Jobs Simply

Atheists: can you disprove being possessed/exorcisms?

Even though you might not believe in god that is some scary ****, EX. The exorcism of Jone Dohame of 1300 France. While in the middle of the exorcism her eye's turn blood shot red, she breaks free of her bounds (she was tied down with ropes) she starts to speak in italian ""La sua vita è ora, insignificante che il suo dio parla in gergo la risparmia ora, brucerò i suoi raccolti. Farò l'inferno fuori di paradiso" which translate to ""Your life is now, meaningless your god cant save you now, I will burn your crops. I will make hell out of paradise" and she begins to float for about 5 minutes. This was witnessed by a crowd of hundred's. She later died with a loud scream and a cloud of black smoke was seen leaving her mouth Thats not natural, that’s saying "screw you gravity, who needs you?" Religous argument: -How is it possible to just randomly float? -How is it possible to speak an entire differnent language that you have never heard of before? Yes it is possible to know tib-bits of the different language but when your floating in the air and your talking in a different language for about 30 minutes your knid of like, huh, somthing about this.... just isnt right....... hmmmmmm. -How can A person change her/his voice to a entire different language and state a persons name (the Demons/ unholy spirit) 3-8 different times (Multiple possesions) EX. They will talk from Latin to Spanish to russian to english ETC. Dance puppets, Dance

Public Comments

1. it's all based on hearsay evidence. nothing that can actually be verified or tested over again. just some quacks' claims that it happened back int he 1300s. i can make a bogus claim about something that happened a few hundred years ago too. how would you disprove it?
2. If you are going to re-post, then bring some evidence along and maybe some pizza.
3. Do you really find an account of an exorcism from the 14th century to be in any way compelling?
4. Why is everyone presenting us with these ridiculous claims and asking us to refute them? It's up to YOU to prove it since you are positing the claim; and it's up to me to dismiss it if you don't have evidence. And stories don't count as evidence. There are also medieval accounts of dragons terrorizing villages. How do you explain that?
5. I assume then you must also accept at face value the 14th century accounts of vampires? Nonsense.
6. How can you prove that a story from the 1300's is 100% true? Eye witnesses aren't always right. There could have been tricks played on the crowd and in their desire to believe, really thought they saw something happen, when they didn't. How can you prove that she floated with out help? How can you prove she even floated? How can you prove that she didn't already know some Italian, or was prompted to speak these words by another? I can continue but I hope you get my point. There is no evidence in anything that you have stated that points to this being even remotely a real event. All you have his hearsay. Without the ability to go back in time and witness, take pictures, run tests etc.....all you have is an old fairy tale.
7. Hearsay. Stop posting the same question over and over just because you don;t like the answers you're getting. puppets? right.... *we're* the puppets....
8. I will say a bunch of BS as you say like 5 minutes then 4 sentences later you say about 30 minutes. Which one is it, huh?
9. Until I see someone who is possessed by demons and there's no way to explain it medically, I'm not believing in demonic possession. In the meantime, I'm going to put it down to mental illness in the 'possessed' person and mass hysteria and exaggeration from onlookers who didn't understand.
10. We don't "disprove" possessions per se, we just have an alternative explanation for the same phenomena that the superstitious attribute to possession. Our explanation is backed up by sound science (psychology) and isn't totally retarded.
11. Haven't the R&S atheists already been through the whole "can't prove a negative" thing?
12. The burden of proof is on you. If you claim there can be no naturalistic explanation, you need to prove it.
13. I am something you don't seem to think exists: a non-Christian non-Atheist. Even though your question addresses only atheists, I will answer since I'm fairly sure you are not aware that other religions exist. First of all, the burden of proof is on the person making a ridiculous assertion. If I were to say unicorns exist and you were to say they don't, I would have to prove it, not you. If you weren't there you can't possibly verify this bit about flying off the bed, speaking languages, listing demons, red eyes, etc. So don't even try to say that stuff actually happened. I'm guessing the most that is actually documented is seizures and strange behavior. And that's only documented by people saying it. Soooo believable! They used to see sea monsters too. They believe in possession, so that's how they interpret all "unnatural" behavior. Haven't you ever heard of mental illness? Epilepsy? Have you ever seen someone having a seizure or a psychotic break? It's really scary. It seems impossible by the laws of nature. They have extraordinary strength, their muscles clench more than they ever would voluntarily, they tremble all over their body, the make unearthly noises, and their eyes go buggy. Yet these symptoms respond very well to medication that adjust the chemicals in their brains, which are visible with medical testing. You can actually watch the chemicals in their brain malfunctioning. When priests are called in, the situation always gets worse, with medical treatment, it always improves. Next time you get sick, maybe you should put leeches on yourself to balance out the humors. In the meantime, don't believe every idiot thing you hear, because (news flash), humans lie.
14. This took place in the 1400s and there are no accounts of what happened outside of this one, which has undoubtedly been exaggerated. There also the fact that you are the one responsible for proving it, not me.