THE CLAIM THAT NOTHING MAKES THE DEVIL HAPPIER THAN PEOPLE THINKING HE DOES NOT EXIST
Charles Baudelaire wrote, "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.".
CS Lewis especially in the Screwtape Letters expands on that notion.
Today Christians often concur that Satan's top deception is in getting society to think that he is not real. Nonsense. Often they are thinking how the devil hides his existence so that he can get people to damn themselves to Hell forever far more easily.
If Satan is clever and sees the picture better than we do, it will not matter if we believe in him or not. He has the advantage.
And people may believe he is real but wrongly think he is not involved in something. Surely Satan would concentrate on hiding his activity rather than his existence?
Charles should have said, "The devil's biggest trick is to make us think that sin is not so bad that it can mean a choice to go to Hell forever." It is a pity he failed to see that Christianity must be guilty of doing Satan's work for its handling of sin is totally incoherent and one moral rule undermines the other.
For example, Jesus said that unless you forgive you will not be forgiven and you must realise you are a sinner yourself. If you are abused as a child by a sexual predator, you are being accused of this, "The only difference between you and the person is what sins you chose to commit. You have no right to judge. You are a hypocrite if you do."
Then there is the nonsense that we must love the sinner and hate the sin. Hate implies, "I'd use violence to kill it if I could." As the person is the one sinning this amounts to a passive-aggressive attack on her or him. No judge sends you to jail for murder saying they are sending the sin to jail not you.
Nowadays when Islamists or pro-choice persons etc vandalise a Church, the priest might say, "Love those people. They are not the enemy. Satan who is putting them up to this is." This infantalises them. Satan being the enemy and they also being our enemies is possible. If people can be evil, then refusing to blame them and blaming Satan instead is the height of irresponsibility. And it is stupid for if Satan can be the enemy why can't you? Does the Church want Hitlers dealt with by exorcisms and prayers not by taking up arms in defence of your nation? You don't help society by looking at harmful actions and letting the person who does them say, "The Devil made me do it."
The other side of the coin is that saying people are evil and accomplices of such a monster virtually calls for their violent eradication. That is not going to happen for most people don't have enough belief in the Devil to go that far.
Jesus told the Jews who did believe in Satan that they committed the ultimate sin by saying Satan was supplying him with power to perform exorcisms. And Satan supposedly asked Jesus to worship him in the desert. Satan then does not mind being believed in. He wants to be believed in.
The claim that if you are doubtful about Satan being real then you invite being his accomplice is only a cynical tactic for bullying you into observing Christianity. It demonises atheists in particular. It even demonises Christians who think that no fear should be wasted on Satan for Jesus has tied up his powers.
