Demonizing Satan and his Minions

This morning the rector's sermon was about Satan.  The rector said that Satan and his minions are real, and they'll get us if we're not careful.  I silently shook my head in bewilderment; talk about assuming facts not in evidence.  History suggests it's extremely shortsighted to blame malign supernatural forces for the things we don't like about the universe.  Humanity's experience has been that what we call evil will eventually be explained as the results of natural phenomena — including phenomena we don't (yet) completely understand, e.g., the function and malfunction of the human brain.

So why do some Christians and Muslims insist that yes, there IS a devil?  Possibly because it's human nature to identify an "other" and demonize it, thus rallying the base and promoting group solidarity — even when there's no evidence that the demonized "other" even exists.  As columnist David Brooks reminds us today in an analogous context:

[...] It’s true people everywhere want to satisfy their desires, but they also require moral systems that will restrain and give shape to their desires. 

It’s true people everywhere love their children, but they also require respect and recognition and they will sacrifice their own lives, and even their children’s lives, in wars for status. 

It’s true people everywhere hate oppression, but they also require identity, and human beings build identities by collectively hating groups that represent what they are not.

All these other parts of human nature impel people to become tribal.  People form groups to realize their need for status, moral order and identity.  The differences between these groups can be vast and irreconcilable.

David Brooks, The Jagged World, NY Times, Sun. Sept. 3, 2006 (emphasis and extra paragraphing added).