India is facing yet another case of human sacrifice. Lalita Tati, 7, became the latest victim of tribal sacrifice — murdered in order to offer up her liver to the gods to improve crop growth.
The sacrifice occurred in the state of Chhattisgarh. Two men were arrested in the crime.
Occasionally victims are found at temples in India after being sacrificed by witchdoctors.
Such a crime is truly incomprehensible for most of us. What is particularly astonishing is not just the religious faith in human sacrifice, but the purpose: better crops. These killers not only decided to kill a child but do it to increase crop yield. The sheer depravity of the act is breathtaking.
Source: Yahoo
Hummmm, I think they are on to something. If they wanted to improve crop yields in the United States perhaps farmers should serve the head of the USDA’s liver up to the gods. Orlachtomegalodon, the Supreme Corn God will be pleased!
the Aztecs were doing it 500 plus years ago and they were far from ignorant.
Pretty sick stuff.
Infowars got me wondering if there’s any culture that doesn’t have child abuse/sacrifice as the norm…
The cases seem to be neverending…
Dear Stupid –You ask if I were being marched down the hall for the last time for something I didn’t do, would I still say, oh well, God will sort it out?
Nope, I wouldn’t — but those yahoos in Texas do and act on such sentiments , as well the rest of the self-righteous wherever they may be found.
For Oro Lee If you were being marched down the hall for the last time for something you didn’t do, would you still say, oh well, God will sort it out?
How many innocent people are being executed and have already been executed just in the last 10 years? Even when there has been doubt. One such recent case was Troy Davis, who was executed because the SC refused to look at new evidence his defense claimed to have that would prove his innocence.. What insanity and evilness is this?
A man’s life is at stake. Ready to be executed for a crime he was convicted of weather he did it or not, claims of new or more evidence that may establish a man’s innocence, but the response is, so what, we heard enough, execute him?
This was the answer from men who have taken an oath to protect their people and community, not execute them because you are tired of dealing with the issue. Are we living in the Twilight Zone? But what do I know?
Thank you for listening and allow be to leave with a quote I once heard from somewhere,
“It’ is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society”.
“God never intended that Abraham actually kill Isaac. The lesson wasn’t that God no longer required human sacrifice. God never did.”
AMS
We don’t disagree. The God of the Torah never decreed human sacrifice. That is the point. It was one way the early Hebrews differentiated themselves from their surrounding cultures. Nevertheless, as shown throughout the Torah the Hebrews were at times influenced by the religious beliefs that surrounded them, such as the “golden calf” creation in Moses absence, that did favor human sacrifice. The disbelief in human sacrifice was not only a step forward for humanity, it is what began to distinguish the Hebrews from the religious beliefs of that era and previous times.
“the irrational murder of a child so magical thinking adults could feel better about a situation – and shut the Hell up.” (Gene)
I second that.
Frankly — point taken. In this case, there is no dispute as to the actual Hebrew word used in the 6th Commandment. The issue is one of interpretation — what would a Hebrew hearer at the time understood the word to mean.
The present and heavy majority view is “murder” and not “kill,” although as a child I learned the “kill” version because that’s the way it is in the King James version. Most if not all modern versions use “murder.” There is, however, a viable minority view. Both are set out in the linked article.
http://people.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/Shokel/001102_ThouShaltNotMurder.html
Curriculum vitiae: http://people.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/SEGAL.html
BUT THAT IS ALL BESIDES THE POINT. Even absent any dispute about the original wording, the proper interpretation of the wording, or an accurate translation embodying the proper interpretation, THOSE BELIEVERS DOING THE KILLING WILL INTERPRET THEIR SCRIPTURE IN A MANNER WHICH JUSTIFIES THEIR KILLING. And they will rely on a 6th Commandment which uses the word “murder” to do so.
Anyone still wondering why the Founders specifically created a separation of church and state when defining our secular form of government?
Anyone?
If you are, might I suggest that you look what religious thought has wrought in this instance – the irrational murder of a child so magical thinking adults could feel better about a situation – and shut the Hell up.
My somewhat extensive reading of the Bible allows me to be sure of my ground here.
At no point in the book, does God(the God Of Abraham) require human sacrifice.
It is consistantly concemned.
It is described as being the practice of the people of the land in which the Isrealites were living. Some of the Hebrews were condemned by God for taking up the practice as part of their falling into the worship of other gods.
Murder of course is condemned from the time of Cain and Able.
As to the accuracy of the account of Abraham taking Issac to sacrifice him; I would of course disagree with Mike here but i don’t see the difference whether it is a historical recording or a purely Metaphorical tale. In either case the lesson is the same.
Many events from history serve as excellent Metaphores for other things
both tangible and intellectual. As do many creative efforts by some of our greatest writers.
So whatever the nature of the original document; I see the same lesson.
I think perhaps context plays a role in this story. This is at a time when cities are small (by our standards) and many people live as Nomadic Shepherds and Goatherds and such.
A time long after God’s last interaction with man directly and a time where man was worshiping whatever rock or stump or carving was presented to give them by whatever self serving Shaman turned High Priest poped up and offered blessings.
So Abraham was just another guy but of apparently worthwhile charactor. For whatever reason he is chosen to leave his home and venture forth to follow and worship God.
I have often wondered what it was that convinced him to pursue this path. Was he just another lost soul waiting for any god to come along and take him under his wing? I think not but I do think that God must have provided some kind of evidence to Abraham though the story doesn’t mention it.
When the Bible says God spoke to Abraham; it doesn’t say how. Audible voice? In a Dream (usually it would say so)? Telepathically? By an Angelic messenger?
No one “knows”. They merely suppose.
So off Abraham (whose original name BTW was Abram) goes and leads his family and herds and servants into the wilderness and God demands proof of Abrahams loyalty.
The one thing he could have demanded of someone like Abraham was his son Issac.
Why? Because Abraham and his wife Sarah had been forced to wait until she was in her nineties before giving birth to a child (I know; I know) and there was just the one. So a special child for sure.
God never intended that Abraham actually kill Isaac. The lesson wasn’t that God no longer required human sacrifice. God never did.
The lesson was that God demanded absolute obedience of man but if man would give this; God would provide untold blessings to man.
Abrahams willingness; though a very troubled willingness to do this proved his belief in God and in the power of God and his belief that God would not ask it if it were not necessary.
At the point of actually sacrificing Issac; he is stopped by an Angel of God.
God then provides an appropriate sacrifice in the form of a Ram.
Many; Mike included see this as a fictional tale. Perhaps. I wasn’t there.
Others see it as a factual account. Such as myself.
One thing that occurs to me is that many say that it couldn’t be real because no-one would actually kill their child to please an invisable entity.
I would say though that although God never allowed humansacrifice; Abraham had no way of knowing this. There was no written or verbal tradition of law or God’s will.
Human sacrifice was all around. Abraham may have thought he would not do this either until asked. But it probably didn’t have the same shock value for him as it would for us.
The lesson though and not the first one recorded is “Obedience to God brings blessings.” To Abraham the sacrifice of the Ram sealed a covenant between himself and God. That covenant is the basis for everything that happens to the Isrealites after that.
Note: As far as Sarah giving birth in her nineties; it is not as ridiculous as it sounds. there are recorded cases of women giving birth into their sixties I know and I believe even a case of a woman in her seventies.
At the time this happened people were much closer to the state of perfection than they are now. They live a long time and their bodies hadn’t begun to age and deteriorate as quickly as they do now.
Also Sarah was a Nomad. She would have been in top physical condition due to their lifestyle of frequent migration.
Or if you prefer their bodies hadn’t been subjected to the high levels of polution and commercially produced poisons and chemicals that are a part of our dailey existence and have had so devastating an effect on our Imune systems, Cardio-vascular systems; respiratory systems and reproductive systems.
Not so big a leap i think no matter which way you look at it
Frazer’s “The Golden Bough”, Campbell’s “Masks of God” and/or Graves “White Goddess” set human sacrifice for the growth of crops far into pre-history. During Yom Kippur services the Torah portion read refers to the aborted sacrifice of Isaac. For many years I have marveled at Rabbi’s whose sermons look for reasons that God could have done this and go through gyrations to exculpate God from this cruel hoax. To me the story is merely a metaphor for the announcement that God no longer requires human sacrifice to bless the people. The gyrations exist because if one forces themselves to believe the Torah and later the Gospels were written as strict historical narrative, they lose the metaphoric wisdom that the authors were trying to convey.
India has had a continuous cultural heritage that goes as far back as any other on this planet. They are a diverse and culturally rich people. However, my assumption is that there are many very rural parts of India which have been ignored by history. It is quite likely that in these backwater’s the old myths still hold sway. That this exists in a country so sophisticated is an indictment of a central Government that is unwilling to help all of its people enter into a modern age. Having written that last sentence though, I feel chagrined, since a good part of that lack of modern acculturation also seems a fact in our Country today and we as a people are powerless to change it.
This is sad…..sad…sad…..
But don’t we have our own version….Wall Street….
Oro – depends on the version, many say ‘kill’.
Seems this is a freedom of religion case – who are we to say these people can’t practice their religion without interference? In cases like this it might be beneficial to encourage the adherents to increase the number of sacrifices thereby reducing the number of believers. //snark
Pietro, I appreciate your sentiments but not the straw man. The word in the commandment is “murder,” not “kill.” Murder is unjustified homicide. An execution is state sanctioned — i.e., justified homicide. The Bible in several places sanctions executions.
Those folks in Texas? — well, some of ’em probably believe it’s their God given duty to impose the death sentence. Sure, they can forgive the sinner, but not the sin — actions have consequences. Besides, if they are wrong God will sort it out.
Anyone read Michael Pollan’s “In Defense of Food”? [OK all you grammarians — is the question mark correctly placed?]
Industrial agriculture has been sacrificing the health of the consumers “to improve crop growth” for nearly 60 years: same greedy principle — the method is a little slower and widely diffused, but the same greedy principle.
The seeming contradiction here between belief systems which are presumed to further the human race and the end result of killing a human life appears to be a peculiar and backward Indian problem.
In America we have county governments which insist upon posting billboards of the Ten Commandments on the courthouse plaza while inside the People of the State of Texas seek to violate the Sixth Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Kill by ordering the execution of criminal defendants.. Of course if you posit this contradiction to the hillbilly
sitting behind the desk at the county commissioners office he will rail at you to “Read Your Bible, it says Thou Shall Not Murder”. When you confront him with the version of the Ten Commandments not published by Sears
Roebuck, but etched in stone which says Thou Shalt Not Kill his eyes glare and glaze over. Yes those people over in Inda sure do look backwards dont they Jonathan?
What a mystery it is that these social maladies recycle seemingly ad infinitum. Why can’t a modern world deal with the social weeds in a manner that makes them extinct rather than useful species?
Horrific crime. What kind of god needs a life sacrificed in order to smile on his/her believers. Disgusting.