Skeletons of 227 victims unearthed at world's largest child sacrifice site

So magic isn't real?

originally posted by: FatherLukeDuke

originally posted by: SeaWorthy
So many scriptures repeat not to sacrifice your children as the "gods" who demanded this were demons.

Although the OT god seems pretty cool with killing babies and children if their parents tribe had been deemed to do something wrong.

"You shall acknowledge no God but me. . . . You are destroyed, Israel. . . . The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open." (Hosea 13:4, 9, 16 New International Version)"

or

See, the day of the Lord is coming — a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger. . . . I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty. . . . Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives violated." (Isaiah 13:9–16 NIV)"

With a bit of rape thrown in for good measure there.

And this guy did burn his own daughter for The Lord:

And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord: 'If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the Lord's, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering.' . . . When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of timbrels! . . . After the two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed." (Judges 11:30–39 NIV)

And some more baby dashing, as it does please him:

"O daughter Babylon, you devastator! Happy shall they be who pay you back what you have done to us! Happy shall they be who take your little ones and dash them against the rock"(Psalm 137:8–9 NRSV)

I'm not sure any of this baby murder can be seen as morally superior to any other baby murder.

en.wikipedia.org...


It is considered likely that the cult of Yaweh actually grew out of the cult of Molech, which was a child sacrifice cult.

"In 1841, both Georg Friedrich Daumer and Friedrich Wilhelm Ghillany published influential works on the topic.[15] These authors came to the conclusion that the biblical text reflects an original identity of Molek and Yahweh, and that the cult of Yahweh grew out of that of Molek, by the abolishing of human sacrifice. The authors find numerous instances of vestigial references to human sacrifice, most notably the law that all firstborns must be "consecrated" or "given" to Yahweh (Book of Exodus 13:2, 22:28)."

"The hypothesis of Daumer and Ghillany of the original identity of Yahweh and Molek was controversially discussed by widely accepted in mid-19th century scholarship. It was influentially rejected by Wolf Wilhelm Friedrich von Baudissin in his dissertation Jahve et Moloch: sive de ratione inter deum Israelitarum et Molochum intercedente (Leipzig, 1874).[16] Baudissin argued that the theonym Mlk was of genuinely Phoenician (and neither Hebrew nor Assyrian) origin, reflected in Melqart of Tyre and the later reports of child sacrifice in the Tyrian colony of Carthage, and that it was only the import of the cult of the Tyrian Baal (i.e. Melqart) under king Ahab (r. ca. 885–850 BC) that gave rise to his worship among the Israelites (and the corresponding condemnation of the practice by the Yahwist faction represented in the Hebrew Bible)."


So, in a way, at least the passages you are citing represent an improvement, compared to what came before it.

If you take all the magic and "woo" out of the bible, you can see a group of people gradually trying to figure out how to build society better and better. Starting from absolute barbarism, of course. And staying pretty barbaric for quite a while.....

But at least they were trying. And they did get better over time.

originally posted by: bloodymarvelous

originally posted by: FatherLukeDuke

originally posted by: SeaWorthy
So many scriptures repeat not to sacrifice your children as the "gods" who demanded this were demons.

But at least they were trying. And they did get better over time.

Hahaha this cracks me up, yeah they sure did try! just like us, trying to do better by throwing money at funds that go nowhere!