Belief in the Devil: What Are We Really Talking About?

Editor’s note – A street conversation left this author with an unexpected question: if someone denies God, what do they actually believe about the devil? We’re running this piece because it notices something Christians rarely examine – how much of our own spiritual language survives on habit rather than conviction. Scripture already answers where real spiritual warfare comes from, and this piece is a fair prompt to ask whether we’ve made that answer our own.

A Conversation That Raised a Question

I asked a man on the street if he believed in Christ.

He said no.

There was nothing unusual about his answer. People believe different things. Some are Christians. Some are Muslims. Some follow traditional beliefs. Some are unsure. Some don’t believe in any god.

But after the conversation ended, another question stayed with me.

If someone believes there is no God, what exactly do they believe about the devil?

And if there is no spiritual world at all, what are we talking about when we say we are praying against demons, evil spirits or spiritual attacks?

I wasn’t asking because I had suddenly discovered an argument that could settle the existence of God.

I was noticing something more ordinary.

People don’t always have one neat belief system.

Sometimes our words, our culture, our fears and our explanations don’t fit together as neatly as we think they do.

The invisible world means different things to different people

For a Christian, the devil isn’t simply a metaphor for having a bad day.

Christian Scripture contains references to Satan and demons, and Christian theology traditionally understands them as spiritual beings opposed to God.

So when a Christian says, “I’m praying against the devil,” that statement comes from a particular religious framework.

But someone who doesn’t believe in God doesn’t necessarily share that framework.

This sounds obvious.

Yet everyday conversations about spirituality often become confusing because people use the same words while meaning completely different things.

One person says “spiritual attack” and means an actual supernatural event.

Another says it because that’s the language they grew up hearing.

Another might believe in some kind of spiritual force but reject Christianity.

Another might believe none of it.

The same sentence can therefore hide completely different beliefs.

Editor’s note – Scripture doesn’t leave the devil as a vague cultural leftover. Peter warns that the devil “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8), and James promises that if we resist him, he will flee (James 4:7).

Then why does the language survive?

This is where I think the question becomes more interesting.

Humans have always tried to explain things they cannot see.

When something happens and we don’t immediately understand it, we look for a cause.

Sometimes the explanation is scientific.

Sometimes it is psychological.

Sometimes it is religious.

Sometimes it is cultural.

And sometimes we simply say, “I don’t know.”

That last answer is harder than it sounds.

“I don’t know” leaves an empty space.

People naturally want to fill that space.

That doesn’t tell us which explanation is true. It tells us something about the human need to make sense of uncertainty.

Philosophy itself distinguishes between atheism and agnosticism. Atheism is commonly used for the position that God does not exist, while agnosticism is associated with withholding judgment about whether God exists.

That distinction matters because saying “I don’t believe in God” does not automatically tell us everything else a person believes about reality.

It tells us something about one belief.

Not necessarily all of them.

Editor’s note – “I don’t know” is uncomfortable, and that’s exactly why so many reach for spiritual language without believing in a spiritual world. Romans 1:20 says God has made Himself plain enough in creation that no one has an honest excuse for unbelief.

But what about the prayer?

This is the part that interests me most.

A Christian might say:

“Whenever we pray against the devil in the name of Jesus, the devil runs.”

That is a statement of Christian faith.

It shouldn’t be presented as an established scientific observation.

For the Christian, however, the statement makes sense inside the larger Christian story: God exists, Jesus exists, evil has a spiritual dimension, and prayer is one way believers respond to it.

Remove that framework and the sentence changes completely.

Someone who doesn’t believe in God may hear the same prayer and understand it as a religious expression.

Someone else may interpret it psychologically.

Someone else may dismiss it entirely.

So perhaps the question isn’t simply, “Who is right?”

Perhaps the first question is:

What world does each person think they are living in?

We inherit more beliefs than we realize

A person can inherit religious language long before they understand the ideas behind it.

A child may hear adults say, “God will protect us.”

They may hear, “Don’t play with evil spirits.”

They may hear prayers before sleeping.

They may hear people blame good events on God and bad events on the devil.

Years later, that person may accept some of those ideas, reject others, or reject all of them.

But the language can remain.

That is one reason conversations about belief are rarely as simple as putting people into two boxes: believers and unbelievers.

People are complicated.

Culture is complicated.

And belief is often something people are still working out.

The question I actually left with

After talking to that man, I didn’t walk away thinking I had discovered proof of God.

I also didn’t walk away thinking his disbelief had somehow been disproved.

I walked away with a better question.

How much of what we say about the invisible world comes from what we genuinely believe, and how much comes from what we inherited?

That question applies to Christians too.

It is easy to say, “I believe in God.”

But what does that belief actually change about the way you live?

It is also easy to say, “I don’t believe in God.”

But what explanation do you give yourself when something happens that you cannot explain?

Those questions are more difficult than labels.

And perhaps that’s why conversations about God rarely end with one sentence.

We aren’t only arguing about whether God exists.

We’re trying to understand what kind of world we are living in.

And every person eventually has to decide what they think that world contains.

A Word from the Editor
The real question isn’t whether we use the same words about the devil, but whether we’ve tested our own belief against what God has revealed. Paul says we wrestle against real spiritual forces, not flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12). Anyone can inherit the vocabulary of faith; only the Spirit gives the conviction behind it.

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Editor Comment: You're right that inherited words about God and the devil can survive long after real belief fades, and Scripture calls us to examine which one we actually have.

This article appeared on Medium and is reprinted with modifications and by permission.