Love - Or Why Did God Create Satan?

I got a question regarding why God created Satan. I know this is an interesting question from an atheist because the very question presupposes the existence of God. Maybe the person that asked is not certain and really means: Why does God allow evil? I can try to tackle that one but I’m prepared to catch some further questions on this so please don’t expect that I’m going to give a complete answer here - Let’s use a little dialectical conversation and see if we can’t agree on why God might allow evil and create a being who would bring sin into his “very good” creation.

Ok - arm yourselves - I’m going in.

Why would God allow for evil or sin? This question begs another - what is the greatest purpose of all creation? I would argue the purpose is to manifest love. I believe God is love and He created all things to reflect this nature as completely as a created being/object can. The rub lies in that love must be chosen to be legitimate. If love is mandated then it is not love at all but compliance by fiat. Love is derived from the desire to serve another regardless of the cost. Forgive me if you don’t believe but I’ve got to do this:

“These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you” - John 15:11-14

That’s Jesus speaking in the New Testament. Even if you’re a die-hard atheist, it’d be hard to deny that self-sacrifice is the ultimate form of love. One cannot love unless one has the option not to love. We have been given the option to serve the Creator or to serve the created (sin) We would not have this option without the capacity to pursue evil and my Book says that Satan introduced that option. If the ultimate goal of creation is to join our Creator in love then we must have the alternative choice of evil (Satan) available to us.

So, with God we get free will and a capacity to love. I’ve asked on some other blogs if atheists can love. I’m not being hyperbolic - if there is no transcendent aspect to human life, and if we are matter in motion, and if we are merely following our program written by nucleotides, then where is love? I read the post on friendlyatheist.com about love being measurable in chemical reactions - what? Are you for real? I posit the chemical reactions are due to the existence of love vice being the cause of the love. Just because one can collect empirical data when a phenomenon occurs does not mean that the data indicates causality. I need some help with this one.

Thanks for reading and I’d “love” to read your responses.