Father Jeremy Davies - an exercise in exorcistic futility

Thanks to PZ Myers at Pharyngula for pointing me to this.

Welcome to the Dark Ages!

Father Jeremy Davies is a 73-year old Roman Catholic priest "of Westminster, the leading diocese of the Catholic Church of England and Wales."

We may be living in the 21st Century, but Father Davies never made it out of the Dark Ages! The good reverend believes that "Promiscuity, as well as homosexuality and pornography ... is a form of sexual perversion and can lead to demonic possession."

Among the reasons for the "explosion of homosexuality in recent years," according to this clerical screwball, "is a contagious demonic factor."

Of course. Why didn't we discover this before?

But, this aging celibate ("an Oxford graduate who is also a qualified physician"), doesn't stop there. "Even heterosexual promiscuity is a perversion; and intercourse, which belongs in the sanctuary of married love, can become a pathway not only for disease but also for evil spirits."

We must warn our vulnerable young people about these dangers, cries Davies.

Part of the problem, too, is "that Satan is responsible for having blinded most secular humanists to the 'dehumanising effects of contraception and abortion and IVF, of homosexual "marriages,"' of human cloning and the vivisection of human embryos in scientific research. Extreme secular humanism, 'atheist scientism', is comparable to 'rational satanism' and these are leading Europe into a dangerous state of apostasy. "

Father Davies has even written a book.

Hopefully, no one will ever read it.

What could an old cleric who believes in demons, thinks that sexual intercourse is a "pathway" to "disease" and "evil spirits," who is convinced that homosexuality and pornography lead to demonic possession, who has faith in the notion that life begins when sperm meets egg and thus contraception is "dehumanising," possibly offer people living in the real world in the 21st century?

If you want to believe in demons, look to the comical Father Davies, for he really worries about "demonic" sex. And, as they say, the devil's in the details.

But that's just the opinion of some "rational satanists."

Read PZ Myers here, and more on Father Davies here. There's more on Davies' problem with Yoga here. Read about his "authoritative" tract on exorcism here.