maybe "demons" really exist... (active shooter trigger warning)

I’ve never seen a ‘Demon’ and I think the supernatural stuff is all so much baloney, though it can make for pretty good movie storylines.

I did know a vile neighborhood man in my neighborhood as a little kid who is now DEAD which is a blessing, that drank too much and beat on his wife and kids and pets. He once shot his dog to death for not listening to commands.

Two of his own boys committed suicide before they even hit their stride and I blame this on that lousy bastard of a ‘man.’

Demons and Hell…
We’ve got way worse shitheads right here in our neighborhoods,
Demons are a joke, your neighbor 10 doors down could be way worse than any fake story villain.

Maybe it's aliens

Once you start speculating about fantastical explanations then it becomes arbitrary which of the vast number of fantasy creatures you choose to explain things

Why demons? Because you happen to be from a Christian culture? Why not djinn or oni or why not The Thing or doppelgangers or cyborgs from the future?

I hold the possibility open though I'm an atheist/agnostic.

In my religious training, demons were spirits who were denied bodies when the material world was created. In fact, they are our brothers and sisters and we knew them in the pre-existence. But they failed some moral test which blocked their progression. So they are malevolent and angry and jealous of us with bodies.

Many demons have become infamous, notorious and gained worshipers throughout history. Of course we have those like Beelezebub and Ba'al who were worshiped by the Jews enemies, the Canaanites.

Curious to think if maybe mythological gods like Pan and Thor were demons too who had their own regional worshipers.

I always thought the tale of Jesus casting demons into the bodies of swine was curious. They may inhabit animals' bodies when humans are not available.

Nahhh...Have you ever seen a reporter interview the girlfriend/wife of a mass shooter?

Neither have I.

All these young men are not getting any. It's that simple to me.

I don't see the incel problem abating anytime soon, in fact I think it's going to increase.

When I saw that deranged woman pooping on a police car in a BLM riot in 2020 Salt Lake City, demonic possession is what immediately came to mind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiwlrndDx84

another counter example could be bath salt zombies - people doing chemicals that mess up their brains too.

when THAT sort of mental destruction happens, they dance around, act stupid, slam into things.... they don't start gathering guns and ammo, and start drawing up plans for months down the road.....

doesn't seem like things our BRAINS do automatically when mental health issues occur.

I've lived long enough that I've become a naturalist. If a supernatural exists, I'm going to need to see some evidence. Science happened. Science is the study of what exists. Science has painted a picture of an entirely natural world. If the supernatural "exists," then it would most certainly be interesting to science to know about it.

Shooters aren't demons, they're human beings, absolutely horrible human beings! Human beings who aren't violent because they're mentally ill, but violent because they're angry because their expectations are unrealistic and they have no coping skills except getting violent, people who'd rather blame other than themselves for all their self-inflicted problems, people who'd rather kill and die than change, or cope. They are all the worst human impulses wrapped up in one ugly package, all our selfishness, ego, resistance to change and refusals to admit we're wrong, all the irrational anger and blame, all the stupidity and rage, all the hatred for some "other" group, all the resorting to anger instead of common sense.

These people are everywhere, in every time and place, every society. It's just in the US that we've given them easy access to personal weapons of mass destruction.