what's human nature is guilt. Picture ancient ancient people who have terrifically hard lives, barely surviving, and wondering why terrible things happen. They figure out they must have pissed off someone, only they can't see the someone, so it must be someone invisible. What can they do to appease this terrible invisible power that seems to have it in for them? Spill blood, give life. Animal sacrifice, and if things are really bad, human sacrifice.
If you were the deity, would you demand to be showered with gutted animals?
by easyreader1970 16 Replies latest jw friends
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LouBelle
Sacrifices either of praise or "gutted animals" is supposed to release power that even the gods could NOT ignore - it showed you meant business - that you wanted an answer and at the same time showed humility in that you were willing to go to those means.
Personally if I was a god, you give just send me flowers - I absolutly love flowers - but also make an effort, country bunch will get you a lil nod but something special will get you something special in return.
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new light
Oh absolutely. I always tell my friends that if we have a falling out, don't even try to apologize until you have mutilated and burned a medium-to-large sized hooved mammal in my front yard.
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rekless
No, I would give all my creations thrie every want and needs. It wou;ldf have been aparadise and I would have gotten rid of Satan. Why keep the A-hole around to screw up your plans; after all, we humans would never have known what happened, but no God had to save the Devil and kill the humans, and then write a menoir informing us of everything that happened to him.
Everything god did I would do opposite, and have happy little people who love me. There would be no religion.
Every so often I may speak to my littlre ones and ask are you happy? If not please move to the burning bush...I will take with me, and all you happy little critters; carry on, carry on.I 'll see you in a hundred years.
sorry for the typos i have a bandage on my flipping finger.
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chickpea
ixnay on the gutted animals......just clean the bathroom once in a while
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Open mind
OK, for the sake of argument, let's say the idea of having some of Your creation eviscerate other creatures in Your honor is appealing to You, the Deity. Would You really want them to INSIST that this is the stuff they "offer" to You?
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The "fatty pieces" are the good stuff?
OM
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sinis
I have always been a bit confused by this. I can understand why a deity would want and demand respect. I can similarly understand why a deity would want and demand loyalty. I can understand why a deity would want and demand obedience. These are things that we, as humans, can easily understand, especially if you have children.
What I don't understand is the deity's desire and demand to be worshipped. Why would he need for his creations to make sacrifices to him and to sing praises to him and to tell him what a wonderful father he is? I appreciate it when my kids tell me that they love me but I could never envision myself telling them that every Wednesday I demand that they sing praises to me. I would hope that they would shower me with adoration because they wanted to, not because I told them to or I would set them all on fire. There are ways that my own children can show that they love me without their bowing down and kissing my hand as they walked through the front door in some sort of ritual.
Read Sumerian myth. Abraham was a resident of Ur, who adopted the God Enlil (very similar in nature to the God Yahweh in the OT) - who was the god of the Earth, agriculture, and the hoe. Myth indicates his older brother Enki made humans - Enki is the god of human and animal creation, god of medicine, wisdom, knowledge - represented by the double helix - or snakes wrapped around a pole.
A feud erupted between the two, and the Pantheon sided with Enlil, the younger of the two brothers. Enlil HATED mankind, and intiated the flood (Enki warned his creation man how to save themselves - myth of Gilgamesh). Think about this for a second - Yahweh could condemn the Earth - soil since he had rights over it, by telling Adam he would work his ASS off in the fields. Also, if Enlil is the God of vegetation and his brother is god/creator of animals and humans, and they were in a pissing match - how do you get back at an immortal? You condemn and hurt the things they made. That is why Yahweh accepted Abels sacrfice over Cains - he sacrificed something of importance to the God Enki. Yahweh rejected the vegetation because it was not anything special - after all he was the god of agriculture.
Why did Yahweh always push people to the VERY limits of death, but not over, ie Abraham and Isaac? Could it be that resurrection and life itself was outside of his power? How many people did Yahweh resurrect in the OT? How many people and animals did he kill? Makes you wonder why...