Satan's Flight Through Chaos by Gustave Doré
Let's talk about Satan.
Most of the direct information that we all take as given, when it comes to Satan, is actually from non biblical sources. Things like the talmud or Paradise Lost. Often, he is depicted as being part man, part goat. Where did this come from? Even the Church of Satan depicts him as a Goat headed figure.
The answer? Well, as Christianty leveled up from a cult to a legal religion, with the help of emperor Constantine, it began to pull alot of imagery and practices from other pre established religions as a way of dovetailing new followers into the path. Thank the Pagans for the Christmas tree, and the fact that we celebrate the holiday in December. Basically it was just to pull attention away from pagan celebrations of the winter solstice.
Anyway, the two chief deities many sects of the pagan faith are "The Triple Goddess" and her male counterpart "The Horned God." Now, the Triple Goddess is depicted as the three stages of the female life cycle, "The Maiden," "The Mother," and "The Crone." The Horned God is depicted as a goat headed being and is a symbol of nature. This is actually in the tradition of Greecian and Roman half-man/half-animal gods and mythological creatures. Think Satyrs.
So, when Christianity hits the scene, and quickly rockets to the predominant faith, the church started to use imagery of the pagan faith, in this case the Horned God, as ways of convincing people to join. If you combine Satan with the Horned God, suddenly you've characterized the entire Pagan faith as deviant heretics who praise the ultimate evil, rather than praising nature.
So, as a Christian, I do believe in Satan. But, I also have to look at the history of the faith and the many issues such as "Missionaries" who would kill those who wouldn't convert, sanctioning slavery, Inquisitions, executions of heretics, and child molestation. Now, we look at the demonization of the competition.
Just look at the way some "Christians" talk about Jews or Muslims today. There are thousands of other faiths that were stamped out since the birth of Christianity. The pagans were just among the first to raise the ire, and their holy symbols and ceremonies became the reviled "Black Arts" and witchcraft.
I honestly don't even take issue with the Church of Satan as they themselves aren't even praising Satan himself so much as the notion of Rebellion. As Saul Alinsky put it, Satan was the first radical and rebelled so successfully he was given his own kingdom.
In truth, the vast majority of popular knowledge, opinion, and iconography of Satan has next to nothing to do with the biblical figure. Let me be clear that this post is by no means me being like, "Yay, Satan!" But, rather, my thought that if you do believe in him, it would probably be helpful to push past all the misleading bullshit and misinformation so you know what you're actually trying to safeguard against.
Besides, the very base concept of the figure is mildly suspect. We generally tend to view morality as a balance where God is on one side, and the devil is on the other. However, the narrative states the Satan was an angel who rose up against God. But, God created the angels. He created the punishment the transfigured all the fallen angels into demons and shaped hell. But before any of that, God existed. If you were all powerful, why would you create something equally as powerful as you to be your enemy. You wouldn't. The truth is that there is no good without evil, and so even before Satan existed there was evil.
I therefore posit that God being the Alpha and Omega, he would also be just as evil as he is good. The Old Testament would met this out. Satan is the rebel who rose up against God, got punished, and now spends his time trying to piss him off by leading his creations astray.
He's a convenient enemy to cast against New Testament God's more loving nature. And, yeah, God is love. He doesn't give a shit about who you have sex with or what you do as long as you follow the rules. "Love your neighbor. Love God." Done.
In summary: God is balance. The church has done some fucked up shit. Pagans and witches aren't necessarily evil. The Devil is a loser.