Demons, by contrast, were almost always malevolent tricksters who served the Devil. Demons lacked knowledge of what it meant to be human. Hell was the demons’ lair. Early modern texts describe them ...

Jimmy Akin is the senior apologist at Catholic Answers, with more than 30 years of experience defending and explaining the ...

There is, however, quite a gory distinction. Per Merriam-Webster, a ghost is “the soul of a dead person believed to be an inhabitant of the unseen world or to appear to the living in bodily likeness”.

Belief in the spirit world is a key part of many faiths and religions. A 2023 survey of 26 countries revealed that about half the respondents believed in the existence of angels, demons, fairies and ...