WHY?...or "The Problem of Evil"

I was probably about six and a half years old when I heard a couple of neighbor men talking.  One asked "Where are you going?" and the other answered, "Down to the devil--wanna go along?"
I went home and asked,  "What is the devil?"  Sounded like some kind of a place, or thing.  I don't remember the answer; I'm sure that at the time it didn't scare me much.  Mother would have tried not to do that.  There was a story in the family that as a child she'd been heard talking to herself and saying, "Get thee behind me, Satan, but don't push me over!"  Whether she'd heard her minister-father preach on temptation,  I don't know.  But teaching children about what Evil is and why people lie and cheat and do bad things may rank right up there with telling them about the birds and the bees (an area where the old "problem of Evil" surely does rear its head, too.)

Many people might say, "Oh, that's old-fashioned, like believing in spooks!  There's no personal devil!"  But usually you'd more often than not find the same person who says Satan doesn't exist would say that GOD DOES.  Does that not leave one with no leg AT ALL to stand on in explaining evil?  Of course, some people simply dismiss all belief in the supernatural except some vague concept of universal energy in a cold, impersonal cosmos that doesn't care about us little ants down here who crawl about and live our short little lives.  In that case, everyone can simply carve out for himself the life he wants, and not consider anyone else
(shudder).

I for one will take my stand with C.S. Lewis in THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS.  That book should be required reading for all young people growing up!  This Oxford professor has written a classic allegory in which Satan assigns his minions to tempt humans and lure them to their own destruction!  With brilliant humor and insight, he shows how the enemy of our souls sews discord in our relationships in society and in homes (i.e., "I simply ask her what time dinner will be, and she flies into a temper!")  Lewis, a towering intellectual, isn't ashamed to take the Bible literally.  We shouldn't be, either.  Why all the cruelty, greed, lust and deception?  Why all the divorces?  Well, there's this fallen angel whose name used to be Lucifer...

One little girl was heard to pray, "Jesus, Satan is knocking again.  Will you please go to the door?"  YES!