Recently, Simon and I got into a little bit of a debate about whether or not the devil could read our minds. I said that he could. Simon said that he couldn’t. It was very foolish of me to start writing on a topic without referring first to religious scholars, and even more foolish to cross Simon 🙂
So, since then, I googled it. Virtually every Protestant minister who came up on Google says that No, the devil cannot read our minds, and the Catholic Church agrees. I found this answer from a Catholic priest who is also an exorcist particularly interesting. https://spiritualdirection.com/2013/08/29/can-demons-read-our-thoughts
According to this priest, only God knows our souls. Catholics often pray through the intercession of Angels and Saints, and if we send Angels and Saints a message, they will receive it, but they must be invited in, and they never know us the way that God does.
I find this so comforting, and I hope that others will too. Thank you, Simon.
ST UnWoke! 
So-entonces does this mean Unleashed! is not an echo chamber?
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Yes 🙂
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Crazy Tim used to say “so-entonces” instead of just ‘entonces’ every time he spoke the local language. Used to drive me crazy!
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Lol 🙂
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After I first read CSL’s “The Screwtape Letters” in high school, in my head, God became “the Landlord”, and His refusant creature, the satan = Adversary , became “the downstairs tenant”. The landlord knows the building inside and out – and the residents – well. The tenant knows his own apartment – that’s it. 🙂
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That is a great analogy, Nanda, thank you 🙂
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Most welcome, JaC!
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But can’t the Tempter put ideas in our heads? Make us desire bad things or at least urge us to yield to our desires?
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Short answer: I don’t know. The article i linked to referred to Aquinas, who apparently devoted some time and thought to these issues. I am going to try to find out what he thought, and I will get back to you 🙂 going just by the article linked to, it seems that Aquinas agreed with everyone else that the devil cannot read our minds, but Aquinas may have believed that the devil can maybe plant ideas in our minds, which is not the same thing as being able to read our minds, but I need to look into this more.
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This, to me, is the thing: God is infinitely more powerful than the devil, first of all. Second, if I am having an evil thought, does it really matter where that thought came from? Maybe it was planted by the devil, maybe I came up with it on my own, either way, I must reject it. The correct response is the same, regardless of where the thought came from. I think thoughts are kind of like feelings: we can never totally control them and probably shouldn’t try to, but we must control how we respond to them. The bottom line is, even if the devil could plant ideas in our minds-and that is a big if-we are still the ones in charge, and God is standing right by to help us. There is no need to be afraid.
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Look at it this way: Jesus was also tempted by the devil. The devil definitely made Jesus think about doing bad things, but Jesus simply rejected those thoughts. Having those thoughts didn’t make Jesus a bad person. He totally had the power to say No, and so do we, especially with Jesus on our side.
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And, for those times when we do fall short and end up giving in to temptation, we just have to trust in God’s Mercy, and know that we are forgiven.
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Here is a link to some thoughts on this subject from a Protestant Minister: he doesn’t exactly give a yes or no answer to your question, Hypatia, but he stresses the fact that God is infinitely more powerful than the devil, and the answer always is to put our trust in God. https://ask.ligonier.org/podcast-episodes/can-satan-plant-thoughts-into-a-christians-mind
I continue the search for more of what Aquinas said.
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