Next to Jesus, one of the most familiar characters a typical
Christian will always introduce to us is the Devil. Yes the devil
AKA Satan, Beelzebub, The Evil One, etc.etc..

Every religion has a concept of a certain devil to represent evil.
It's all about duality. There must be two opposite camps, two
contrary powers, two principalities govern the Universe, the one
which is good and the other is evil, one opposing the other. The
good God cannot produce evil and the evil one cannot produce
something good. In Zoroasterism, we have Angra Mainyu, to the
Peruvians it is Cupai. The Norse believes that Loki is in perpetual battle with Odin while the Brazilians believe in Aguyan. The Filipinos believe that evil came from Sitan.

Evil represent what man is afraid of, thus the devil is sometimes
know to be the Prince of Darkness. I sometimes think that this is
more of an evolutionary issue than a religious one. Our ancestors
are afraid of the dark since most predators hunt in the dark. Maybe if we are of a nocturnal lifestyle, then the devil may be the Prince of Light.

Well anyway, in all the evil that happened in this world, a typical Christian can blame the devil about it. Even atheism, freethinking , humanism , women's rights , the gay rights movement and scientific skepticism are blamed to the devil.

But the whole Christian concept of the devil sounds very absurd. In fact, the devil concept can create problems with traditional
Christian theology…if only its adherents will be a little critical
about it.

Most Christians that I interviewed says that evil doesn't exist
before Satan. So sumatutal there is no evil before Satan. Before
Satan there was Lucifer.

According to the Judeo-Christian mythology, Lucifer was an angelic
being, one of the sons of Elohim. He has fallen, and by virtue of
his personal forcefulness has become the leader of the anarchic
forces of wickedness. As a free being he has merged his life in evil
and has become altogether and hopelessly evil. As a being of high
intelligence he has gained great power and has exercised a wide sway
over other beings. As a created being the utmost range of his power
lies within the compass of that which is permitted. It is,
therefore, hedged in by the providential government of God and
essentially limited… Well…that's how Christians describe him.
The Bible said that God created Lucifer since any believer in this
planet says that God is the creator of all things. Now again it is
also stated in the Judeo-Christian Holy Scripture that God's
creations are perfect (Deut. 32:4). Now this is quite odd: If you
read Ezekiel 28:12, 14-15 it says: Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou
sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. 1 14Thou
art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so : thou
wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in
the midst of the stones of fire. 15Thou wast perfect in thy ways
from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
That means Lucifer was an anointed cherub (attendants of God, they
bear the throne upon which He descends from His high abode.) created
by a perfect God. God fashioned Lucifer full of wisdom and beauty,
perfect in his ways. Now here's the question: If Lucifer was created
perfect by a perfect Creator, then how did he erred? According to
the dictionary, wisdom (chokmah) means the ability to apply
knowledge or experience or understanding or common sense and
insight. A perfect God who was said to create everything perfect is
said to create Lucifer full of wisdom. Since wisdom means applied
knowledge through understanding, what happened? Why does iniquity
still manage to be inserted on his mind? Isn't it strange that a
creature that was given wisdom by a perfect Creator, still manage to
have an absence of moral or spiritual values? Ep!Ep!Ep!....so you'll
like to use the "free-will defense", but remember, It was said that
God created him with wisdom…so what happened with this God given
wisdom? Do you want me to believe that acumen given by a perfect God
can easily be corrupted? Think about it. Even with free will, do you
think a creature armed with wisdom that came from God can make a
wrong choice? Hmmmmmm…doesn't really add up, does it?

Another question: If evil doesn't exist prior to Satan, then where
did this iniquity - Absence of moral or spiritual values (an evil
thought) and pride against God (another evil thought) came from? How
on heaven's name do these evil thoughts entered God's realm? Does
that mean evil exist prior to Satan and evil self-exists by itself?
Well I have read in the Bible that God created evil (Isaiah 45:7).
If so, then why blame the devil?

If God knows everything before it happened, then why does he create
Lucifer? Better yet, if he knows that Lucifer will rebel against
him, then why not do something about it before it happened? Why
didn't He arm Lucifer with an enhanced "wisdom" so that Lucifer can
use better decision in the problem of wickedness? Remember that
Christians believe God is omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent,
it's not impossible for a god to know that Lucifer and some of His
angels will rebel against Him.

Speaking of rebellion? Why will a being, armed with God's wisdom,
still consider an uprising? Remember that God rules heaven, so we
might say that God rule is perfect, isn't it? So why will Lucifer
dissenter? And to top it all…suppose that Lucifer is the one that
felt discontented (?) with God's rule (?). If so, they why did other
angels joined him? Do they also feel God's rule to be poor and
deficient?
They say God rule a perfect kingdom in heaven, if it is perfect as
they claim, they why will there be a rebellion or war in heaven?
(Take note: The concept of heavenly rebellion came from the Persians
(Zend Avesta) as angels - another Persian invention - rebelled and
fell from grace becoming a "peris" - a devil.)

In Genesis 2:14 God told Adam that if he eats the fruit he shall
die, yet the Serpent declared, "Ye shall not surely die." Yet Adam
lived 930 years after eating the fruit. Then who lied? If you, my
Christian friend will say to me that after eating the fruit, man
becomes mortal, I then would like to asked you, did the animals and
plants in the Garden of Eden also ate the fruit? So why do they die?

On the story of the Fall of Man, God cursed the devil (serpent) to
crawl in his belly and eat dust. Hmmm..sounds pathetic, but why God
(with all His "omnis") still can't even crush a being that is doomed
to creep on its belly and eat dust? Also, Christians said that
Lucifer or Satan is a free-agent? Then why is he been subjected to a
curse?

So there it is folks, the devil….a personification of evil. Born in
the ancient fear of our ancestors. Personified by Christians to
scare the hell out of a believer. Yes..the devil. But the only evil
in persona that I see here is how organized religion plays with a
believer's fancy imagination.

Until next time,
Ciao!

Pinoy Atheist