["How widespread was the pagan baal cult in the ancient world circa 1000 bc?..."]
...'Ba'al is a title applied to several different localized Western Semitic Fertility cult deities - Hebrew prophets see them all as one big monstrous abomination, which is correct.
The best movie version showing what a fertility cult world is like is Mel Gibson's Apocalypto. Both Mayans and Aztecs practiced human sacrifice fertility cults, as did a number of other American Indian tribes, many Polynesians, some southeast Asians, and a number of sub-Saharan Africans.
As Christianity - which is the force that ended all those fertility cult abominations around the globe - has become effeminate, limp-wristed, and defensively determined to see great good in all other religions and cultures, child sacrifice has been making a comeback.
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Ummm, but what about all the people burned at the stake by "christians?"
@Zeus Almighty, going under the assumption that you were making the Monty Python reference that I immediately saw in your text:
"She turned me into a newt!"
...Wait, you're going to use a controversial, exaggerated portrayal of medieval Mesoamerican culture to convey a bronze-age Mesopotamian culture that didn't exist?? And then apply it to other societies and locales and slander them with human sacrifices they don't commit?? You're an anthropologist's nightmare!
Topping it off by saying 'We should go back to burning witches!' doesn't help your cause, either.
As Christianity - which is the force that ended all those fertility cult abominations around the globe
I find it odd that you don't mention how christianity ended those fertility cults. Oh, that's right, You ended them by murdering the people who belonged to those cults. I can see how you wouldn't want that to get out, what with that annoying Thou shalt not murder." commandment. And then there's all that lying for jesus... I wonder how you rationalize that away?
has become effeminate, limp-wristed, and defensively determined to see great good in all other religions and cultures,
Only because it was dragged kicking and screaming into a world that is no longer willing to allow it free reign to opress and murder those who disagree.
child sacrifice has been making a comeback
Yes, sadly it has made a big comeback in africa. But is because of christianity, not in spite of it. They've got all these christian holy men and preachers running around kill children because your holy book says "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" . There is no abuse of human rights that any other religion has commited that can't also be laid at the feet of christianity has well.
Apocalypto was the most idiotic piece of tripe I've ever had the misfortune to be subjected to.
And I'm sure you have some news stories about all the baby sacrifices, right? I mean surely you wouldn't just be making shit up, because that's a sin.
Because I'm going to believe what a movie by a Christian tells me about ancient "barbaric" practices. May I suggest you do some reading in the readily available anthropological literature (lay versions or hard-core academic, whatever you're inclined to pick up)? I'm not saying you're -entirely- wrong in content, but you really need to use credible sources for your information *ahem*.
May I also suggest you take a good hard look at the loudest group of Christians? If you think they're trying really hard to see the good in others, you're obviously blind.
Mayans and Aztecs certainly knew how to sacrifice the still-beating heart of their captives to stone idols, to a level that WAS pretty much over the top. (I can't claim to be an expert in their history, but what I do know absolutely points in that direction.) Their temples needed special plumbing to accommodate all the blood that flowed. I don't see it as a bad thing that LESS bloodthirsty religions put an end to all that. Like the different practices during Winter Solstice that have been subsumed into a milder set of events where you eat gingerbread men and drink a little wine and be social, not eat real people and get so loaded for a week that you don't recover till February.
But the maybe same force that ended all those abominations will also end what is called 'Christianity'. If we don't bomb ourselves / poison ourselves / plague ourselves / starve ourselves before then. As for "child sacrifice making a comeback", maybe ole Jake should acquaint himself with reality. That will happen around the same time that he accepts that he has some homosexual tendencies, like most insecure fundies.
If the Quiverful movement isn't a fertility cult I don't know what is.
And for the Pope's recent bullshit about condoms, that's a naked attempt to out-breed the opposition...
Numbers 15:32-36: Young boy killed for collecting firewood on the Sabbath.
And that's not counting the ethnic cleansing, arbitrary and brutal punishments, or the flood.
Uhh, Your religion is also replete with sacrifices, both animal and child.
Mel Gibson's movie was a work of fiction just like your bible. It's no wonder you cleave unto it.
Apocalypto sucked, and you're taking that as the truth?
Eh, whatever. Not my place to judge what movies others like.
"...child sacrifice has been making a comeback."
Erm, actually... no. No, it hasn't.
And the people who caused the human sacrefices?
Their religion, your religion, it makes no difference.
Ummm, but what about all the people burned at the stake by "christians?"
Ah, but those weren't sacrifices per se, those were just pointless, unnecessarily brutal executions. Completely different!
Well he has a point about child sacrifice, there are more and more reports of Christian's torturing and killing 'child witches' in Africa. There have even been strong suggestions that a small number of child cruelty cases in the UK are linked to such practices.
Also when did people get so daft as to believe a Mel Gibson film, that man wouldn't know the truth if it gave him a damn good seeing to!
Christianity hasn't conquered one sacrificial cult in its existance. Christianity has been tranformed from being one of those cults by civilization. Given the chance you would return to a torture, abuse and slavemaster theocracy again.
This isn't a slam against all Christians but learn your history. Freedom and basic human rights are products of societies not under a churchs rule. Theocracies are always primitive bloody torture states
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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