Biblical scholars tell us that the idea of a purely evil being like the Devil or Satan was a late development in the Judea-Christian Bible.”
During the Persian conquest of the Israelites, the Satan of Job became fused with the Persian Zoroastrian dualistic theology, where two opposing forces, one of good, Ahura Mazda, the Supreme Creator deity, was in constant battle with Ahriman, the absolute god of evil.”
Prior to this, Good & Evil were not seen as separate from each other. Like in the book of Job, where Satan is the heavenly district attorney. A necessary aspect of God who tests the faith of those like Job. In the story, Satan & Yaweh work together to push Job deeper into his journey of self discovery.
So too, “In the Indian Rig Veda, Asura, (now often viewed as Evil beings) originally meant something like ‘Lord,’ as in ‘leader of a fighting force’ and could be applied to both friend and foe.” Meaning, we used to understand ‘conflict’ or ‘darkness’ as a necessary part of our development. There is no growth without antagonism.
This ancient way of viewing the human condition is more beneficial. As Carl Jung puts it, “We must beware of thinking of Good & Evil as absolute opposites. Good & Evil are potentials in every human being; they are halves of a paradoxical whole.”
“While demons, Satan and hellfire have been demythologised by any critically thinking person,” the problem still persists in Abrahamic religions today & the psycho-spiritual effects are tremendous.
If we associate our dark aspects with ‘Satan’ a so-called ‘Absolute Evil’ whom God ‘detests’, we subconsciously repress our shadow aspects so as not to ‘disappoint’ God. We cover our nakedness out of guilt and shame. This denial of healthy darkness, turns into Toxic Shame and becomes the source of self-loathing, prejudice, anxiety, cruelty and all forms of destructive compulsions.
The great irony is, “As an internalised identity, toxic shame is one of the major sources of the ‘demonic’ in human life.” Abrahamic religions externalise evil to such a degree that they in effect are more prone to act out ‘real’ evil because of their psychological repression & toxic shame.