"as forum moderator"
Huh ? Are you saying I am a moderator, or that you are one? If I am a moderator, this is news to me! LOL ;-) .. If you are saying you are a moderator, well, thats also news to me!
Also, this isnt about "religious beliefs " - its about superstition - plain and simple.. We have centuries of mindless cruelty and barbarism to look back on because "unseen" and "demonic" forces were blamed for behaviours and "events" which were not understood.. Women burned at the stake because they "looked like a witch", people with mental illness having exhorcisms imposed on them with horrific rituals often leading to death, Epilepsy, Downs Syndrome, warts, whatever condition looked like it might possibly be "demonic" was dealt with abhorrently..
You know - I was a born-again penticostal christian when I got diabetes - I was with the Assemblies of God in Harfield Rd, Cape Town.. In hospital I was visited by the church elders who came to cast a demon from my pancreas. We were all educated middle class whites. THIS IS THE SORT OF MORONIC BEHAVIOUR WHICH HAPPENS WHEN SUPERSTITION TAKES OVER!!
I dont have a "problem" with religion - it has its essential place IMO, its role is to keep the masses from the potentially destructive effects of the truth..
I do have a problem with superstition in the "wrapper" of religeon, and with anything which can be seen to have a logical rational reason being attributed to some irrational superstitious reason.
There are questions science (as yet) has no verifiable explanation for, and some questions which can never be answered in a verifiable way - These matters are the domains in which philosophy and religeon may have the "right" to venture IMO - But areas where the reasons are clear and obvious and verifiable are not areas that I, for one, am willing to allow superstitious ideas to go unchallenged in.
Fred
In the "service" of Science, rational thinking, responsibility for our environment and our children's futures, and the debunking of dangerous superstitions.