The Devil? Really?

I'm a non-believer, in God, in the Devil, in SpongeBob Squarepants, what have you. From being raised in a Christian church, though, I sort of understand people who believe in God. It's a comfort, and life is a bitch, so whatever helps is OK by me, long as you're not using your religion to bludgeon others.

But I'm taken aback by lines like this, from Pope Francis, who is God's appointed spokesman on earth:

Pope, on Palm Sunday, says devil taking advantage of pandemic

March 28, 2021, VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis led Palm Sunday services in an almost empty St. Peter’s Basilica because of coronavirus restrictions for the second consecutive year and said the devil is taking advantage of the pandemic. ...

“The Devil is taking advantage of the crisis to sow distrust, desperation and discord,” he said, adding that the pandemic had brought physical, psychological and spiritual suffering.

Since he was elected in 2013, Pope Francis has made clear that he believes the devil to be real, saying in a 2018 document that it was mistaken to consider him a myth. ...

The Devil? Really? In my experience, we humans are stupid enough to create our own distrust, desperation and discord. We do it all the time, so the concept that The Devil made me do it seems unnecessary.

Belief in God or Allah or Yahweh or Brahma or Shiva or Vishnu et al I can sort of understand, but belief in The Devil seems extra ludicrous.

It's equal-opportunity silly, I guess — you got your ultimate good-guy, God or whatever, so you got your ultimate bad-guy, The Devil, who also goes by many names. The good-guy is OK with disaster, disease, disability, and war, and intentionally flooded the world and killed everyone save one family and brags about it, so really, how bad can 'the bad guy' be?

All wisecracks aside, and it's not meant as an insult but I'm not going to go out of my way to make this sound polite: I don't understand how anyone who's old enough to vote, drink, and sign a lease can believe in The Devil. I cordially invite any believers, or anyone who better understands the believers, to explain it to me.

 

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