The Athorcist

It’s a strange thing. There are many reports of people having become possessed by demons. Yet, when looking into these possessions, a couple of striking coincidences emerge:

1) all who have become ‘possessed’ are religious; or rather, all who report someone as being possessed, are religious.

2) the ‘demon’ or ‘spirit’ in question is always part of the mythology of the ‘soul’ that is possessed. Although we regularly hear reports of the devil possessing a Christian, it has never been reported, for example, that a demon of the Vishnu mythology has possessed a Christian.

3) There have never been reports of an atheist being possessed by a demon. There have – of course – been accusations that atheists are possessed by the devil; but these accusations were always made by religious people, usually with dire consequences to the atheist – as probably intended; see 1).

So, what can we conclude from this? Statistically, these observations are significant. Let us assume demons exist. If there really were demons, they should affect everyone, not just one particular group of people. Possessions only happening within the sphere of one belief, with no cross-over to other beliefs is statistically unlikely to the extreme. Furthermore, attaining complete immunity to possession through not believing in demons should be impossible. You can’t, for example, become immune to influenza simply by not believing in germs. Something is off here.

Well, you do the math.

In related news, the Vatican is increasing the size for their exorcism department, citing high demand. It’s a successful business model, I hear.

May I suggest an easier, much cheaper vaccination against demons?