If we believe that Satan is alive and well on planet Earth, does that serve as a cop out?
ofcourse it does, it's actually the mother of all cop-outs! Without the notion of Satan messing with God's plan, Christians would have to accept that God is responsible for bad things as well as good ones. Now they can absolve God's responsibility when bad things happen to good people and just brush it off as caused by Satan's influence or the original sin (another byword for Satan's influence). A benevolent God can't exist without Satan.
"We must respect the law, not let it blind us away from the basic principles of fairness, justice and freedom"
™ Version 4.2
