Devils

[Senior devil Screwtape to junior devil Wormwood:] "The fact that 'devils' are predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination will help you. If any faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind, suggest to him a picture of something in red tights, and persuade him that since he cannot believe in that (it is an old textbook method of confusing them) he therefore cannot believe in you.
~C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters, (1942)

I do believe such beings exist, but that is my own affair. Supposing there to be such beings, the degree to which humans were conscious of their presence would presumably vary very much. I mean, the more a man was in the Devil's power, the less he would be aware of it, on the principle that a man is still fairly sober as long as he knows he's drunk. It is the people who are fully awake and trying hard to be good who would be most aware of the Devil It is when you start arming against Hitler that you first realize your country is full of Nazi agents. Of course they don't want you to believe in the Devil. If devils exist, their first aim is to give you an anaesthetic--to put you off your guard. Only if that fails, do you become aware of them.
~C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock, "Answers to Questions on Christianity" (1944)

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On this day:

1946 Lewis receives an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from St. Andrew's University, Scotland.