Interfaith Relationships Support Group

Well...I'd have to know what the faith of the practitionors was and the reasons behind the sacrifice.

Personally, I'm against blood sacrifices of any kind. I just can't justify it within my religious practice.

Do you remember what faith these folks were of, Zzzz?

It was in India, the main story was about 2 little girls that were treated as goddesses, people prayed to them and left gifts of food and such at the girl's feet. I was quite interested in the programme until the sacrifice, then I turned it off without further ado. I'm just amazed that this practise goes on in this day and age and wanted to know why it continues.

Without knowing their particular reasons, we'll never know. I know some practitionors of Santeria and Voudon practice animal sacrifice.

Gonna wrote: "here's what I'm wondering: there are people who are horrified be the idea of a goat being killed, but I'm sure that some of those same people would not be horrified by the idea of killing a cow and eating it..."

Again, without knowing just what faith those that killed the goat follow, we'll never know just "why" they did it. But, I know that in India, the cow is revered by Hindus for it's many life sustaining qualities. And with that said, I found a more in-depth answer online...


"Q: Do Hindus worship cows?

A: Cows have been revered in India for thousands of years because of their gentle nature and their life-sustaining abilities. They are allowed to roam free and it is considered a heinous act to kill a cow. As such, Hindus do not eat beef.

It is not correct to say Hindus worship cows or consider them holy. Generally, Hindus do not eat beef because In times when food is scarce it would be shortsighted to kill a cow for food in the short run when it can provide milk for many years. Cows are thought of much like family pets in this country, or a horse to a horse lover. We don't eat dogs and horses in this country. Hindus don't eat beef.

No worries, Gonna, you're quite right about the Scapegoat concept. Mostly it was an animal that took on the misdeeds & faults of the local people and by taking in all their troubles and dying for the people the animal absolved them of their wrong doing and "cleansed" the village/town. But this concept has also been interwoven into certain faiths, Christianity is one of them, as Christ is believed to have died to save Mankind.

But there also the idea where ancients Kings and their strength & virility are tied to the land they rule, The people thought that as the king propered, so would his land and his people. But when the land was suffering, say with an extended drought, the king was expected to give his life in sacrifice.

I suspect that you were seeing the rites of one of the many different sects of Hinduism. Although many Hindus are vegetarians, some Hindus eat meat, and even beef (like my husband). And then a few groups still practice animal sacrifice as a way to honor and commune with the gods. It's a *very* uncommon practice in the faith though - a few thousand people doesn't mean much when there are 800,000,000 followers of the faith as a whole.

You can read more about animal sacrifice at the wikipedia entry here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_sacrifice
As the article points out, animal sacrifices have played a part in a number of religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Personally, I don't see it as any more wrong than killing animals to eat the flesh, especially as most animal sacrifices only kill one or two symbolic animals per year, although I personally would never follow such a practice. Still, compare that to the number of animals that die to feed a single person over the course of a year.

Oh, I definitely agree that many faiths have done ritual animal sacrifice throughout the centuries, and up to the present day

My question is: is the meat from the sacrificial animal eaten or just burnt in offering?

See, I grew up in a household where hunting was common place, so I understand what killing an animal means in terms of survival. But if the meat isn't eaten, then that's wasteful & disrespectful, IMO.

I *suspect* (but don't know for certain) that the meat is not eaten, but given to the statues of the gods in the temple for them to (metaphysically) consume. This is standard for offerings to Hindu gods:

In Hinduism, any properly created statue of a god is the god himself, and has the god's spirit in it. While you don't need to use the statues to be a religious Hindu, the vast majority of Hindus pray or mediate regularly (often daily) in front of the statues, and make offerings to it. This is called a puja (also written as pooja). Typically, the offerings are things like incense, honey, flowers, fruits, and other sorts of food. This is a way of showing devotion to the god, and to the qualities that he stands for. After the offering has sat in front of the statue long enough (depends on the god, and the particular sect), it is disposed of (and doesn't have any religious meaning). I haven't ever heard of anyone consuming what was offered to the gods after taking away the offering, altho I suppose it could happen.

For Hindus, it is not considered "wasteful" for the puja offerings to not be used - because they *have* been used by the god they were offered to. And only good things are offered to the gods (of course), so I don't think they would see it as disrespectful to the animal to offer it up to a god - at least no more so than offering it to a human to be eaten.

Hmm, I did a bit more googling, and it looks like, in a few corners of India, the sacrifice is more than the "one goat" that Zzzzowl describes, and more like 1,200 animals in a go. In that case, I would agree that it's wasteful, especially since puja offerings are mostly metaphors for your devotion to the gods - it's the sincerity in giving that matters more than *how much* you give. That being said, I'm not sure if it would be possible to ban the right to animal sacrifice without infringing on civil liberties.

As much as I completely can't relate to such a practice, I'm more disturbed by the scientific community (which is the nouveau religion) and their sacrifices of animals. Its not to say I think that its ok to blatantly sacrifice a goat for religious practice, but at least there is no pretense about it to make it into something else and justify it. Both religions believe that they are doing it for a greater good, as a means to protect the community... to the bunny or the rat or the goat, no justification changes their fate.

So if you are really against this, you do have the power to vote for change of such practices... by how you spend your dollars, you cast your vote. Buy products not tested on animals, and without animal byproducts. I'm all for believing its wrong, but before I judge someone elses faith and religious practices, I have to focus on what I CAN do.

Incidentally, the bible is riddled with animal sacrifices, and there isn't a harsh judgement about it there. Heck, it was the 'good' guys doing it in many cases.

We tend to think that we have evolved beyond such practices, but I think they have largely just taken on a more subtle form, and become easier to deny. A visit to a slaughterhouse may prove my point. Granted, folks will say that we eat that meat, so that makes it ok... but honestly, we don't need to eat that meat, and indeed, the land used to raise that meat would feed countless more vegetarians without skipping a nutritional beat.