Do angels really exist?

Before I answer that question, let me give you some background information on angels.

Angels are supposed to be messengers of God in the Hebrew Bible (translating מלאך), the New Testament and the Quran. The term ‘angel’ has also been expanded to various notions of spiritual beings found in many other religious traditions. Other roles of angels include protecting and guiding human beings, and carrying out God's tasks.

There are over 250 references to them throughout scripture. The angels mentioned in the Bible are the angels who respond to prayers and act as the intermediaries between the humans and God. Usually when humans are in trouble and they pray, angels supposedly intervene to save those within the laws of karma or the laws of cause and effect. The angels do not have wings but may appear with wings to fit the general impression human beings have about angels. They do not fly but can appear and disappear at will. They can be anywhere in the world in a flash simply by the power of their thought. Many people believe this.

Many people also believe that there are dead human beings who are now living in the spirit world or astral plane. Some people are naturally mediumistic and are able to tune in and communicate with the spirit world without even knowing that they are doing it. Some are claim that they are experienced mediums and may communicate with the spirit world directly or via a spirit guide or a member of the spirit world.

These members of the spirit world or astral plane are definitely not angels though some people mistake them for angels.

When the archangel Gabriel (who is actually described as having 140 pairs of wings) landed in Nazareth 2,000 years ago to meet the woman who would become the mother of Jesus, as told in the New Testament, his greetings included necessary words of assurance: "Be not afraid."

Despite myriad artistic depictions through the ages that show Gabriel looking like the most serene of creatures, according to the New Testament. Mary may have been shocked out of her wits by his presence. Being a Jew of her times, she would have known about the angels of the Old Testament, and so would have had good reason to fear. Angels were serious business in those days, even terrifying. They often carried flaming swords or their faces appeared to emit lightning. They were not the feathery sweet angels of today that hang from Christmas trees or appear in school plays.

Angels have played key roles in the formation of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Muslims believe Gabriel delivered the Koran to Mohammed on behalf of Allah. But angels have fallen from their pedestals at the centre of the great monotheistic religions. They have become winsome and mild, mere ‘guides’ and easily digestible for those who find religion uncomfortable and like their spirituality, a bit lax. They have been ripped from their Biblical and theological roots, and made palatable figures who emphasize feel-good spirituality over reliable Old Testament wrath and New Testament gallantry, for example, the angel Michael slaying the dragon in the battle to end all battles in Revelations.

In contemporary culture, by contrast, angels are often reliable but utterly non-threatening. For example, in the classic Christmas movie It's a Wonderful Life, George Bailey (James Stewart) is shown the goodness of life by his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers). Clarence is far from scary or even impressive, perhaps goofy would be a better term. Not ineffectual, however: When George descends to attempt suicide, Clarence brings him back from the darkness. In The Bishop's Wife, Cary Grant plays the smoothest angel of all, Dudley, trying to convince a stuffy bishop (David Niven) about the true meaning of Christmas.

The whole point of angels was to shock and send off alarms, Boston College philosophy professor Peter Kreeft argues in his book Angels and Demons, "They are not and never were cute, cuddly, comfortable, chummy or cool."

Glenn Peers, who teaches Early Medieval and Byzantine Art at the University of Texas, blames the sidelining of angels on a culture that has lost the "idea and sense that the world is far more full of life and energy than our eyes can reveal. It really is an inescapable fact, Scripture is peppered with references to angels and you can't understand God's communication with creation without angels." unquote

A 2008 survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that 68% of Americans believe angels and demons are active in the world today. However, it is not clear whether those beliefs were biblicly-based or more a blend of religious belief and vague spirituality. This means that as many as 32% don’t believe that angels even exist.

Religious thinkers argue that a serious belief in angels has diminished because the modern, dominant mood of secularism makes the faithful embarrassed of supernatural beliefs. In an interview, Mr. Kreeft said, "Angels did diminish in importance for Catholics over the last 50 years ... not because of vagueness, but because of modernism and naturalism and skepticism of the supernatural. unquote

"The people in the pews are still interested, but the priests and administrators and writers of textbooks, who were trained in the schools and seminaries of the 1960s and '70s, are not into strong stuff like that, but prefer pop psychology, sociology, politics, and economics; a far cry from the teachings from the scriptures.

For many Protestants, belief in the supernatural which includes saints, the veneration of Mary and angels has eroded since the Reformation, as Christians who broke away from Rome began to focus their attention more closely on Jesus.

Meanwhile, in the Pew survey, 73% of American Jews said they had no belief in angels. "I'm not surprised by that figure," said Rabbi Howard Voss-Altman of Calgary. He said that as Judaism matured, the need for angelic intermediaries began to vanish. As well, Rabbi Voss-Altman said, “In the shadow of the Holocaust, the idea of good, interceding angels no longer rang true.” That makes a lot of sense when you consider that guardian angels didn’t rescue and save the 50 million people who were killed during the Second World War.

Yet as belief in angels becomes more shaky among the traditionally religious, interest has soared among many who are spiritual but distanced from traditional religion. Those who would not dream of praying the rosary or carrying a ‘saint card’ in a wallet might buy a ‘Reiki Tamashi Pendant for Contacting Your Guardian Angel’ from a New Age website. Or they might visit a spiritual counsellor who is also a psychic and clairvoyant who employs angels to ‘assist clients to find their true path in life.’ It is all hog’s wash as far as I am concerned.

David Albert Jones, a British historian and former Dominican friar, described the modern notion of angels as conforming to a soft, easy-to-follow post-Christian model of spirituality.

He said in his book, Angels: A History, “This can be seen from the place of angels in the 'mind, body, spirit' section that exists in many High Street bookshops. He also said in his book, “Angels remain attractive because they appeal to the imagination and to personal experience. They are a non-threatening element from established religion. They seem not quite serious.” unquote

Kevin Vaughan, a professor of theology and adjunct faculty member at St. Michael's College in Toronto, said that clinging to angels, even in the absence of God or religious tradition, is a sign that people still want to answer spiritual questions and fill a void. For those of the old school, angels must be attached to their theological roots to have any meaning.

Father Michael Patela, a professor at St. John's College in Minnesota said, “New Agers may claim angels and resort to them, but what's the point really? Unless these angels are pointing to some larger purpose, turning to them is just as futile as trusting in a rabbit's foot.” unquote

Up until a few hundred years ago, belief in angels was as much a part of Christianity as Jesus, Mary and the saints. Some of the greatest minds of the Christian era devoted their considerable intellect to understanding angels.

Nowadays, this lack of belief in angels is really quite unique in the history of religion. One of the main reasons is that children nowadays and even years past rarely went to church or Sunday School so they were not informed about the existence of angels like their parents were and quite frankly, they couldn’t care less about whether or not angels exist.

Hildegard von Bingen, an 11th-century nun whose music today has been appropriated by the New Age movement, had many angelic visions. That was thought to be to her credit. Nobody thought Hildegard was crazy because she was seeing angels; rather they saw that as a sign of her sanctity. Also in those days, most people interpreted the Bible literally and since angels play an important role in biblical history, it follows that the people in those days had visions of seeing angels, even when angels didn’t exist.

Because they appear disparately throughout the Bible with no apparent rhyme or reason, the challenge through Church history was to systematize angels and then define exactly what they were. By sticking close to the Scriptures, the early fathers of Christianity drew a picture of angels that were personal beings with their own personality and absolutely real. The description in the Bible is that they operate on their own, independent of the other persons written about in the Bible. They are autonomous answerable only to God. (if God exists)

Then Thomas Aquinas came along and decided spiritual creatures are entirely immaterial: No vapour, no smoke, no feel, very much like thoughts themselves. He said that the angels are the closest things to us like the souls.

Thomas came up with something else: He wrote, "Gabriel is as different from Michael as we are from horses or as horses are from sea cucumbers. It's more than the difference between two people. It's a lot deeper." unquote

Earlier theologians took angels more seriously because of the profound impact they had on believers. In Genesis there was the angel with a "flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life." In Ezekiel there was the disconcerting image of the four angels each with the face of a man, lion, a bull and an eagle. And in Daniel there was the angel with "a face like lightning, eyes like flaming torches, arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and a voice like the sound of a multitude.”

Mr. Kreeft said in his book, "Angels take on huge and fearsome physical appearances because they are in fact huge and fearsome spiritually. Sometimes they are frightening. When you meet God's messengers, it is almost like meeting God. If your knees do not tremble, it's not the real God, it's your imagination.”

In my opinion, if you are trembling because you think you saw an angel, it is because you are hallucinating.

If the popular image of angels has been softened and degraded in part through the workings of popular culture, it is because of the failures of the churhes to bring their parishoners back to the fold. Most of their parishoners are educated people who look at mysticism with a jaundice eye.

The eerie figures are described in Genesis as the products God. Despite being highly fictional, the Book of Genesis has a ring of ‘reality’ to those who believe in the validity of all religious texts without question.

The most interesting aspect about angels for me is their position as a boundary between the seen and unseen. I think angels have been big, or rather alluring in an intellectual and spiritual sense, for thousands of years and it only makes sense that they would suffuse pop culture in our era. The use of angels to express spirituality has never been easy.

Theologians say guardian angels are rooted in the Bible, Jewish writings and the writings of the early fathers of Christianity. Like a friend, they can lead you to God; like an enemy, the fallen angels like Satan can lead you away from God.

The story of a rebel force that defies a Deity has been a topic of great fascination for authors and poets for millennial. Generally, there are two kinds of the fallen angels myths. The first describes a group of angels who, lead by Azazel, lusted after the women of earth. They defiled themselves by mating with humans and their consorts gave birth to mean-spirited giants. God was not pleased with the rebellion and punished them for their misdeeds, but not before humanity was corrupted in the process. This tale is introduced in Genesis 6:1-4 and elaborated on in the Book of Enoch.

The other story involves the mightiest angel who, out of pride, rebelled against God during the time of the Creation. This mighty angel (Lucifer) sought to overthrow God, but he failed and was cast out of heaven to become Satan, God’s adversary. Then, out of contempt for mankind, he lead Adam and Eve to sin.

I am aware that many people who are desperately in need of some form of salvation will interpreted the holy scriptures as the words of God (if he exists)but we must not forget that the actual writings of the two testaments were actually written by a group of men under the auspices of King James. No doubt they were inspired but they thought as men thought centuries past and not as we think today.

In my respectful opinion, there are many passages in the Old Testament and the New Testament that are beautiful to read and are valuable tools to be used for the betterment of all mankind, but there are also passages in those holy scriptures that are best described as pure myths and should not be taken seriously, especially when they refer to angels, both good and bad ones alike. There have been motorists with figurines of angels hung over the dashboard of their vehicle as good-luck charms and despite that, they died when their vehicles crashed. Just as rabbit’s feet wouldn’t have saved them, neither would the figurines of angels they carried as good-luck charms.