Editing Devil (section)

=== Spinoza ===
A non-published manuscript of [[Spinoza]]'s ''[[Ethics (Spinoza book)|Ethics]]'' contained a chapter (Chapter XXI) on the devil, where Spinoza examined whether the devil may exist or not. He defines the devil as an entity which is contrary to God.<ref name="Spinoza-1985">, B. d., Spinoza, B. (1985). ''The Collected Works of Spinoza, Volume I.'' Vereinigtes Königreich: Princeton University Press.</ref>{{rp|p=46}}<ref name="Spinoza-2007">Jarrett, C. (2007). Spinoza: A Guide for the Perplexed. Vereinigtes Königreich: Bloomsbury Publishing.</ref>{{rp|p=150}} However, if the devil is the opposite of God, the devil would consist of Nothingness, which does not exist.<ref name="Spinoza-1985"/>{{rp|p=145}}

In a paper called ''On Devils'', he writes that we can a priori find out that such a thing cannot exist. Because the duration of a thing results in its degree of perfection, and the more essence a thing possess the more lasting it is, and since the devil has no perfection at all, it is impossible for the devil to be an existing thing.<ref>Guthrie, S. L. (2018). Gods of this World: A Philosophical Discussion and Defense of Christian Demonology. US: Pickwick Publications.</ref>{{rp|p=72}} Evil or immoral behaviour in humans, such as anger, hate, envy, and all things for which the devil is blamed for could be explained without the proposal of a devil.<ref name="Spinoza-1985"/>{{rp|p=145}} Thus, the devil does not have any [[explanatory power]] and should be dismissed ([[Occam's razor]]). 

Regarding evil through free choice, Spinoza asks how it can be that Adam would have chosen sin over his own well-being. Theology traditionally responds to this by asserting it is the devil who tempts humans into sin, but who would have tempted the devil? According to Spinoza, a rational being, such as the devil must have been, could not choose his own damnation.<ref>Polka, B. (2007). Between Philosophy and Religion, Vol. II: Spinoza, the Bible, and Modernity. Ukraine: Lexington Books.</ref> The devil must have known his sin would lead to doom, thus the devil was not knowing, or the devil did not know his sin will lead to doom, thus the devil would not have been a rational being. Spinoza concluded a strict [[determinism]] in which [[moral agency]] as a free choice, cannot exist.<ref name="Spinoza-1985"/>{{rp|p=150}}