The Devil?

[sy1997se]

Hi, I’m new to this forum and I joined this site because I’ve been finding myself having serious questions about my faith (Please pray for me for strengthening of faith). I’m only 17 years old, a high school senior. This has happened before (I’ve always been a somewhat inquisitive and logical person) however I usually find sound arguments within myself or through other sources to refute my inner conflicts or concerns with Catholicism. One concept that I have never been able to work out rationally, though, is the concept of Satan or the Devil. It seems to be this teaching that always spurs my doubts of the religion, because, when you think about it, it seems so irrational! We have this evil character who has been allowed to freely roam around this universe from the start, tempting souls, and in some cases even infesting himself inside the souls of people! Why would God allow Satan to exist, let alone be present in our world and terrorize his people. Can’t free will exist without this evil being trespassing in our world? The choice between good and evil would still be there; And God could obviously prevent Satan from ever entering the Earth, or even better just damn him from existence altogether. Furthermore, is the idea of this being called Satan even believable? Does it really make sense that a fallen angel is the epitome of all evil, or does it sound more like a superstitious invention to describe the evil of the world? However, if I don’t believe in Satan, then I can’t believe in the rest of Catholicism or Christianity.Basically, I just want someone to show me the logical basis behind the existence of the Devil, and specifically, the existence of the Devil in our world.: I would be eternally grateful if I could get a sound answer.

-Sarah

 

[boomerang]

If you are a Christian, you must believe in Jesus. If you believe in Jesus, you must believe in demons, because Jesus cast them out of many afflicted people. Demons exist. The New Testament says so.

 

[Petaro]

Hi, I’m new to this forum and I joined this site because I’ve been finding myself having serious questions about my faith (Please pray for me for strengthening of faith). I’m only 17 years old, a high school senior. This has happened before (I’ve always been a somewhat inquisitive and logical person) however I usually find sound arguments within myself or through other sources to refute my inner conflicts or concerns with Catholicism. One concept that I have never been able to work out rationally, though, is the concept of Satan or the Devil. It seems to be this teaching that always spurs my doubts of the religion, because, when you think about it, it seems so irrational! We have this evil character who has been allowed to freely roam around this universe from the start, tempting souls, and in some cases even infesting himself inside the souls of people! Why would God allow Satan to exist, let alone be present in our world and terrorize his people. Can’t free will exist without this evil being trespassing in our world? The choice between good and evil would still be there; And God could obviously prevent Satan from ever entering the Earth, or even better just damn him from existence altogether. Furthermore, is the idea of this being called Satan even believable? Does it really make sense that a fallen angel is the epitome of all evil, or does it sound more like a superstitious invention to describe the evil of the world? However, if I don’t believe in Satan, then I can’t believe in the rest of Catholicism or Christianity.Basically, I just want someone to show me the logical basis behind the existence of the Devil, and specifically, the existence of the Devil in our world.: I would be eternally grateful if I could get a sound answer.

-Sarah

If you didn’t have questions about your faith at your age, you would not be normal, smart or enquiring. You should be proud of yourself.
Now you use the word logical in your quest for the definitive answer to the devil’s existence. I don’t think that is the basis of the question. In my humble opinion, it is like looking for the logic behind the existence of an apple.
Rather we have to look at proofs for existence. It is somewhat easier with an apple, (excluding the illogical conclusions of quantum physics which are claiming the title of the real more and more nowadays.)
However, as a simple man, I do not query the roundness of the earth, although I cannot prove it myself. I rely on others more capable, or in the case of history, I rely on those that were there.
Thus, if we believe in Jesus, we are relying almost entirely on other’s testament. Thus the importance the Church places on the Early Fathers; their writings and of course, The Bible.
If our entire faith in Jesus is founded on the Church’s testament, we can look at the recorded words of Christ in our foundation for the existence of the Devil. For he speaks of him. Our understanding of his essence as a fallen angel comes from other Church sources and are equally as valid.
If I was looking for logic in my religion, I would be stumped at the Trinity; and completely flummoxed at the Eucharist or the Hypostatic Union ! May you use your reason in all your discovery of the truths of our religion and do not worry about doubt. It is the sign of a healthy mind.

 

[St_Francis]

Demons exist because God gave the angels, who knew everything, a moment of free will to choose between following Him or not. So demons are not a separate sort of thing: they are just bad angels. Unfortunately, angels have many powers so a bad angel is really, really, really bad.

 

[Adonia]

There is good and evil in the world, but what they really represent is God and the Devil who also exist in this world. What other explanation do we need? It is all that simple!

I’ll tell you something. A long time ago when I was in my early 20’s I picked up a female hitchhiker. She was on her way to some sort of new age “reading”. Now, since I was a normal young man who was keenly interested in the opposite sex, I readily went along with her.

You can believe this or not, but let me tell you there were spirits in that room and believe me there was nothing “Holy” about them. About half way through this “reading”, I had had enough and was out of there big time, quickly forgetting about the pretty hitchhiker I had just met.

 

[Flopfoot]

It depends on what assumptions you want to begin with, and also whether you are trying to prove that the devil must exist, or to prove that it is possible for the devil to exist. I’m assuming you’re going with the latter. So we need to lay out the questions that make it doubtful that the devil exists and see if we can answer them in a way that doesn’t contradict our assumptions.

So far it looks like your questions are:

Why would God allow the devil to exist?

Why would God allow the devil to mess with things in this world?

Are there other rational explanations for why people have believed in the devil?

The first one is interesting. God created the angels, one turned against him, why didn’t God simply zap this dude out of existence? Well, if God creates out of love, then I guess destroying would be the opposite of love. It’s just not God’s way. It’s been said that there’s nothing within God’s power that is not within his will.

The second one is sort of a question about how much power the devil and/or the other angels even have. Can the good angels also mess with the physical world? If so, do they use this power? The devil’s power is not even a fraction of God’s power. An interesting example is the story of Job in the bible. Why did the devil have to ask for God’s permission to hurt Job, instead of just going and doing it himself? One theory might be that the devil did not have the power to do so without God’s permission. Maybe God doesn’t let the devil get away with as much as you think. On the other hand, the story of the garden of Eden makes it seem like the devil was able to talk to Eve without having to ask for permission to do that.

For the third question, you suggest that it could just be people’s way of describing evil in the world. But people who think along those lines tend to think of him as an anti-God, someone with equivalent power but opposite will, which is not what Catholics believe. There is not really a good reason for why people believe in any of the angels, good or bad - I don’t know if there are any similar concepts in other religions - unless they had actually appeared to people or had been revealed in some way.

 

[MaryT777]

If you like to read or have extra time to read,
Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis is a great book about the Devil.

Welcome to the forums, by the way.

Hope you get your question(s) answered.

Mary.

 

[Bayoubeefmaster]

Hi, I’m new to this forum and I joined this site because I’ve been finding myself having serious questions about my faith (Please pray for me for strengthening of faith). I’m only 17 years old, a high school senior. This has happened before (I’ve always been a somewhat inquisitive and logical person) however I usually find sound arguments within myself or through other sources to refute my inner conflicts or concerns with Catholicism. One concept that I have never been able to work out rationally, though, is the concept of Satan or the Devil. It seems to be this teaching that always spurs my doubts of the religion, because, when you think about it, it seems so irrational! We have this evil character who has been allowed to freely roam around this universe from the start, tempting souls, and in some cases even infesting himself inside the souls of people! Why would God allow Satan to exist, let alone be present in our world and terrorize his people. Can’t free will exist without this evil being trespassing in our world? The choice between good and evil would still be there; And God could obviously prevent Satan from ever entering the Earth, or even better just damn him from existence altogether. Furthermore, is the idea of this being called Satan even believable? Does it really make sense that a fallen angel is the epitome of all evil, or does it sound more like a superstitious invention to describe the evil of the world? However, if I don’t believe in Satan, then I can’t believe in the rest of Catholicism or Christianity.Basically, I just want someone to show me the logical basis behind the existence of the Devil, and specifically, the existence of the Devil in our world.: I would be eternally grateful if I could get a sound answer.

-Sarah

The devil exists that is not a question. Sadly we see him present in possessions and such. The question is why does he exist. Well the same reason you exist. Do you know why you exist? Why does God allow you to do good or evil. Couldn’t God just zap you out of existence because of your sins. Of course he can but he loves you. God created Lucifer out of love. God gave him freedom to do good or evil like he does all of us so evil was a choice before he was even the devil. Evil does not come from the devil it comes from our choices. He just lies to us so we can choose to do evil. You are right that God could just annihilate him (he could do the same for all of us) but That is against his nature. I do not know God’s mind but I guess He allows Satan to exist so that we can greater glorify God when He defeats Satan forever. He allows Satan to tempt us to do evil but we cannot blame God for us doing evil because God himself places the right decision before our eyes. We just have to choose. I’ll be praying for you in your journey to find the Truth. Remember this, it has been said many times that one of the devil’s greatest lies ( he is the father of lies) is that he don’t exist. If he doesn’t exist in our eyes it is easier for him to get our souls from God.

May God be we with you.

 

[hasantas]

Satan is not an angel. Satan is Jinn.

Satan has no power to empose but it give misgiving to tempt human.

42-Indeed, My servants - no authority will you(Satan) have over them, except those who follow you of the deviators. Al-Hijr(15)

1-Say, “I seek refuge in the Lord of mankind,
2-The Sovereign of mankind.
3-The God of mankind,
4-From the evil of the retreating whisperer -
5-Who whispers [evil] into the breasts of mankind -
6-From among the jinn and mankind.” An-Nas(114): 1-6

Satan has no a physical body for taking photo to prove.