The Overhyped Influence Of Satan

Demons as a whole are far from present in every corner of the Bible, and references to Satan himself comprise only a portion of the Biblical passages relevant to demonology.  This has not discouraged claims randomly attributing sins to demonic origins.  All sins would offer something for demonic entities to celebrate, and perhaps some sins are directly influenced by Satan or other demons, but the Bible itself rarely connects demonic and human activities in this way.

One might hear many Christians credit Satan or some lesser demon with responsibility for a sinful act or a destructive event nonetheless.  While the Bible does have accounts of demonic possession, it never engages in this sort of blameshifting when it comes to addressing human depravity.  Demonic possession itself is a fairly rare occurrence in the Bible, as only a handful of stories speak of such a thing.  Even these stories of possession are never said to entail demons forcing their way into human bodies uninvited.

Humans have the capacity to sin in the sense that it is logically possible for any living person to do that which contradicts God's moral nature, with or without the very existence of Satan or other demons.  In other words, while Satan is presented as a being that would certainly like for humans to disobey God, it is not the case that the Bible credits Satan with the sin of individual humans.  Any being that chooses to sin is responsible for its own actions and intentions.

The very nature of free will is that no external mind or force can make a mind capable of making autonomous decisions do anything whatsoever.  Outside factors can influence a mind with free will, but they can never arbitrarily erase it.  The power that is ascribed to Satan in the Bible never includes the ability to make humans sin involuntarily (in fact, as the example of rape in Deuteronomy 22:22-27's context of adultery illustrates, there is no such thing as an involuntary sin, for a lack of autonomy and consent to perform an action removes moral responsibility).

The Bible indicates that Satan wishes for humans to oppose God.  Moreover, he is shown to be devious enough to attempt to use truth itself as a tool of manipulation, as is the case in Matthew 4.  At the same time, treating Satan as if humans could not sin apart from his influence distorts his significance and denies the nature of free will.  Sin is not solely the domain of the demonic.  Ordinary people are no less able to freely commit wrongs than Satan.