why would anyone worship the devil?

There's two sorts of devil-worshippers: those who don't know they are; and those who openly admit it (Satanists). People choose Satanism because it's easy; you can do whatever you want and to whoever you want, the only thing you have to show respect to is Satan. Those who don't know they are usually Atheists, but not exclusively. It's just anyone who indulges in parts of life.

I am not a christian I am Wiccan and from my opnion the satinists feel that God is evil because he allows his followers to suffer illiness, and poverty. When I was a child and my mom made me go to a Christian church they always said that God is a mercifull God and that he loves his children. The thing is I have a hard time believing that. Please understand I do believe in a God and I dont believe in Satan or the devil. I worship our mother. Most of you know her as Mother Earth. She is my Goddess. She is where we were made from and she is where we return when our physical bodie expires.

Why not? Its not like it makes the least bit of difference anyway. According to the bible, if you do good, you are rewarded, and if you do evil, you are punished, so as long as those Satan worshipers are doing good, they've got just as much a chance of getting into your mythical heaven as you do.

well, first of all he doesnt "choose" our destiny. He knows how it will play out in the end, however, he gave us free will, and we choose our own destiny.

So there were God and Lucifer chitchatting away and God said 'see there is my good friend Job' Isn't he great? He loves me so much' And Lucifer goes,'well of course he does! Why wouldn't he. He has never had a reason to be sad, never a reason to doubt your love for him.' And God says, I'll show you how much he loves me. I will take away all his crops. That will prove how much he loves me. And with Lucifer's urgings, God systematically takes everything away from Job: his crops and animals, his home, his children. Given the choice, who would you worship, the omnipotent God or the being who twisted God up so much that he hurt someone for no reason except to test his faith?

For devil has the upper hand in twisting our faith. More powerful than humans. Very much envious with us for we are being created in the image of OUR LORD GOD THE FATHER who is our CREATOR. They (devil) want us to worship and/or divert our worship instead to GOD but thru them. Whew....

Let's look at two concepts which you have mentioned. First, omnipotence. If I am the captain of a boat, I have the POWER to steer it where I will ... even onto the rocks, if I chose. The fact that I choose to preserve the safety of my boat and my crew doesn't lessen my 'omnipotence' in that respect, any more than giving humans (in the way many choose to think of it) the choice between good and bad lessens God's omnipotence. He could (and actually sometimes does) overrule our poor choices so that we don't wreck his ship but letting us make the choices is not compromising His omnipotence. Next, 'the Devil'. There is only one omnipotent Being who has, we believe, given us the power to choose His way or our own. We can either make ourselves in agreement with the way that this world runs or we can set ourselves against it to follow what we see as a way more selfishly profitable for us. (There are many shades in between, of course!) Because we are human, we like to make things in our own image to worship. This is why we commonly refer to God as 'He' and imagine Him as an old gentleman with a long beard who is something like a father - why not a grandfather? - figure to us. Likewise, we 'personalise' the Devil and call him Satan and think of him as an actual person working against God. It then becomes easy to make of this fictional being something to worship. That is by no means a good and full answer to you! Perhaps your logic shows it's flaw in the first sentence: "I don't understand why anyone who believes in duality would worship the devil" ... those who worship the Devil (if there are any who truly do) may not believe in duality but in multiplicity. Many are accused of worshipping the Devil who do nothing of the kind. There are those who worship what they perceive as the spirits behind or in charge of this world and vest them with horns. They don't, however, worship them as evil beings but as beings having the potential, at least, for good! The fact that the Devil is often also portrayed with horns does not make them one and the same thing!

It does not make sense to me why people worship the devil, but in another way I think I understand where they are coming from. Often people just don't know better, and in other cases they want to rebel against convension and tradition. People worship the devil often to shock others.

I don't worship the devil but I have heard a devil worshiper describe why she follows the devil recently. She said that she worships the Devil because she likes the dark side of life and the Devils Bible allows you to do what you want. There are no restrictions. I can see where that could be attractive.That is what I love about The U.S. , you are free to worship anyone or not.

These are good questions, and valid, in my opinion. I don't know if I have a solid answer for this, and what I do have might sound extremely cuckoo of me. But perhaps God, while refraining from active interference with free will, actually can anticipate human behavior by their genetic makeup, as influenced by the relativety of the environment around them. Of course, out of such a statement would arise the question, why would God create evil beings, or influences that might turn them evil, in the first place? Well, perhaps He must maintain a certain balance, as well as allow for poor examples to be set that might encourage those on the right path to stay on the right path. My knowledge of Satanism is, at best, little to nothing. But from what I read years ago, I am of the understanding that Satanists believe there is no afterlife, and that they also believe Satan will give them what they want in this life (to them, the only life they will ever live) if they do his will. I also understand that black magic and white magic really are real. Perhaps they might not be as flashy as in "Charmed," or as phenomenal and cosmic as Aladdin's genie, but they actually do exist. These are just things I have read. Whether or not they are true is wide open to debate.