) and turned away from... That would definitely explain the hatred towards anything with a Holy connotation to it.

On that note, what better way to get people to turn away from all of these ancient Gods/Entities than to claim they are pure evil and wash the masses into believing you?

When you look at everything and say it all out loud, it makes sense. To me, anyway.
 
Thoughts?

i am not sure is there many different types of demons,evil spirits....probably is. But the one type i am quite sure is called Wetiko, thought words can not totally describe it fully .

Here is some links about it...Wetiko .

Wetiko: the "Virus" of Selfishness According to Native Americans

Wetiko in a Nutshell: Who Do You Think You Are?

Breaking The Trance Of Evil

WETIKO TWO

wetiko a malignant psychic virus threatening us all

[FlyersFan]

One might say there are no such things as "demons".

And

"Demonic" is in the eye of  the beholder.

They are real.  I've encountered them.  They are not anything to screw around with.   And no, I don't want to talk about it any more than that.

---

I think the old gods of Egypt and the rest probably were demons getting their worship from humans in.  But there are supposed to be billions of demons just like there are billions of good angels.  So not all demons were worshipped as gods.

That's my thought on it anyways.

[Kwaka]

With some descriptions of Legion when getting into demonic realms, there is not just one spiritual identity or entity as part of this world, but many, thousands, millions, trillions?

Is it possible that at least some of these demons are thousands of years old, trapped on Earth in some way, moving from one host to another. If such a spirit is able to build and grow on its experience and knowledge it would be a very formidable foe. Lurking in the shadows with a strong understanding of human nature. With how the eugenics movement has some rich, powerful and hidden members, some kind of demonic force is on the suspect list.

With those that get into this kind of worship, the will, motives and direction of these past entities live on on some way.

[Byrd]

Is it possible that at least some of these demons are thousands of years old, trapped on Earth in some way, moving from one host to another. If such a spirit is able to build and grow on its experience and knowledge it would be a very formidable foe. Lurking in the shadows with a strong understanding of human nature. With how the eugenics movement has some rich, powerful and hidden members, some kind of demonic force is on the suspect list.

If so, they're really, really, really bad at it.  Een worse than humans.

Humans (hominins) are 7 million years old.  The oldest member of the genus 'homo' is homo habilis and they arose about 2.8 million years ago.  The oldest known homo sapiens fossil is from around 200,000-300,000 years old. 

Although the Nazis tried it, they were pretty unsuccessful and it's probably not possible in humans without a widespread system of artificial insemination and forced sterilization of males.