I find these statements of yours rather offensive and, in fact, fringing (if not breaking) the sites rules on flaming other people's religious beliefs. What evidence are you drawing these conclusions that people who practice religious systems that currently engage in sacrifice are mentally ill or are drawn to those systems primarily because of that component?
I also find it pretty presumptuous of you to make such a generalized statement of sacrifice being a primitive idea to be replaced with progressive ideas as if this is a concept we all should and do adopt.
You claim that you have done your research, but it seems pretty clear to me that your research is faulting on modern religions that practice animal sacrifice.
I'm sorry if it appears as if I am attacking you, but I really can't stand being judged (or statements that result in my being judged) because my practices are different from what some consider to be the norm. This is a pagan forum after all. I thought anti-norm was kind of mainstream around here.
You will notice RandallS has responded to this thread without making any comment about it "fringing (if not breaking) the sites rules". I would assume that, if indeed there were such problems in this thread, I would have been politely reprimanded for it by now. It might also be worth pointing out that attempts by regular users to become backseat moderators and attempt to moderate other users IS in fact a clear violation of the rules of the site.
With that being said, if you read the full thread you will see that I have already conceded in my discussion with Darkhawk that "making use to the sacrificed animal for food and whatnot is considerably less problematic. I wouldn't care if my neighbor was sacrificing chickens or something as long as they were treating them humanely before hand, killing them in a way that minimized cruelty, pain, and suffering, and making use of all of the meat afterwards, but this very often wasn't the case in the ancient world. "
In my original post, I was exclusively talking about religions of Europe and the near-east and made no reference to Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Brazilian, or other religions based upon indigenous African belief systems. When I say small P "pagan", I am always referring to European and near-eastern, including Egyptian, traditions unless I specifically specify otherwise. In that context, I completely stand by my comments. In recent years there have been individuals arrested for crimes ranging from cruelty to animals to murder who have tried to claim that they were following European or near-eastern religions like Wicca, Satanism, Germanic paganism, traditional witchcraft and so forth. Nearly every time, those individuals have been found to be suffering from mental illnesses to varying degrees. Perhaps this wasn't completely clear from my first post, but you could have asked me to clarify before lashing out at me and accusing me and others of being intolerant and violating the site's rules.
Of religions like Santeria, I have no real opinion one way or the other. I do not like the fact that they conduct sacrifices in general, but I don't make a big deal out of it because I assume those sacrifices are generally humanely done and the remnants of the sacrifice is used for food and other practical purposes. It's worth pointing out that not everyone feels this way and there has been some controversy over these practices from various people and groups. I have no opinion one way or the other about these controversies, though I would have an issue with someone if it was made known that they were treating animals or other human beings cruelly. Otherwise, it's none of my business and I don't get involved.
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