Well, that last post took me to something I’ve been wanting to write about for awhile. And, no, it has nothing to do with Dan Brown’s bestseller of the same title. (As an aside, I was captivated when I read it after it first came out. Not so, now.)

In a circuitous manner, what started yesterday as a reflection on yearning as a common strain of our existence but ended up as a consideration of whether we are, indeed, alone … now takes me off on a different tangent.

I left off with the statement that I don’t believe we’re actually alone. We are, in fact, surrounded by supernatural beings.

Now that’s not anything suitable for normal dinner table conversation.

Let’s imagine: “Hey, we’re enjoying this dinner. Very fine food indeed. Do you think there are a bunch of supernatural beings actually present here tonight? You know, looking and listening in?” Nope. Never been in that discussion and can’t imagine that’s anywhere near the .01% of topics in the U.S. these days.

But, what if it’s true? Because if it is, that would be pretty remarkable and, just maybe, worth considering during our awake time.

Let’s take a look.

Just like space aliens, angels and demons capture the public imagination in many creative ways. Of course, there are a lot of movies highlighting these creatures. John Travolta played the archangel, Michael, in the movie by that name. More on archangels in a moment. Perhaps the most famous movie demon did not have a name in my recollection but caused a whole lot of trouble in The Exorcist. Those two are the first that came to my mind but there are many more. Angels and demons crop up all over the place. I’m sure you can think of some others. Then there are angelic figures on Christmas trees and lots of little devils running around on Halloween. We even have mud flaps on trucks or decals on the back of vehicles with two provocative women, one angelic and the other devilish.

Of course, in essence, this is just one way of symbolizing the nature of good and evil.

Well, I can amend that to say good and bad because everyone believes in good but not everyone believes in evil.

Then there’s the common, childlike picture, of heaven. Cherubic beings with wings, on clouds strumming harps.

Some people say that a child who dies at an early age becomes an angel in heaven.

I know at least one person who believes in angels but can’t come to grips that there is a God.

More than a few people believe there are “guardian” angels assigned to each of us or at least some of us.

Of course, the fringe on the other side of the spectrum likes to cozy up to demons in their worship of the number one demon. I’m not sure what most of them think about angels or God for that matter. Probably pretty divided on that, understandably.

It would be very rational to chalk all of this up to anthropomorphism (attributing human characteristics to non humans), for instance, animals or gods. Anthropomorphism is big industry in myth and fantasy, long a way of expressing natural human inclinations.

Of course, many an anthropologist might suggest that anthropomorphism reaches its apogee when humans make up God.

Finally, there are many who believe in God and heaven who can’t reconcile angels and demons, especially demons. Yes, so it goes, there is probably a God and heaven is a place (as yet not really understood by mortals) where good people (or all people) go after death. Don’t really know if we’ll run across any angels there. Certainly no devils.

In other words, we’re all over the map. From the whole concept is completely ridiculous like dragon lore to maybe there’s something to it but I’m either not sure or am not inclined to think about it to, yeah, I believe in angels and/or demons but haven’t put the pieces together to, yep, they’re here and they mean business.

For the purpose of argument, let’s look at door number four: They’re the real deal. This brings me back to the dinner table and a frank conversation.

The three great monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, all recognize the existence of these creatures. These three are also called the Abrahamic religions because of their common ancestry in the biblical figure of Abraham. In these traditions, the story is pretty similar and will seem utterly fantastic on the order of Zeus and Apollo to the non-believer.

At some point, God created angels to help carry out his will. God’s will being good, after all, makes them agents of good. In this reality, all angels were/are not equal. In the scriptures, there are many types of angels mentioned, the three most well known being Archangels, Cherubim and Seraphim. Four archangels (the highest order) even have names: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Lucifer. Needless to say, the last one is the chief “fallen” angel. In the story, Lucifer (the most profound narcissist in all of creation) challenges God, thinking that he, Lucifer, can replace God. After all, he’s beautiful and powerful and wants the whole enchilada. (Sound familiar?) What ensued was a cosmic civil war with one third of the gazillion angels lining up with the poser and the other two thirds backing the home team. Of course, God and his legions win and the fallen angels are booted out and left to follow their leader, who is also popularly known as Satan (the Devil). For whatever reason, these vanquished angels are left to exist and as they live under the influence of the anti-God, they take on the character of evil and become demons or devils.

With humans entering the picture (the why of which is another story), the battle continues but is largely played out over who gets to exert the greater influence on us, God’s special creations. And this is where the rubber hits the road.

One of the best portraits of this battle is with the little C.S. Lewis allegory, The Screwtape Letters. Perhaps you’ve either heard of it or read it. Not everyone loves it as I do but I encourage you to check it out at the library or somehow get ahold of it. It isn’t a long read but neatly captures the conflict, with we humans smack in the middle of this cosmic tug-of-war. My other favorite portrait is a much more contemporary book written by Shaunti Feldahn, entitled The Veritas Conflict. This latter one stays with me over ten years after I first read it.

These two books paint the same picture. There are, in fact, supernatural beings present here and now in our space. We just can’t normally see them, although once in awhile they may make an appearance. They try to influence us to good or evil. The angels serve to protect us and influence is to good but are not all powerful. The demons serve to steer us away from God and to the belief that we deserve to be at the center of things but, like angels, they are not all powerful. After all, God gave us free will (another complex topic). In other words, the battle rages on. Whose voice do we listen to? There’s more to the story than we think.

And, there’s a whole lot more to the big story than there’s room for here. Lewis famously said that with Jesus’ entry into this world and all that he did, the war for the eternal souls of humans has been preordained. The forces of evil will lose. Unfortunately, there are still battles to be fought and there will be casualties. Some souls will be lost. He likened it to the state of affairs after D Day. The Germans were bound to lose eventually but not without taking many down with them.

Which brings us back to the beginning.

One of the main reasons why I couldn’t come to grips with there really being a personal God, especially one as defined by Christianity, was the problem of evil. I knew there was evil and I knew that there was a supernatural reality (I’d experienced it on more than one occasion) but I couldn’t fully resolve why a loving God allowed evil to exist. Although it’s still a complex issue, for me the tumblers clicked into place and it all made sense. During those years wrestling with my conclusions of a supernatural but not having full context, I was pretty dismissive of the whole angels and demons thing. I had read Screwtape Letters in my 20s and liked it, just as I’d ready the Narnia series as a teen and then again in my 20s and liked it. But, that didn’t mean I bought into the whole angels and demons reality as just described.

Now, if I were to be asked at the dinner table what I believed about the whole thing I would answer honestly. “As difficult as it must be for the modern scientific and rational mind to conclude, yes, I believe in angels and demons and the cosmic battle. Yes, I believe they are right here in this room flitting and hovering about. No, I don’t fully understand all of it but their existence is the only answer that fits the facts.” At which point, my dinner table companions will probably have all sorts of thoughts, including I’m certifiable and “he drank the kool-aid. What a shame.”

There are a lot of reasons why I believe in the existence of angels and demons. Of the many, one is the account of a very reasonable friend of mine who saw a demon and it wasn’t an apparition. She not only saw it but felt the cold darkness of its presence. She is either a lunatic or a liar or just seriously misguided. Given the other parts of that particular story, it made sense. I’d like to say I’ve spoken with a trustworthy person who has seen an angel but I haven’t. However, I heard them sing when I was transported momentarily into that other dimension in my first experience of the supernatural as a teen. Hallucinations? Possibly. But, at least in my case, that explanation doesn’t fit the facts.

Fantasy? Wish-fulfillment? Myth? Reality? I’ve drawn my conclusions. What are yours?