Friday, June 13, 2008

Exorcizing Congress: New evidence Jindal's the man for McCain

Apparently Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who is on McCain's short list of veep candidates, wrote an article for the New Oxford Review several years ago about his involvement in an exorcism in his college days. Some people, apparently, think this disqualifies Jindal, a Catholic convert from Hinduism from serving in the nation's 2nd highest office. I beg to differ.

What better qualification could you have for dealing with the Congress?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

So tell us about demonology.

Martin Cothran said...

What would you like to know?

Anonymous said...

Do you take it seriously? Did you and Bobby J write the screenplay for Hell Boy II?

Martin Cothran said...

Okay, I confess, I have no clue what you are talking about.

Anonymous said...

I was asking if you think demons are real. If so, what is your evidence?

The second part was a joke. (You are fond of making outrageous statements on this blog then saying you were only kidding. I thought I would give it a try. There was an ad for a new "Hell Boy" movie on the TV as I was reading the original posting.)

Martin Cothran said...

Sorry about not getting the joke: my pop culture antennae are not operating as well as they should be.

In regard to whether I believe in demons, the answer is, "Yes." As to why I do, the answer is "divine revelation" (the historical kind, not the "God spoke to me" variety).

Anonymous said...

Could the demons be the "Intelligent Designer"? Why or why not?

What about the unicorns? Do they exist?

Martin Cothran said...

If you are defining 'demon' in terms of Christian theology, then they cannot be the Creator, since they are not creative, but only imitative. If you are defining the term in some other way, then I'm not sure how to answer the question, since I don't know your definition.

In regard to whether unicorns exist, if you mean unicorns of fables, the answer is, "No."

Anonymous said...

But unicorns and demons are both mentioned in the KJ Bible (albeit demons much more often). However, the evidence that either exist is lacking. Just because someone wrote about either a long time ago does not make them any more real than the characters invented by Hollywood scree writers in the upcoming "Hell Boy" movie.

I'm sort of glad you don't think the Intelligent Designer is a demon; however, such an idea would explain much of the world. Of course even this does not explain the world as well as the New Guinea creation myth that claims the gods were drunk at the creation.

Martin Cothran said...

So are you saying that the "unicorn" mentioned in the King James Bible is same thing as the "unicorn" in fantasy books? I think you better look at that again. It is pretty commonly considered that those passages refer to some sort of ox. Most of those passages clearly refer to some kind of working agricultural animal. In any case there is no evidence it refers to the mythological creature.

I suppose if you really wanted evidence that oxen existed I could produce it for you, but I'm thinking that you probably don't really have any trouble believing in oxen.

And in regard to whether there is evidence for demons, I guess I sort of wonder what kind of material evidence you would expect for an immaterial being. If you don't believe in some sort of revelation, I can't think of a good reason to believe in demons (although, strangely, many people do anyway).

And you imply that I believed in these things because "someone wrote about either a long time ago." I don't recall using that argument.

You say that world is better explained by the "New Guinea creation myth that claims the gods were drunk at the creation" than by an evil creator. Well, it would certainly explain a few things (I'm thinking of the Democratic nomination process here). But I don't think either explains the world as well as the Christian explanation.