in our brains conspire to make some of us psychopaths, rapists and killers? Aren’t many of us susceptible to the seemingly sweet and logical words of the charismatic but psychotic leader? After all, Hitler, Pol Pot, Bin Laden and Jim Jones had no trouble finding willing and loving followers.

Aren’t we, then, our own worst enemies? When it’s all said and done, what more harm could a devil do that we haven’t already done to ourselves? While it can be fun and scary to read books and watch movies about evil forces, blaming them for our bad deeds only distra

I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of a devil, of some invisible and incredibly wicked creature who inspires us to acts of sin and depravation. I even wrote a novel, Lucifer’s Testament: Road Trip with the Devil, which considered, somewhat tongue in cheek, whether Satan is history’s greatest victim of bad press.

But many of us truly believe in the existence of such a being, along with his (her - its?) countless minions and henchpersons. The traditional belief is in a creature second only to God in power and intelligence – the Morning Star. But why would someone who is so intelligent take on the all-powerful and all-knowing One? Wouldn’t that seem like a pretty foolish strategy? And why would such a grand creature need to stoop to possessing young girls and old ladies and testing the random poor soul? Perhaps Satan is one of God’s tools, someone He implements to test us. After all, Satan and God were pretty friendly in the Book of Job.

But I can’t accept the existence of such a creature. A look back at religious history shows that the concept of a devil really only began evolving in the century or two before Jesus’ birth. References in the Old Testament to ‘Satan’ and ‘Lucifer’ may have originally been the names or labels of unloved rulers or references to pagan gods such as Baal. The essential concept of such an elemental force of evil may have been borrowed from Zoroastrianism. Later, as the Christian church’s bureaucracy and theologies solidified, the concept of Satan and his legions of demons provided a convenient foe against which the church could continuously battle and justify many of its rules, rituals and even misdeeds.

Which brings me to my point. I believe that the devil, Satan, is a handy way for us to justify and rationalize our wicked ways. Humanity, after all, couldn’t have possibly dreamt up the many horrors and atrocities we have visited upon each other. Isn’t it somewhat comforting to imagine that the Nazis, for example, were inspired by some malevolent alien force rather than to think that we humans could go that far astray all by ourselves? But haven’t we, along with free will, been granted the potential for greed, lust, and hatred? Couldn’t our environments and the chemicals in our brains conspire to make some of us psychopaths, rapists and killers? Aren’t many of us susceptible to the seemingly sweet and logical words of the charismatic but psychotic leader? After all, Hitler, Pol Pot, Bin Laden and Jim Jones had no trouble finding willing and loving followers.

Aren’t we, then, our own worst enemies? When it’s all said and done, what more harm could a devil do that we haven’t already done to ourselves? While it can be fun and scary to read books and watch movies about evil forces, blaming them for our bad deeds only distrac

y would someone who is so intelligent take on the all-powerful and all-knowing One? Wouldn’t that seem like a pretty foolish strategy? And why would such a grand creature need to stoop to possessing young girls and old ladies and testing the random poor soul? Perhaps Satan is one of God’s tools, someone He implements to test us. After all, Satan and God were pretty friendly in the Book of Job.

But I can’t accept the existence of such a creature. A look back at religious history shows that the concept of a devil really only began evolving in the century or two before Jesus’ birth. References in the Old Testament to ‘Satan’ and ‘Lucifer’ may have originally been the names or labels of unloved rulers or references to pagan gods such as Baal. The essential concept of such an elemental force of evil may have been borrowed from Zoroastrianism. Later, as the Christian church’s bureaucracy and theologies solidified, the concept of Satan and his legions of demons provided a convenient foe against which the church could continuously battle and justify many of its rules, rituals and even misdeeds.

Which brings me to my point. I believe that the devil, Satan, is a handy way for us to justify and rationalize our wicked ways. Humanity, after all, couldn’t have possibly dreamt up the many horrors and atrocities we have visited upon each other. Isn’t it somewhat comforting to imagine that the Nazis, for example, were inspired by some malevolent alien force rather than to think that we humans could go that far astray all by ourselves? But haven’t we, along with free will, been granted the potential for greed, lust, and hatred? Couldn’t our environments and the chemicals in our brains conspire to make some of us psychopaths, rapists and killers? Aren’t many of us susceptible to the seemingly sweet and logical words of the charismatic but psychotic leader? After all, Hitler, Pol Pot, Bin Laden and Jim Jones had no trouble finding willing and loving followers.

Aren’t we, then, our own worst enemies? When it’s all said and done, what more harm could a devil do that we haven’t already done to ourselves? While it can be fun and scary to read books and watch movies about evil forces, blaming them for our bad deeds only distra

or two before Jesus’ birth. References in the Old Testament to ‘Satan’ and ‘Lucifer’ may have originally been the names or labels of unloved rulers or references to pagan gods such as Baal. The essential concept of such an elemental force of evil may have been borrowed from Zoroastrianism. Later, as the Christian church’s bureaucracy and theologies solidified, the concept of Satan and his legions of demons provided a convenient foe against which the church could continuously battle and justify many of its rules, rituals and even misdeeds.

Which brings me to my point. I believe that the devil, Satan, is a handy way for us to justify and rationalize our wicked ways. Humanity, after all, couldn’t have possibly dreamt up the many horrors and atrocities we have visited upon each other. Isn’t it somewhat comforting to imagine that the Nazis, for example, were inspired by some malevolent alien force rather than to think that we humans could go that far astray all by ourselves? But haven’t we, along with free will, been granted the potential for greed, lust, and hatred? Couldn’t our environments and the chemicals in our brains conspire to make some of us psychopaths, rapists and killers? Aren’t many of us susceptible to the seemingly sweet and logical words of the charismatic but psychotic leader? After all, Hitler, Pol Pot, Bin Laden and Jim Jones had no trouble finding willing and loving followers.

Aren’t we, then, our own worst enemies? When it’s all said and done, what more harm could a devil do that we haven’t already done to ourselves? While it can be fun and scary to read books and watch movies about evil forces, blaming them for our bad deeds only distra

e to my point. I believe that the devil, Satan, is a handy way for us to justify and rationalize our wicked ways. Humanity, after all, couldn’t have possibly dreamt up the many horrors and atrocities we have visited upon each other. Isn’t it somewhat comforting to imagine that the Nazis, for example, were inspired by some malevolent alien force rather than to think that we humans could go that far astray all by ourselves? But haven’t we, along with free will, been granted the potential for greed, lust, and hatred? Couldn’t our environments and the chemicals in our brains conspire to make some of us psychopaths, rapists and killers? Aren’t many of us susceptible to the seemingly sweet and logical words of the charismatic but psychotic leader? After all, Hitler, Pol Pot, Bin Laden and Jim Jones had no trouble finding willing and loving followers.

Aren’t we, then, our own worst enemies? When it’s all said and done, what more harm could a devil do that we haven’t already done to ourselves? While it can be fun and scary to read books and watch movies about evil forces, blaming them for our bad deeds only distra

in our brains conspire to make some of us psychopaths, rapists and killers? Aren’t many of us susceptible to the seemingly sweet and logical words of the charismatic but psychotic leader? After all, Hitler, Pol Pot, Bin Laden and Jim Jones had no trouble finding willing and loving followers.

Aren’t we, then, our own worst enemies? When it’s all said and done, what more harm could a devil do that we haven’t already done to ourselves? While it can be fun and scary to read books and watch movies about evil forces, blaming them for our bad deeds only distracts us from the reality of what we are and the necessity for us to be always vigilant against our own wicked tendencies.