Devil was always there, never hidden, it is all the more visible because people are aware. But who or what is devil? Truth is God and anything which hides Truth is the Devil. Jealousy, anger, falsehood, violence all stemming from the misconception of who really we are due to ego, is the real Devil.
Story ~ A Piece Of The Truth
( Credit - You are the World ~ J. Krishnamurti & https://www.poetryverse.com/prose/buddhist-stories/piece-of-truth )
You may remember that story of the devil (Mara - the Evil One) and a friend of his were walking down the street and they saw a man ahead stoop down and pick up something from the road. And as he picked it up and looked at it he was very startled, there was a great delight in his face. And the friend of the devil asked, what was it that he picked up and the devil said, 'It's truth'. And the friend said, 'Isn't that a very bad business for you then?' The devil said, 'Not at all, I am going to help him to organize it'. ("Right after this, they usually make a belief out of it.")
Credit - Osho ~ Socrates Poisoned Again after 25 Centuries
The religions who believe in God have to declare that the devil is a reality. If the devil is only a fiction, then their God also is a fiction. The reason behind this declaration is not to prove the reality of the devil , but to support the reality of God.
There are religions – like Taoism in China – which have no devil , because they have no God. There are religions in India – Jainism – which have no devil because they have no God. Buddhism in Japan, in Ceylon, in India, in Thailand, in Korea, has no devil because it has no God.
The pope’s declaration about the reality of the devil is very cunning. It is a strategy to prove that God is real. Without the devil , God cannot exist. It won’t fit in the dialectic.
But it raises many questions. If the devil is real, who created the devil? Either he must have existed always with God, or he was also created when the world was created. If he has always existed with God, then he has the same status and the same eternity as God. And looking at the world, he seems to be more powerful than God.
Who manages all these wars? Who manages so many killings and rapes and crimes? Millions of people are behind bars – who manages it? God seems to be only in books – the devil is very much active and has tremendous power. God seems to be absolutely impotent before the devil. And if they are going to exist together forever – because without the devil God cannot exist, God is dependent on the devil – then why worship God? It is better to worship the devil!
Secondly, if someone says that God was alone before he created the world, then why did he create the devil? Then he is responsible for everything wrong that happens in the world – for all the crimes and for all the sins, he is responsible. Why did he create the devil in the first place?
And this seems to be simply unbelievable – that he creates the devil , and people are killed and women are burned because they are making love with one ofthe creations of God. So what is wrong in it? If it was wrong – God is all-knowing: past, present, future – he should not have created the devil. And if he could exist alone for eternity, why can’t he exist alone today? What is the need for the devil?
But these are all hypothetical questions which have no roots in reality. First you create God, then you become afraid that he needs an antithesis; otherwise somebody is going to ask, How can he remain in existence without his polar opposite? Then the devil has to be brought in from the back door.