Religion E9

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A Review of The Exorcism of Emily Rose

By Arlon Staywell RICHMOND — Science, poetry, politics and religion are not supposed to be in conflict, not so bitterly as lately seen certainly. With the four so out of kilter rather remarkable conflicts can be found, one in The Exorcism of Emily Rose.
The movie was purportedly based on a true story. How true the story or how loosely based the movie it is difficult to be certain. In the movie Emily Rose believes she is "possessed" based on experiences she has while away at college. She is given medical care there. She is prescribed a drug the doctors believe can help her. Nevertheless she and her family later consult a priest. Not long after an exorcism ritual she dies. Most of the movie is set at the trial of the priest for murder with details filled in by flashbacks.
It would be nice if anyone who believed in the correct "system" could be automatically correct all the time. Unfortuitously humans, whatever they "believe," be it "science" or "religion" or neither or both, are at times found capable of error. What? No one ever died under psychiatric care? Whether we believe in heart transplants might depend. Is anyone pointing a knife at our heart? Perhaps it isn't the "religion" or the "science" so much as it is the knowledge, wisdom, experience and skill of the person using it. Ethan Thomas, the prosecutor, seemed to possess no wisdom or experience, nothing but an obstinate and unfounded belief in "science." The priest, on the other hand, had a medical doctor present to help. According to voluminous data on exorcism, priests always do by their own organization's requirement.
Perhaps no one is comfortable believing in the possibility of possession, even the religious. And no one is comfortable believing in schizophrenia or multiple personality disorders, even scientists. We are concerned we might give excuses too easily to criminals. But who is more likely to give excuses too easily, science or religion?
How Science Turned Against Religion
According to science mental illness is caused by diet, heredity, brain chemicals, and many other factors beyond the control of the individual. Even in the case in this movie there is supposed by the prosecution to be a "drug" that would make everything better, rather than some behavior that needs correction and atonement. Even as this is written there are found in the media new causes of behavior attributed to chemical imbalances.
Religion, especially Catholicism, is not so forgiving. Possession isn't believed to be possible without some initial cooperation on the part of the possessed. In the "Exorcist" and "Exorcist II" the possessed were quite young, perhaps too young to be held accountable for their early cooperation. Young Regan used a ouija board and young Kokumo used magic, such as he could find, against locusts. In the "Exorcist, The Beginning" (One of two versions of the story before, "prequel" to, that in the original The Exorcist) although the priest tried his best to save her, the possessed adult died in the end. That meant not having to deal in the movie with the adult's culpability and the complexities of working that out.
More Evidence of Cultural Inversion
So it is science handing out the easy excuses, but do most people realize this? No. This is more evidence of cultural inversion. Today's "believers" have faith in something called "science." Their blind, irrational faith tells them that everything will be better if people would just quit believing in the soul. No matter how many "doctors" support homosexual marriage, abortion, stem cell research or other nonsense, they continue to imagine themselves pillars of the community.
Those familiar with this website should already know that such "science" fails because it tries to rely entirely on "logic." It has been explained that the mind is changed by three things, ethos, pathos and logos. Science ignores the ethos, the ethical traditions, or even attacks all tradition as "necessarily" flawed. Many people believe there is nothing wrong with homosexuality because they can think of no "logical" reason it is wrong. Observing the centuries however we see that no ethical system that recognized homosexuality or homosexual marriage survived. Rather, marriage of one man to one woman is the ethical tradition that stands the test of time. Lately marriage laws in the United States have become so lax that it no longer means what it did for centuries and perhaps not surprisingly many cannot see any difference between the modern version and the "marriage" of homosexuals.
Although a respsonsible polemic, if the movie had one, would consider not only who died under the care of an exorcist, but who died under the care of psychiatrists, that comparison was not explored. Rather the movie seemed to be trying to make a point that science had a solidly good record and religion had a solidly bad one. How many out there today know how wrong that is?

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