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Rather embarrassing request. Maybe 7 years ago, I came across an interesting essay on "the existence of God or the Devil." DISCLAIMER: NO IT WAS NOT C.S. LEWIS OR CHESTERTON OR WILLIAM LANE CRAIG. THANK YOU! It was maybe 6 or 8 pages long, and was fairly learned and erudite, but written in a Screwtape-style fashion ; it was a way of "backing up into" the existence of God, starting with the existence of Evil ; and from there, not arguing against God, but FOR the existence of the Devil (from thence, of course, God Follows, since the Devil rebelled...

The teen-age shooter heard voices in his head, which he described as demons, instructing him to kill everyone he saw before him at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. That revelation by 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, whose Valentine’s Day massacre left 17 dead and 15 injured, was underreported by much of the mainstream media. That’s because hardly any of those who reported the mass murder at Douglas High accept that the devil exists, and that his demonic forces are active and involved in the modern day affairs of humanity. Indeed, fewer than one in ten “mainstream” journalists attend church...

When I look at the unfathomable vastness of the universe, the intricate workings of the solar system, the constant, predictable journey of the moon around the earth and the earth around the sun, it's incomprehensible to me that it just happened. It is inconceivable for me to believe that it was just a random occurrence, nothing more than the explosion of gases in space that luckily resulted in a nine planet solar system, with the third one from the center being the only known inhabited planet in existence. When I consider the process by which a child is conceived and...

Satan, it would seem, does not act in an arbitrary manner to tempt us. Rather, he is more of a master hunter who carefully sets traps, or a skilled fisherman who, having studied our behavior chooses just the bait he thinks most effective. He’s calculating, and clever.Sadly most of us, by comparison, are far less calculating and clever in seeking to avoid temptation and sin. We seem more often to engage in the wishful thinking that no trouble will befall us, and our strategy seems to live more with dumb luck. Would that we were as ingenious in holiness as...

Just as Republican leaders were exiting their meeting with President Obama at the White House Thursday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) was entering CNN's Crossfire, where he had to contend with Van Jones and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), without too much help from Newt Gingrich. Now that House Republicans are prepared to move forward with a short-term debt deal that doesn't touch the Affordable Care Act, Jones asked Cruz, "Do you feel like you owe your party an apology?" Jones noted that the Republican Party has become incredibly unpopular under Cruz's "leadership," saying that since the Texas senator entered office in...

Archbishop Chaput Rome, Italy, Jan 28, 2010 / 11:41 am (CNA).- On Wednesday, the Emmanuel Community's annual symposium in Rome was addressed by Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver, who spoke on the task of evangelizing the modern culture and what he called religious leaders' embarrassment to discuss the existence of Satan.The American archbishop spoke for half an hour at the Pontifical Lateran University to an audience ranging from college students to people in their 70s. His speech, entitled, “The Prince of this World and the Evangelization of Culture,” was part of a symposium that lasted from Jan. 25-27 and...

Evil. It has always been there, pushed back in the United States by American exceptionalism and the Judeo Christian traditions of what Ronald Reagan famously called -- borrowing from the Bible -- a "shining City on a hill." "God bless America," Reagan would say, emphatically and often. But God is not in fashion among our political and media elites and, with the presidency of Barack Obama, the lights of the city are dimming and evil has been drawn from the shadows. Now we have a leader in the vanguard of a malevolence pushing into the mainstream through a thousand barely...

The Traffic Guru by Tom VanderbiltIf you were asked to name a famous traffic engineer, in some pub quiz gone horribly wrong, chances are slight you could hazard a good guess. It is true that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran, was trained as a traffic engineer, but his notoriety does not derive from tinkering with the streetlights in Tehran. Bill Gates got his start developing software for a device to count car traffic, but he was a computer boffin more interested in the technology than the traffic. Your memory might flicker in recognition at the names of William Phelps Eno,...

The Really Dark Horse Congressman Ron Paul, who we think we're safe in saying is the only GOP member of the House to support medical marijuana and oppose the death penalty and the Iraq war, has announced he's running for president as a Republican. Paul ran for the office on the Libertarian ticket in 1988 but, as even the most Xbox-addled of you must know, he didn't win. For the past ten years he's been representing the 14th District in Brazoria County, easily winning reelection despite his somewhat oddball policy positions. Steve Olafson has been a dedicated follower of Brazoria...

Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is being made to watch his appearance in cult cartoon South Park while he is behind bars. The deposed leader on trial in Iraq was featured in the movie spin-off as the lover of the devil. South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut featured Hussein and Satan attempting to take over the world together. Speaking at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone said US Marines guarding the former dictator during his trial for genocide were making him watch the movie "repeatedly". "I have it on pretty good information from...

No thread necessary today, just look at the calendar for tomorrow. Oh six of oh six of oh six-- The Devil is up to his tricks? To those who pretend That this is the end: by Wednesday we'll see if you're hicks!

Controversy over the school's mascot has been brewing for months, stirred mostly by a citizens group, Parents for Mascot Review, which objected to the figure on the grounds that it presents the devil and evil as a symbol of the school. "As a prominent symbol of a public high school, the 'Red Devil' does not represent the views and needs of our students or our community," said Dale Munk, a committee member of the group. "It's a universal symbol of evil. This community tends to be religious in nature, and we feel a 'Red Devil' has no place in our...