Is a religion based on human sacrifice moral and ethical?

Is a religion based on human sacrifice moral and ethical?

Over the ages, a number of pagan religions have based their theology around the notion that God needs or wants sacrifices. This phenomena has been recorded on many continents from various tribes and peoples who had no knowledge of each other.

I find it strange that God, any God, would be pleased or able to be bribed by some sacrifice, be it human or not. Seems like it is just humans thinking they can somehow change God’s mind about anything from the weather, the forgiveness of sin or a better crop.

Can God be bribed by accepting burnt offerings such as virgins being thrown into volcanoes, meat or crops?

Can God be bought off so cheaply?

What of Jesus our brother?

Psalm 49:7
None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him:

If Christianity is based on human sacrifice, it seems to me that that would be immoral and unethical. It would mean that the innocent was murdered while the guilty were allowed to walk away. That is not good justice. Good justice says that the guilty pay and the innocent go free.

Is religious human sacrifice moral, ethical and good justice?

Regards
DL

Appeasing the gods have been around as long as their have been gods. It happens out of fear, guilt, or just needing to eat a dead animal.
Human sacrifices serve the same purpose, appease the god.
We humans haven't evolved as well as we should have I think.

The issue of human sacrifice, in the case of Jesus Christ is not as simple as it may.

God's own principle of Justice, like for like, demanded that the only ting that could buy back the right to perfect human life was the sacrifice of another human being.

That posed two seemingly impossible problems.

Firstly, there was of course, no other perfect human, so one would need to be created.

Secondly if one were created, how could that be said to be justice because that would mean that there would be one person, who though perfect and therefore having the right to eternal human life, would have to give up that right forever.

So, how was that to be accomplished to get God's original purpose back on course and yet be fair to all?

The answer was simple, in God's eyes. Provide a perfect human body with a ready made personality that could then rightfully continue it's life after having given up the right to perfect human life.

That meant a spirit creature had to agree to have it's entire personalty implanted in a human body, go through all the suffering and death that would result, and then be returned to it's spirit existence afterwards. After all ti would only be it's right to perfect human life it has given up, not the right to it's spirit existence.

Gad had already worked out that He would also need a King to take charge of things while He could no longer do so.

Who better to fill all those roles than His own son, who had worked with Him throughout the rest of creation, had displayed had made plain by actions his great love for the humanity he had helped create? His faithfulness would be tested under the harshest possible conditions and so would demonstrate to all his suitability to take up the kingship and organise the return of humanity to the perfection he had "bought" for them.

So it was sorted. His son was allowed to create a perfect human in Mary's womb, and have his own personality implanted in the foetus.

The rest, as they say, is history.

So all that was really sacrificed was a human body, there mere flesh blood and bone, and the personality within it lives on in the one who "donated" it in the first place.

The perfect solution.

MCB "God's own principle of Justice, like for like, demanded that the only ting that could buy back the right to perfect human life was the sacrifice of another human being."

That sounds famaliar. An Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.
I wonder where that comes from?
The bible, Hammurabi's code etc. etc.

It's time we put away what is no longer useful for mankind. Sacrificing another for the rest of us serves no real purpose, except to have a dead person.

Also, history shows that is not why Jesus was executed.

Hmmm, that's a new one on me, a Jehovah's Witness that believes in the death penalty. I was under the impression that they were conscientious objectors to serving in armies because they thought shedding blood was wrong. You can't have it both ways, Corny.

And in answer to the OP, hell,no! As I've said time and time again, religion was created by men, to control other men through fear.

Now who is going to answer "yes" to this?

Reaching out for a good understanding of 'Sacrifice', in a religious sense, would be having faith that there is something masterminding our world that has our best interests at heart and is trying it's best to moderate things so that everyone has just what they need when they need it.

So say you lost some money or got ripped off, you could assume it to be a 'sacrifice' that helped some other needy person out and instead of complaining just patiently waiting for the next time you, yourself, are desperate but good fortune falls upon you to rescue you from that desperate situation.

I get what you are saying EB, and sometimes that works out and sometimes it doesn't. That is the problem with humans. When we get out of a bad situation we thank God. When we are victims of bad situations we blame the devil. Or we may say it's just karma.
It is really hard to accept that many of us have had really sh**ty lives due to no fault of our own or through fault of our own.

Sometimes we just have to accept that there are things we can move on from and things that we can't. There are also many things we have no control over whatsoever.

So, basically, "s*** happens."

You said it much better than I ever could.

Please note, the conception within Mary was the work of the Holy Spirit, not Jesus Christ. But that is quite ok because they are both God. One is God the Spirit, the other is God the Son.

Jesus Christ please forgive me for the impulsive anger I feel when I see someone describe you as a spirit creature. Such mockery of your majesty is something which I pray you will rectify in your own time. To you be the honor and glory, both now and forever. Amen.

Matthew 1:18,20
[18] Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
[20] But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

Luke 1:35
[35] And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

Why was Jesus executed?

A sacrifice is giving up something of value for something of greater value; sacrificing an individual for the sake of the group.

To some extent I believe it was a metaphoric fable to demonstrate the destructive nature of mob-mentality, lack of empathy and ignorance.

Or as Douglas Adams stated it "A man was sentenced to death for teaching people how to be nice to one another."

The morale was later again reiterated in the story "Frakenstein."

Playing a long with what was taking place in the story however one would assume that that Roman Empire felt that he was a possible threat to starting a revolution and sentenced him to death under the red herrings "Witchcraft" and "Blasphemy."

interestingly though ... wasn't christianity kick started by the sacrifice of the innocent ( jesus )... so it could be argued that christianity was, in an abstract way , based on human sacrifice