The man actually believes in the Devil. Antonin Scalia – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a man with a lifelong appointment to the highest court in America, the one that decides the ultimate fate of laws and justice in this country — believes in the Devil. The literal figure from the Bible. Satan himself. Antonin Scalia, the man, believes in Beelzebub, the character. Keep repeating this to yourself as you go through this article, otherwise you’re liable to think such a claim too dubious — the man actually believes in the Devil.
In an in-depth interview with Jennifer Senior of New York Magazine, the justice went on record to discuss many things, from his staunch opposition to certain rights for homosexuals to his favorite television shows. Perhaps the most surprising thing during the conversation was his genuinely stated belief that the Devil of the Bible is “a real person.” Scalia cited his Catholic faith as his reason for believing, claiming that it was what “every Catholic believes” and is necessary “if you are faithful to Catholic dogma.”
When pressed for evidence of the Devil’s existence, Scalia admitted that the Wicked One isn’t making pigs run off cliffs or possessing people much these days (something the Prince of Darkness was apparently fond of during the time of the Gospels) because He’s gotten “wilier” over time. Scalia claims that the Devil spends most of His time these days convincing people He doesn’t exist (along with that god he supposedly opposes), and that this is a “more successful” strategy.
On Scalia’s scoreboard it’s Keyser Soze from the “The Usual Suspects”: 1, Regan MacNeil from the “The Exorcist”: 0.
Let’s reflect for a moment on how terrifying it is for the longest-serving justice currently on the Court to take this absence of evidence as an indication of a nefarious existence. Far scarier than any demon is this man with the Scales of Justice in his hands feeling the weight of thin air. The man actually believes in the Devil.
Scalia then draws the conclusion that this shift in diabolic strategy from an active to a passive role is “why there’s not demonic possession all over the place.” Nowhere in the interview is there any hint that Scalia has considered the null hypothesis: there are no devils. No angels have fallen from Heaven nor serpents risen from Hell; people have been people and the world has been as it is far longer than many traditional religious accounts would insinuate. This, however, is not how Justice Antonin Scalia sees it all, a fact he has repeated time again as he declares his Catholicism the guiding philosophy behind the justice he delivers.
This is the same Catholicism responsible for witch hunts, the Crusades and the Inquisition. This is the philosophy of a Church that believes the introduction of condoms in developing countries is far worse than spread of HIV, ordains that consenting adults can only love each other in certain ways, and has bred the one of largest pedophilic scandals in human existence. This philosophy convinces grown men to believe in fairy-tale monsters and excludes grown women from its priestly class. It should, therefore, come as no surprise when Scalia was “offended” by the interviewer’s question, “Isn’t it terribly frightening to believe in the Devil?” Given his philosophy, it’s the Devil who should be afraid.
As should we all.
That religious beliefs, ceremonies and ideologies should have no place in the governance of citizens of this country is self-evident. That a judge, let alone one of nine responsible for shaping the rights of hundreds of millions of people, shouldn’t accept conclusions without evidence, isn’t an unfair request, indeed it is foundation upon which all justice must be based. That this conversation is even necessary speaks to how far our civilization still has before it.
To say that belief in devils and demons, ghosts and spirits belong to the childhood of our species is to be too charitable with our condemnation. We must and we should hold such beliefs in contempt. No contemporary society benefits from its populace’s fear of its devils nor from the charity of its gods. It’s people alone that determine what world we have before us. It’s a world that Scalia would rather have perched over the heat of Hell’s fires than have homosexual couples feel the warmth of loving hands in emergency rooms. The millions of people that believe as he does stand as a testament to the quiet tragedy of ancient roots poisoning our modern landscape.
Growing up Catholic myself, as a child, I feared the Devil. As a man, I fear only men. I fear those who would treat this world as but the antechamber for the next, I fear those who would rule over others with divine instructions, and I fear those who see devils where there are only men. But I’m hopeful. Our species’ capacity for compassion and understanding and love far surpasses that mandated by the archaic texts of antiquated deities. One day we will grow beyond our childhood fears.
Though I can only be so hopeful. After all, there’s at least one man that actually believes in the Devil.
Barry Belmont can be reached at belmont@umich.edu.