Why would someone worship Satan?

My question is that if Hell is a place of eternal pain and suffering then why would someone worship Satan the leader of Hell?

If he were real, and the stories true, then a person would worship him for the power and instant gratification. Worshipping Jesus and his pop will get you nothing until after you’re dead. Worshipping Satan gives you power and benefits now while you’re living.

There are several answers to this. Bear Nenno gives one.
Another is that people fel they are damned anyway, but if they buddy up to Satan they will get more prestige in hell.

Yet another is that Satan isn’t viewed as an entirely bad dude. There are lots of variations on this, but basically it comes down to a belief that the Bible isn’t the whole truth, that Satan isn’t irredeemably evil and that he might actually win the battle Armageddon

I’d hazard the guess that Satanism is not even close to what you think it is.
I’m no expert myself, but the role ascribed to Satan in that following is not that of the fire and brimstone, soul impaling, evil for evil’s sake Hell head honcho with horns and trident fame.

<mod>Moving to Great Debates. </mod>

Speaking as a poster, not as a mod…

First of all, I’m not really that impressed by Jehovah, the Christian God, Allah, whatever you want to call the God of the Old Testament. He’s not someone I really regard as a worthy god to worship, and that’s just going by what his followers say about him.

Second, I am well aware of spin doctoring. It’s not anything new. The only information I have about Satan is from his enemies. This information may be deliberately or innocently misleading. Satan may actually be a great supernatural being, and just hasn’t bothered to correct the lies put out by his enemy. For that matter, Hell might be a great place to exist. I know a lot of people who claim to be sure that they’re going to Heaven, and for the most part, I don’t want them as my eternal neighbors.

Third, are you talking about the Christian notion of Satan, or are you conflating this with the old pagan horned god? There’s quite a difference.

And fourth, even if Satan is the Ultimate Evil, he might treat his chosen minions very well indeed, as long as they are content to remain his minions.

Fifth, if I thought that I could get a guarantee of fantastic health, wealth, power, and happiness I wanted, I would start drawing pentagrams and lighting candles right this minute. I might even sacrifice a chicken or two.

For the same reason someone would worship any god espoused by a religion: they’ve been lied to and they believe the lie.

This has always been my beef. Why would Satan follow god’s wishes and torture the souls of the supposedly damned? I picture him more as how he is depicted in Heinlein’s ‘Job - A comedy of justice’.

I believe you are asking why would someone worship Satan directly, knowing that he is Satan, instead of one of his deceptive forms like a angel of light. One reason is supernatural power that he offers, such as voodoo and things like astral projection hold real power.

These things start much like a drug addiction, people know that heroin is not a good thing to get into, but people do and then they can’t stop, same thing, once you start down that path you need more to feel good, and breaking away is very painful.

And just like a drug addiction it can start just observing others and catching a glimpse of the power, while at that point perhaps not yet experienced the power of God. Supernatural power is usually ‘fun’ to experience.

Satan does not care about those souls, he just wants to inflict pain on others, that’s how he feels better about himself.

The Satanic kingdom is a pyramid with Satan at the top and shit rolling down hill. As long as you have someone below you to roll your shit and the shit rolled onto you onto your OK, but the people at the bottom have no outlet for all the shit rolled onto them (and their own shit), and just must bear that shit with no outlet. (this is the motivation of demons to get souls into hell, so there is someone below them)

It should be noted that “Satanists”, or at least the organized groups that trace their lineage to Anton LaVey and his Church of Satan, do not actually “worship” Satan as such. Their morality actually sounds more Objectivist than anything else…it’s not about being evil. It’s about being free of the (to them) senseless demands of society, such as pity, generosity, altruism, etc.

As far as “Satanists” who go around doing ritual sacrifices of children, etc., there are far fewer of them than the popular belief seems to think there are. I’d guess that maybe 1-3% of the number of “Satanic cult” stories spread by law enforcement, general gossip, and tabloids is actually even close to involving an actual ritual cult.

Edited: And needless to say, there is no such being anyway.

Satanism is not worship of the Christian devil. Satanists use that character as a symbol of individualism and free thinking, basically. They don’t believe in gods, devils or hell at all. ETA: same as jayjay said while I previewed.

But for people who actually accept Satan as real and worship him I think the answers here are probably on target.

Satan has self-esteem issues? How… sympathetic of you. I don’t want to derail this thread but I never thought the Christian version of Satan made any sense at all. If God is all-powerful, there can’t be any credible, threatening opposition to him, but some Christians depict them as beings at constant war for everybody’s soul and that Satan could getcha any minute even if you love God. The Jewish version has the devil as kind of god’s correctional officer (“prosecuting attorney,” as a Straight Dope column puts it), which, while still fictionally, seems more internally consistent.

You mean there’s a difference?

All of those who believe in and worship the biblical satan (or the koranic shaytan) could probably fit on an average city bus. The others who call themselves satanists are really just in-your-face atheists who “worship satan” as the embodiment of the idea of rebellion against religion. Well, that, and they like to play dress-up on occasion.

Satan’s sin is pride, wanting to exhault himself above God, so perhaps more of a egomaniac then having self esteem issues. This is also the reason for the pyramid so that Satan can be as high as possible.

God is far above Satan, but allows Satan to be Satan, as He allows us to be us to the extent He permits (God does set limits). God uses Satan to refine us, while limiting what Satan can do.

Any violation of the 1st commandment is worship of another god, as such will ultimately be worship of Satan. So that’s a pretty big bus.

As I said, I don’t think this makes any sense. If God has that much power over Satan, it’s absurd to consider Satan a danger.

So a bunch of Humans get rowdy and sin a lot and god nukes their city. Not learning our small lesson god destroys the entire planet with a flood. But satan is the biggest sinner of all and never shows repentance but just goes on and on?

Perfectly logical.

This isn’t entirely correct. I’m sure there are plenty of atheists who claim to worship a Satan they don’t actually believe in for purposes of intimidating the squares, but there are people who actually worship Satan. I was friends with a Satanist in high school, and he did credibly purport to believe in Satan as a supernatural entity; his mantra was “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law,” but he wasn’t merely using Satan as a front for Objectivism; he believed he was commanded by his version of the divine to believe in that way.

–Cliffy

So Hindus, pagans etc. are Satanists in your book?