My friend sent me a link to 10 weird recordings. The one here is of Anneliese Michel, the girl whose demonic possession and exorcism are the basis for the movie "The Exorcism Of Emily Rose." This recording gave me the heebie-jeebies.

It made me think about some existential things though. Good vs. Evil, God vs. Satan, religious faith vs. atheism. I think everyone will agree that good and evil exist, though not everyone believes that there are divine or demonic forces behind them. Even the Catholic church, in the end, reversed it's position and said that Anneliese Michel was simply a weird little mental patient. After listening to the recording, it's easier for me to believe she's possessed than unbalanced (to be fair, she is speaking German so the effect is extra creepy).

I'm not an extremely devout person, but I do believe in God and I have seen a couple of things that I have hard time explaining away. I also see a larger hand at work in the design of the human body, in the way that right down to the cellular level the body is essentially a machine, with each component performing a predetermined task. With over a trillion cells working in harmony, how can that be chance? How can it just have 'evolved?' I know this is not a logical argument, but I prefer it to the alternative.

As for good vs. evil, there has to be that balance. One question I have heard is "How can you believe in a God that allows bad things to happen to people." The cop out answer is "Everything happens for a reason." I say it's a cop out because it doesn't go deep enough. If someone has a choice - say, whether or not to pull the trigger while robbing someone - there's not much of a point to making the right choice if there's no alternative. The "reason" someone gets shot may have nothing at all to do with the victim and everything to do with the violator. Of course, that point of view is of no comfort to the victim's family.

Anyway, I guess my point is that I have seen enough to believe that there is something beyond this world, something that I cannot touch or see, that influences the world I can touch. For lack of a better term, I'll call that something 'God,' and I think that makes my belief 'faith.'

Have you had any experiences that have led you down one path (faith) or the other?