Angels and Demons

[NuHylian7]

I'm starting a thread on angels and demons... that much is obvious but I thought I might start with getting public opinion to see where everyone is at. This will be primarily theological on my side, so if your an athiest this thread may not be for you, unless you want to be hypothetical or just opposition either is fine.

Without further ado...

Are there angels?
Are there demons?
What are they there for?

NuHylian

My thoughts come after I get some feedback. Hope thats okay...

[The Shademan]

Originally Posted by NuHylian7

Are there angels?
Are there demons?
What are they there for?

My interpretation is somewhat similar to Kilmiz's. I believe angels and demons at war are symbolic representations of positive and negative thoughts (or masculine and feminine) in our minds driving us back and forth to commit what actions we do, be they good or bad, or somewhere inbetween. Real beings? Never saw such a thing.

[Miilou Suede]

My most powerful experience with the angels/demons/whatever happened several years back while working at a grocery store. This was Christmas Eve at Tom Thumb and I wanted to get out of there because you know.. it was a pretty freakin' special day and I had an evening service that night. I was putting back some "go-backs" before I was allowed to clock out. "Go-backs" are unwanted items that customers either can't pay for or decide they don't want while at the check-out station. For perishable items, these must be put up as soon as possible or they go bad and the store loses money.

So I was over in the produce section putting up some assorted vegetables and maybe had 15 minutes left of items to put up. I remember picking up some bag of beans (or something bag-like), turning away from the cart walking around a display and putting them down into the appropriate place. I walked back around the display to the cart and freaked out. The cart was no longer there!! So I thought to myself "Some other employee or customer picked up this cart and moved it out of here." But the produce section is big and open and the floor has some nasty indentations between each and every tile (so the carts are really loud being rolled across the floor). I also looked all around that area of the store just to make sure it hadn't rolled off on it's own but it was literally nowhere to be found.

This told me that I could see no one walking away in these last few seconds because I could see no-one within 50-70 feet and even if I missed them I would have heard them moving the cart away. To this day I believe something very special happened there but it really bugs me that I have no clue why it happened. I had enough time to get everything done before my shift was over and it wasn't a matter of life and death. The only good reason I can formulate is that some angel had done this just so I could have some experience to strengthen my own faith for the future, and that I'd have an experience to be able share with others for evangelism purposes.

So yes, I do believe in angels. Demons are likely if angels exist.

[Latex Glove]

Both share the attribute that neither exist.

As for what roles they have (and were said to "will") in the various mythologies of the world, the list is far too extensive to list here. One thing to note, too, is that not all myths held demons to be naturally aligned with the "darker" roles of the mythos.

[Sage of Earth]

I don't believe they exist, but I believe that in the worlds in which they do exist, devils are simply fallen angels or people who have gone to Hell. Not a creation in and of themselves.