Why have so many religions required blood sacrifices? (I suppose some still do?)?

[Laura S]

What is the significance of a sacrifice? Does it make the God/Gods happy to see blood (many humans sure do think of it as entertainment)? Is it just that sacrifices show that you don't care who/what you kill if it's in the name of God (which may please the God?)?

Thanks in advance!

[Phoenix M *scough*]

Sacrifice means "to make sacred" It also carries the connotation that you are giving up something. If you look at the original sacrifices of the Israeli's for Passover, it wasn't a lamb that was bought from the nearest shepherd, it was one that was raised in the house as part of the family and was not just a financial loss, but an emotional one as well.

Traditional Hellenic practices said that the scent was pleasing to the gods, but the meat was shared by the community. Someone who wished the gods' blessing on a business venture shared his bounty with the community to show the gods that his desire for success was not entirely selfish and was also a promise to share some of the future bounty as well.

I am not as familiar with the religious rationale behind the South American practices to comment on that, but most of the ancient practices I am familiar with seem to indicate a random stranger on the street would be completely inappropriate as a sacrifice, because it meant and cost literally nothing to you.

[HTacianas]

I have my own ideas about it, and in the end it seems to be a human need, though there might be disagreement on just where it comes from. The ancient Jews sacrificed animals, and so did the Romans. On the other side of the world, the ancient inhabitants of both North and South America sacrificed human beings. There was a tribe of Native Americans in the American Southewest that destroyed pottery to irrevocably give it over to "the gods". Sacrifice has ocurred in nearly every society that has ever lived.

There is something in the human conscience that compels a person to sacrifice as a means of clearing the conscience, but it seems never to completely clear it. I personally believe that this is humankind's attempt to shed itself of original sin. Whatever the term original sin might mean to you.

When a Christian begins to feel the same way, he need only look to the cross.


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[TruthBox]

I think there are 2 answers to this.

On the mundane level - blood was seen to be what life is made of, being a precious substance. And so what could you give that was so precious? And that would be your own blood. I think the story is, that with the South American religions/cultures - the royalty was expected to give of their blood, as in blood letting - letting the royal blood flow, and offered as a sacrifice. The person may have lived a royal life, but he had to pay for it, by offering his blood.

As to the human sacrifices made, in these same cultures.
One story is that the God demanded it - so as to keep his tyrannical hold over the population. That it was not that the priests demanded it, but the God himself.
All gods (and God) for all cultures were ETs - not the same ETs who gave the arts of civilisation to mankind, but the rogues and renegade ETs who saw their opportunity to start religions and worshipping practices with setting themselves as being God, etc.
[The God of the Bible, of course was an ET - and it was a lineage, with one taking over the role of another - hence the change in name for God. This being a fact amongst the fiction.] What has happened with biblical text, is that it's original meanings are now misunderstood. ie. The Book of Ezekiel - being that of a UFO sighting, along with other such descriptions int he Bible.

[joshsybs]

It wasn't about the human's sacrifice, it was to signify the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

[MrgLvWsdm]

Very simply...Conscience has told people about the Moral Governor whose voice it is, and who they fear to meet in Judgment. They know something must be done about their transgressions against the Holy and Righteous One.