Friday 13th ….

A few years ago, the Barna Group – a market research firm specializing in religious beliefs conducted a survey in which it emerged that more Americans believe Satan is real than believe in God. On a superficial level, the results seem counterintuitive. In a nominally Christian society, God and Satan seem to go hand in hand. But it’s important to remember that the Satan figure of the Bible appears in Islam and Judaism, and that demons whether real or imagined pre-date the Abrahamic religions and can be found in ancient cultures around the world.

But whatever his origins, Satan and his demons have inspired countless movies and TV shows and there are numerous instances of people arguing that these demons can and do possess people even today. In this episode, I speak with four people, an academic, a Vatican Exorcist, a fundamentalist Christian, and a man who believes demons can be tackled through science rather than religion.

Music: Pixabay

Images: Canva

Guests: Father Vincent Lampert

Shirley Phelps-Roper (Westboro Baptist Church)

Kenneth Dukofsky

Ljubo Rubic

Film footage: Les Tresors De Satan (1902)

Public domain

The Devil in a Covent (1899)

Links: Links: Kennth Dukofsky Youtube Channel

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