Devil
Wikipedia contributors · 2024 · Wikipedia
Summary
Cross-religion survey of the devil and personified evil, including how different traditions distinguish Satan, demons, tempters, adversaries, and symbolic evil.
Why it matters here
Useful for showing that devil claims vary sharply across traditions, so the evidence question has to specify which version of the concept is being evaluated.
Linked claims
Cross-tradition belief with no direct evidence. Possession, oppression and 'demonic attack' phenomena map cleanly onto sleep paralysis, dissociation, psychosis, and post-traumatic states.
Possession states are real and widely reported. Standard psychiatry maps them onto dissociative, psychotic, and culturally-shaped trance phenomena; modern exorcism deaths are well-documented.
The claim that a literal, personal adversary — Satan, Iblis, Mara, Ahriman — is an active intelligent force behind evil and temptation, considered here at the generic level rather than within any specific tradition.
Related evidence hubs
Physics-adjacent worldviews — block universe, many-worlds, simulation, free will.
World religions and traditions, scored as systems.
Practice claims — prayer, reiki, chakras, astrology, tarot, manifestation.
Reiki, chakras, auras, crystals, prayer healing.