The aim of this paper is both to trace the process of repression of the demonic in history of Western thought as well as to prove that it was necessary for development of social sciences. I start with a theory of religion and theology as functional cultural systems, which employ a binary code God/Satan to describe, explain and change social world. I then go on to show five strategies of neutralization of the demonic: silencing, anesthesia, metaphorization, negation and subversion, which render theology unfunctional and prone to instrumentalization. With the help of these concepts I investigate transformations of theology starting with neo-Platonism through scholasticism and hermetic tradition to Machiavelli, Bacon, Descartes and Hobbes. I show hereby that they did not question existence of God but – each in their own way – neutralized Satan. Machiavelli did it to free science from scholastic teleology (epistemology), Bacon and Descartes to ground scientific method (methodology), and Hobbes to define object of science (ontology). Since then this repression has been repeated time and again by most prominent thinkers of modern era. It is only Max Weber who rediscovered the demonic in social sciences. Surprisingly, this did not bring about deconstruction of social sciences, but to their further development.