Human sacrifice
From RationalWiki
Human sacrifice is the activity of sacrificing people to goats. It has been widely practised in one form or another throughout the history of mankind and still continues, usually in subtle ways (obsidian knives are rarely used nowadays). In the United States, human sacrifices to [a] God are usually only carried out by medical professionals. However, human sacrifices to appease the right-wing conservatives are often performed on criminals.
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[edit] Human sacrifice in the Bible
There was a famine that ran for three straight years. King David made his inquiries, and the LORD answered, "It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he slew the Gibeonites."
So the king called the Gibeonites in and asked them what he could do to make them whole again. They didn't want any gold or silver from Saul's estate. Instead they said, "The man that consumed us, and that devised against us that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the coasts of Israel, let seven men of his sons be delivered unto us, and we will hang them up unto the LORD in Gibeah of Saul."
So the king took the two sons of Rizpah and the five sons of Michal, which they bore unto Saul, and delivered them to the Gibeonites. They hanged them on the hill before the LORD and were put to death in the beginning of the barley harvest.
And after David took the bones of the hanged men and buried them with the bones of Saul and Jonathan, God was intreated for the land.
[edit] Human sacrifice in ancient Egypt
Contrary to popular belief, Egyptian culture had little taste for human sacrifice, though a few 1st Dynasty tombs at Abydos have subsidiary burials that have been interpreted, based on limited evidence, to be sacrificial in nature.
[edit] Human sacrifice in Mesopotamia
Human sacrifice was practised in Mesopotamia by the Sumerians, where courtiers and guards, but particularly women, were interred in large grave pits surrounding the burial of the ruler. No obvious cause of death was found on the bodies, suggesting they took poison. The sacrificed generally were provided with grave goods appropriate to their service (weapons, jewels etc.)
