When antique torture devices become available at auctions, they are easily sold and modern imitations of such devices are still made for those into S & M. Torture has been used historically by the military to get information from prisoners and, sadly, by churches to get confessions out of people. Even today, some continue to claim that torture is an effective way to get information. The historical evidence says otherwise. Torture often cause people to confess to things they didn't do just to get the torture to stop. It also causes them to agree to implement others who are totally innocent. In short, torture is often used to get false confessions from those the church or government authorities want to get rid of, to confess to things they didn't do, just so the torture will stop and they will be put to death. The Spanish Inquisition was well known for this. The Knights Templar were originally soldiers of the church who did much to aid the Catholic Church in defending itself, and protecting those traveling. But times changed and a new king and a new pope found they had become too powerful and independent, so they were accused of various crimes and sins including witchcraft and devil worship and then tortured until they confessed. They were innocent, but torture got confessions out of them. That is just one example of why torture doesn't do what proponents of it claim. So, again, why does it happen?

The answer, I think, is threefold, with the third item listed being the primary one:

1. Deep within the subconscious of all of us is the primitive beast that takes joy in seeing others suffer (but, of course, never wants to be the one suffering).

2. We all have a tendency to do things we would not normally do when we are part of a group, especially a fairly large group. Things like trampelling a person to death as we stampede into the malls on Black Friday (an appropriate name, but not for the official reason).

3. The main reason, and the one we hate to accept, is that, while we are children of God, we are children of the fallen angels also and so those fallen angels, devils, demons, whatever you wish to call them, still have a strong influence on out behavior. They get us to do things that they enjoy even when we think we would never stoop to cooperating with them. They are successful at it mainly because they do a good job of hiding their efforts to influence us.

    There are things we can do to keep from becoming a person who likes torture, whether as a participant or just as an observer. We can avoid as much as possible all forms of violence in entertainment: movies, video games, etc. The more violence we expose ourselves to, the more tolerant of it we become. And we can turn to God and the Beings of Light to help us avoid the influence of Satan and his minions.