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Satan (a.k.a. The Devil, Lucifer, Beelzebub in Christianity or Iblis or Shayṭān in Islam) is the personification of evil. Modern Christian mythology casts Satan as an angel who defied the will of God. He was cast out of heaven with his followers and was condemned to rule over hell. He is seen as “the father of lies”, the tempter of Adam and Eve, the tormentor of mankind on earth, and the torturer of mankind in hell. In Islam he is usually considered to be a jinn.


"The Devil is merely the idleness of God on that seventh day"

Friedrich Nietzsche


Definitions of Satan


Religious Tolerance web site

Satan as an adversary


Satan as a divine messenger


Satan as a divine councilor



Transformation into the adversary of God







Why did God create Satan?

If God created everything, then God created Satan. This raises the problem of evil. Some apologists argue that Satan was created to enable development of humans but that does not explain why did not create humans already in their improved state.


Another theodicy is to claim that God created Satan with free will. However, this is a red herring because God could have simply not created any angels - problem solved.

"God did not create Lucifer as evil but allowed the potential for sin. [2]"

Why does God allow Satan to continue to exist?

A further question is why does God allow Satan to continue to exist. This also raises the problem of evil. If God cannot destroy Satan because of free will, he could cast him into the lake of fire right now - which is supposedly the plan in the long run (Revelation 20:10 Bible-icon.png). [3] Some apologists argue that God will be more glorified if he allows Satan to exist, which is not an omnibenevolent attitude.

"he knows that when we walk in and out of those temptations [caused by Satan], struggling both with the physical and moral effects that they bring, more of God's glory will shine in that battle than if he took Satan out yesterday. [3]"
"Perhaps He allows it to show that evil and wrongdoing do not provide the key to the ultimate meaning of life which man so desperately desires. Or perhaps He allows it to spiritually build a Christian’s wisdom and knowledge drawing him or her closer to God and away from Satan. [4]"

In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis argues that God does not end the world because he is giving people a last chance to choose his side.

"But we can guess why He is delaying. He wants to give us the chance of joining His side freely. [...] God is holding back to give us that chance."

This seems odd since the longer God waits, the more people get sent to Hell. No good God would do that. Related problems include the problem of non-God objects and if God can create Heaven, why bother creating the Earth (or Hell) at all?

Also, after the apocalypse, most of these apologetics collapse since there would be no people left to choose between God and Satan. Therefore Hell cannot contain Satan or demons after a certain finite time.

Satan's rebellion is not plausible

The logic for Satan's rebelling is not properly explained. Satan presumably knew God was all powerful and all knowing. Why is the point in contesting against a being like that? The story does not make any sense. All apologists can do is wildly speculate.

"does Satan not know that God is omnipotent? How dumb could Satan be to think that he could possibly win out against the omnipotent Creator, the Creator of everything including even himself? [5]"
"Perhaps part of the explanation is that pride, the worst and most evil of all sins, has blinded Satan to reality. [4]"


Main Article: Polytheism in Christianity

Some Christians believe that Satan literally exists; the belief is more prevalent in fundamentalist denominations. The belief in powerful supernatural spirits that can act independently of each other is effectively polytheism. However, most Christians claim to be monotheists.

Satan's ineffective methods

It is said that Satan causes temptation, pain and suffering these are the tools he uses to undermine God's plan. However, this is implausible because he has much better options available.

"For example, why doesn't Satan shoot intense pain through every human on Earth until they confess their allegiance to him? I know that Christians say God acts as a "hidden God" because He wants to see if we will freely choose Him. But it seems unlikely that Satan, a pure evil being, would have any such motivation. So why doesn't Satan just come on down and kill everybody or do whatever evil he feels like? [5]"

If God would not allow that, it seems inconsistent that he would allow Satans surreptitious methods.

See also


  1. [1]
  2. [2]
  3. 3.0 3.1 [3]
  4. 4.0 4.1 [4]
  5. 5.0 5.1 [5]

External links

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