Angels and Demons in Religion

Many traditions also speak of invisible entities that can help men to fight the demons. Angels exist in many religions and has been for a long time. 

Many people believed in the existence of spiritual beings intermediate between God and man, and many religions have addressed their worship. In a way, one could say that belief in these spiritual beings is part of the common heritage of much of humanity. To explain certain phenomena which he does not discover the causes, the human mind is naturally inclined to assume the existence of invisible beings acting in a mysterious way. And depending on the nature of effects, these spiritual beings are considered good or bad.

St. Michael slaying Satan by Raphael
© Musée du Louvre

These speculations are confirmed by positive revelations in Judaism (Old Testament), in Christianity (New Testament) and Islam (Koran).
The Old Testament calls the angels "messengers." And indeed, these spiritual beings, who are with God a sort of court, are his messengers to fill various positions near the men of information or protection or punishment of the wicked. It is often said that the belief in angels was common among Jews during the Exile (sixth century BC), in contact with the Babylonian religion. And yet, from Genesis, the angels are mentioned in many stories: Sara appearance at Lot, Hagar, to Abraham, Jacob, etc..
However, from Exile, the angels are playing an increasingly large.

Next to them, other spiritual beings, demons, trying to hurt men, especially by pushing them to evil. The serpent of Genesis seems a symbol of such a demonic being.
The evil angels, whose leader is the devil, or Satan, are responsible for the temptation of Jesus and Judas' betrayal, they are also trying the disciples and they sow tares among the wheat, they are condemned to eternal fire (Matthew xxv, 41).
In different terms ("demons" or evil spirits "), the New Testament refers to evil spirits responsible for various diseases, especially of nervous diseases. While modern science attributes the diseases to natural causes, the fact remains that their attribution to cause a demonic confirms the belief accepted by Jesus and his disciples to the existence and in the many evil spirits , eager to fight God and to persecute men. Also the essential prayer of Christians, the "Our Father", is there a special request to ask God to keep us away from the "perverse".

The Nightmare (1781) after Henry Fuseli

Following the Old and New Testament, and perhaps under their influence, the Qur'an speaks often of the angels, and professes a doctrine similar to that of Judaism and Christianity.This doctrine is even considered one of the most important: "A good man is one who believes in Allah and the Last Day, the angels, the scripture and the prophets" (Qur'an, II, 172). Instead, an "infidel" is defined as "one who is an enemy of Allah, His Angels, His apostles, to Gabriel, Michel" (II, 92). Similarly, the existence of the devil no doubt, because he tempted Adam and continues to deceive and seduce men. The Devil, like it or not, is part of our heritage, our history. Its implications in human affairs have caused so much ink and blood all over the world, it would be absurd to deny its influence in the lives of people.

Throughout the ages, terror, famine, disease helps the humble serpent of the Garden of Eden has become a gigantic dragon, a new Proteus always ready to change the picture, especially as his best trick is to pretend does not exist. On this point, theologians, authors of the Grimoires and Enchiridions bring, besides a formal denial.

Galileo, a Catholic visionary scientist

Galileo, a Catholic visionary scientist


The drama of Galileo was not a battle of science against faith.
Galileo was the opposite of an atheist, and even an agnostic. It was a believing Catholic. He had an intelligent faith, and even prophetic.
Alain Noël May 21, 2009



Galileo, a Catholic visionary scientist

Galileo said that the scripture announced what was to say the twenty-first century scholars.

With a significant lead over his time, Galileo was evident that all the texts of the Bible should not be read in the same way. As for the relationship between science and Scripture, he planned according to the maxim of Cesare Baronius: "The Holy Spirit, the Bible teaches us how we're going to heaven, not how the heavens go.

Science and faith according to Galileo

There is in Galilee, the founder of modern physics, the philosophical intuitions take over the Church at Vatican II. But there is no connection between the ideas of Galileo and those that Angels & Demons attributed to the scientist, and his heirs (the replacement of faith by science, or dissolution of the divine in the scientist) ...

What Galileo actually said on this subject is quite something else he stated explicitly that the two truths of faith and science can never contradict each other, "Holy Scripture and the nature of the Word also doing Divine, the first as dictated by the Holy Spirit, the second as a very faithful executor of the orders of God. " [...]


Vatican II is not expressed otherwise. This sentence is of John Paul II, in his speech of November 10, 1979 at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. An academy, said he, "to which Galileo was somehow associated with the institution through which preceded the former which includes prominent scholars today."
We will recognize the allusion to the Lincei of the seventeenth century ...

If Galileo's Dialogue (1632) is a "war machine", to quote Alexander Koyré, this "war" is not against religion but against the shackles of cultural and scholastic philosophy. Straitjacket which Galileo and Lynx wanted to free themselves (as scientists) - and they wanted to free the Church (as a force for the future).
Do not fall into the anachronism!

The main pitfall to avoid, when studying the Galileo affair, is an anachronism, that is to say the case out of its context.
 It is not an attack on the Church against science, but a difficult maneuver European policy disguised as theological trial.

"Until there is no clear evidence of the truth of the Copernican system, it would impose unreasonable to suggest to our contemporaries," said Cardinal Bellarmine.

"Unreasonable", nothing more ... But that's what Galileo had set out to do, and the most radiant.
The Copernican system, in fact, was not proven in practice (and would not be anytime soon). Was it necessary to revolutionize the spirits to a hypothesis, whereas we already s'étripait for reasons of principle to the four corners of Europe? No, thought Bellarmine.

Was it wrong to ask Galileo called "hypothesis" this hypothesis ...? No more. And no modern scientist would do harm to the cardinal on this seventeenth century.

 Do not commit the anachronism of saying Galileo was right. We now know, but nobody in the seventeenth century could not be certain, and 2000 years of human thought (not including joint appearances) played against his theory.

At the same time, Kepler, which is the true founder of astronomy, attracted also by the hypothesis of Copernicus, was not worried so far, p ecause he has to stick to the strict scientific rigor awaiting experimental evidence.

Noah's Ark: Truth, Myth, or Something of Both?

The story of Noah's Ark found in Genesis, first book of the Bible that discusses the origins of Earth and Man. In this story, mention is made of how Noah, on the order of God, built a huge boat to save his family and all species living on earth the flood, triggered cataclysmic flood to punish the descendants of Adam and Eve, guilty in the eyes of the Creator to wallow in debauchery and sin.

This story is he to be taken literally, or is it a myth extrapolated on the basis of a cataclysm of global proportions that would have occurred at the beginning of mankind? This documentary is conducting the investigation in an attempt to shed light on one of the greatest historical mysteries of all time, that the fevered imagination of archaeologists as well as adventurers.
The story of Noah's Ark found in Genesis, first book of the Bible that discusses the origins of Earth and Man. In this story, mention is made of how Noah, on the order of God, built a huge boat to save his family and all species living on earth the flood, triggered cataclysmic flood to punish the descendants of Adam and Eve, guilty in the eyes of the Creator to wallow in debauchery and sin.

This story is he to be taken literally, or is it a myth extrapolated on the basis of a cataclysm of global proportions that would have occurred at the beginning of mankind? This documentary is conducting the investigation in an attempt to shed light on one of the greatest historical mysteries of all time, that the fevered imagination of archaeologists as well as adventurers.

. "Make yourself an ark of wood resin" 

The story of Noah's Ark is first that of a big divine wrath. Genesis tells us that indeed the Creator, when he observes the wickedness and malice of the descendants of Adam and Eve, decides to cause a flood on earth in order to erase all traces of life.Just and virtuous Noah, however, is chosen by God to survive, and his family so he can continue the tradition of men. God then gives very precise instructions for building an ark, "you shall make of reeds and shalt bitumen inside and outside. This is how you make it: three hundred cubits for the length of the ark, fifty cubits its breadth, thirty cubits its height. You shall make a roof for the ark, and you will complete an angled top, you will place the entrance of the ark on the side and you will do a first, second and third floors. "He also ordered to carry with him seven pairs" all clean animals, "so they too can escape the deluge.

Noah runs, and once the Ark completed, mounted on board with his family and all animals. Then came the flood: rain falls without stopping for forty days and forty nights, drowning the land in a downpour that swallow up the highest mountains. All living things are scanned and only Noah and his protégés are beyond the disaster on board the ark. After long days of sailing, it ends up stranded on the side of a mountain. God speaks to Noah and told him to go out, and all animals that are with him, so that everyone can repopulate the devastated world. Satisfied with the behavior of Noah, he is also committed to never again destroy the earth because of the actions of men and shows, to seal this promise, a rainbow sky symbolizing the alliance between him and all beings alive.

. In Search of the Lost Ark

This is a summary of the story of Noah's Ark mentioned in Genesis. But if it was actually built by Noah, is it possible that it still exists somewhere in the world, reduced to a wreck? It is from this premise daring that many researchers and archaeologists have started looking for him for decades. The first step in this quest was to try to locate the Ark: where in the world would she have failed after the Flood? On this point, the story of Genesis says that Noah would have only landed somewhere in the mountains of Ararat region, which corresponds to an ancient kingdom of Urartu name, northeast of present-day Turkey. So this is where the first focused research, especially on Mount Ararat, a volcano on top of snow covered peak at 5165 meters and located at the extreme east of Turkey.

. The hypothesis Ararat

This theory of Mount Ararat as the place of stranding of Noah's Ark is supported by observations at the very least disturbing.

In 1917, the Russian pilot Vladimir believes ROSKOVSKY see what looks like the wreckage of a large ship on one of the slopes of Mount Ararat. An expedition was immediately sent there by the Tsar Nicolas II, but if it actually happened it is still no record, all records relating to this project have disappeared during the Russian Revolution, which occurred the same year.

It was not until 1950 that another remarkable discovery comes to the research community of the Ark in turmoil. The French Fernand NAVARRA back a piece of Mount Ararat beam it claims to be a fragment of the Ark of Noah. Startling revelation or deception? Guide Navarra will tip the balance in favor of the hoax by revealing that he himself had filed its "discovery" at the top of Mount Ararat few months prior to shipment.

Less than a decade later - in 1959 - a Turkish army captain, Ilan DURUPINAR believes distinguish the outline of a ship buried under tons of earth and ice, 2000 meters, by studying Aerial photographs of Mount Ararat. This discovery drew the attention of the American Ron Wyatt, an adventurer and a Christian fundamentalist, who immediately seized the comments made by Durupinar to deduce that this is the Ark of Noah. His expeditions on site led him to conclude that the imposing carved stones found near the site would be the anchor of the boat built by Noah. But serious historians are skeptical: for them it is merely ceremonial stone carved by tribes who inhabited the site during the Stone Age. Even the Seventh-day Adventist Church, which belongs Wyatt, disavows his discoveries. The quest for the Ark so bogged down in disputes between fundamentalist Christians, anxious to make this discovery at the forefront of creationist propaganda, and scientists, supporters of evolutionary theory.

It was not until the 80s that the hypothesis Ararat found some credibility, when the American astronaut James Irwin, a hero of the conquest of the moon, in turn, is interested in search of Noah's ark. His moral support (still tainted religious pursuits) encourages researchers to consider seriously the existing documents. Modern investigative techniques, such as satellite imagery, are also put to use to try to solve the mystery of Mount Ararat. One of these researchers, the military expert Porcher Taylor, will then make a discovery especially troubling.





. The Ararat anomaly, or when the CIA is interested in the Bible

Taylor's interest in aerial photographs of the site will indeed lead him to discover that the CIA is interested in business since 1949, when an air reconnaissance mission is conducted by the American intelligence services have photographed an unidentified object on top of Mount Ararat. In the jargon of intelligence, this object is called "Ararat anomaly. "

By dint of patience and perseverance, Taylor manages to declassify documents related to this discovery to reveal to the public. In 1999, the height of this success, he convinced an imaging company to point the remote high-resolution satellite, Ikonos, the famous Mount Ararat anomaly. Ikonos images reveal a large buried structure that is reminiscent of that of a ship. In February 2003, a new satellite, Digital Globe, sweep the area again. Resolution, much higher than for Ikonos, to distinguish clearly the structure revealed by the first shots. For Porcher Taylor, this is no longer any doubt: there are clearly a ship buried under the ice. It measures 310 meters long from bow to stern, and 50 meters wide, which corresponds to the proportions mentioned in the Bible.

The pictures are sent to specialists in the analysis of satellite images. One of them, Farouk El-Baz, interviewed in the documentary, recalls his initial fascination for these spectacular images, and the doubts that have assailed. The verdict was soon to fall: a sharp analysis of images taken by Digital Globe reveal that the anomaly Ararat would be nothing but a concretion worked rock by erosion of the vertices. The only way would be to finally decide to go there, but the site extremely difficult to access, making it hazardous shipping any project ...

. But where else ...?

If Mount Ararat is not the place to be stranded Noah's Ark, then where is he? The adventurer Bob Cornuke think I found the answer to this question. According to him, researchers at the Ark would have been misled for decades, the real site would be somewhere in the mountains north of Iran. To construct this hypothesis, it is based on the story from 1943 of an American engineer. The latter would have seen a strange shape in the Iranian side of a mountain ... After several expeditions to the site to over 3800 meters, Cornuke is rewarded by the discovery of an intriguing mass located on the mountainside. The material looks like petrified wood. Could it be that of the Ark? Unfortunately none of the samples taken from the site will support this hypothesis. Cornuke has yet made in the mountains another troubling discovery: fossils of clams found at over 4200 meters! He said this would be evidence of a cataclysmic flood that would have occurred in this region, sea levels rising to meet that of the highest mountain peaks, just as in the biblical narrative. But again the scientific analysis refutes the hypothesis of the adventurer, the carbon-14 dating reveals that these fossils are 40,000 years old, that is to say, well prior to the Noah's Ark, whose age was estimated at 2349 years ago by Irish Archbishop James Ussher, the 17th century.

. So can the Ark of Noah?

And if Noah's Ark was a mere "invention" Biblical? That's what did not hesitate to say some in the documentary, based on simple for this common-sense observations. For starters, the age of Noah is a problem. Genesis asserts that he was 500 years old when God told him of his desire to drown humanity in the Flood. How can we explain this other than canonical age saying the whole story is a myth?

But the argument most serious critics of the documentary hypothesis is the question: how could he have Noah build a boat with only the dimensions described in the Bible, that is to say approximately 137 meters long, 26 meters wide and 16 meters high?Peter Johnson, head of a shipyard in Maine (United States), it is simply impossible.Drawing on his experience of building wooden ships, Johnson says he must indeed have one year of work mobilizing 12 skilled workers to build a boat similar to the ark.Moreover, Noah did not enjoy his time tools and techniques that we use today.Finally, the last argument, it would have had to have assimilated the law known as the "square-cube", which means that the strength of a mass is inversely proportional to its size. Clearly, this means that even if Noah had only managed to build his ark, there was every chance that it is swept away like a straw in the early waves of the Flood!

. Without Ark, it remains the Flood!

If Noah's Ark is a myth, there is still a pretty compelling case to consider: what if the story was embellished version of a cataclysm that would have actually happened on our planet? And if so, could we find traces today?

The flood legend is indeed a universal myth found in all cultures, especially in the Middle East, where it is found in many stories that echo to the strange story of Noah as told in the Bible. For Professor Eric H. CLINE, an archaeologist at George Washington University, there are too many similarities between the story of Genesis and the Gilgamesh epic to be only incidental. The researcher explains that the Mesopotamian myth is rooted until 2700 BC and occurs where there is Iraq today. It contains almost all elements of the biblical story, a man elected as a savior, an ark in which he piled all the animals of creation, and a flood threatens to erase all traces of life on earth. Noah, Gilgamesh: would it be two versions of the same mythological cataclysmic event would have happened? But which one?

. Assumptions creationists

Never covetous of simplistic explanations, creationists supporters of the documentary hypothesis have been infatuated to explain the Biblical Flood by different theories. One of them would want large amounts of water trapped under the earth's crust at the time of creation are suddenly released in the form of geysers erupting across the globe, causing a cataclysmic flood . You are not convinced? Never mind: the theory rather take millions of tons of water vapor retained in the atmosphere and being suddenly turned into torrential rain ... Needless to say, these wacky theories are cut to pieces by the scientists - geologists, climatologists - interviewed in the documentary: if we took them literally, they would transform the Genesis story of science fiction!

. The Flood from outer space?

Another theory - more credible - is that of archaeologist Bruce Maas, who told the Flood in the Bible would have been caused by a meteorite in the ocean. Native American folklorist, Bruce Maas noted that many Native American tribes had in common the flood stories in their original myths. The study of lithogrammes they left shows a recurring figure in these stories: that of a horned creature with serpentine forms. The archaeologist sees the symbolic representation of a comet that would have fallen into the ocean, causing a catastrophe which would flood the transcript in the realm of myth. For Maas, the impact took place at 1400 km south-east of Madagascar. Releasing energy equivalent to 500 million times that released by the explosion of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, it would have raised a gigantic tidal waves, with waves reaching over 180 meters high. In addition, the projected water vapor in the atmosphere at the time of impact would then fallen as rain. Maas glue theory closely to the events of the Flood as reported by the Bible, but it is far from unanimous among scientists - geologists, climatologists, archaeologists - which are many weaknesses.

. A search for clues of the Flood

One of the main weaknesses is the lack of geological evidence of a flood of global proportions. If a biblical flood actually happened, we always end up the trace in the sedimentary layers around the globe. This is not the case, as pointed out by Alan GHISHLICK geologist, who notes that go back 500 million years to find an Earth almost entirely flooded.

Tom VAIL, however, evidence of the Flood are observable in the region of Grand Canyon American. This Christian fundamentalist, former teacher turned into a rafting guide, sees in the sedimentary layers that can be seen on the walls of the Grand Canyon all the evidence he needs to sharpen his theory of the Flood Biblical strata collapsed into waves and not stacked, the presence of numerous marine fossils, etc..But this theory, if it shows that the Grand Canyon was actually an oceanic origin, in any scheme accredits a flood of global proportions: Tom VAIL simply confuses his faith with his wishes creationist scientific evidence.

. The Black Sea, key to the puzzle?

Finally, and surprisingly, the last part of the documentary gives us the key to the mystery, which might be sought in the Black Sea ...! This vast inland sea that stretches over 1200 km has been mapped by researchers Bill Ryan and Walter Pitman, who made a surprising discovery: the presence of beaches buried several hundred meters below the surface, evidencing radically changing coastal features. The study of sediments forming the sea floor has shown that this region was once a vast freshwater lake surrounded by fertile plains where the tribes of hunter-gatherers had definitely taken up residence. The same study highlights the sudden appearance of marine molluscs, which show an abrupt salinity waters, which occurred about 7600 years ago.

What has happened?

The most likely hypothesis is that of a warming climate would cause the melting of glaciers and a sudden rise in the level of the Mediterranean. It would have "spilled" into the Black Sea, engulfing all the territories around. Both researchers are happy, and we understand them: they are finally a credible hypothesis to explain the Biblical Flood! Archaeologist Fred HIEBERT drives the point: for him the Neolithic man who witnessed this phenomenon would have then carried through their stories, they then give rise to the myth of the Flood, which is found in both the biblical account of Noah's Ark in the epic of Gilgamesh. QED.

. And to avoid the conclusion ...

Frankly, fans of mystery will be disappointed by this documentary that makes great scientific theories at the expense of less conventional explanations. The legend of Noah's Ark is simply used as a starting point of a demonstration designed to clarify the hypothesis of a global cataclysm that would have given rise to the myth of the Flood. From this perspective, scientific inquiry turns well done, and often exciting. But it also often comes down to a simple dispute between creationists and evolutionists, scientists and adventurers lit lit, forgetting perhaps that even spelled that way, the myth of Noah's Ark still loses nothing of the fascination that it exerts on our imagination. In this sense, and it corresponds to real events or is the result of a re-creation through the prism of the myth, we can say that he speaks as well, and with the same force, to man of today than its predecessor of the past. Probably because it is universal. 

4 Year Old Preacher Tells Us What it's all About! video

I don't know what age Billy Graham or Oral Roberts started their preaching vocation, but this little Jordan seems to have the idea right out the box. 
Sound is poor but the video gives you the idea of a young preacher hard at work convictin' us of our sins. Very cute.

Salvation Through Art--Sandro Botticelli

The Catholic world has always clothed it's faith in the visual arts, as well as the aural and written word. Here we see a prime example of great Catholic art in the works of Sandro Botticelli who was certainly an exponent of Catholic images, but was also accused of Pagan art in his depictions of Greek Gods.  

I find his paintings utterly magical and deeply expressive, and I think the modern Catholic can easily overlook his forays into the pagan world as simply his way of saying beauty has always existed, and that beauty ultimately comes from God. 

I think it is entirely possible that many have found salvation by way of art--especially art such as this. The art of Botticelli in the Italian world so long ago, in the era of the Renaissance.