Just got to thinking, and I understand why Christians don’t sacrifice animals anymore - Jesus … BUT how do Jews get away with no animal sacrifices to Jehovah? Or Muslims…mind you Muslims understand Jesus as a “prophet” BUT again, do they accept his “sacrifice”?
Just curious why billions of people aren’t burning animals anymore.
They are, in Australia we call it a “family BBQ” where the silverback alpha male sacrifices many beers to the gods of “who wants another burger ya cunts” and the adult females cluster around drinking the sacrificial cask of SB or bottles of cheap Prosecco while the kids run riot playing cricket and beating up on the “not like us” next door.
Having said that, firearms are rarely if ever involved.
That’s a great question historically. The thought that comes to mind is that the religious specialists who benefited from such rituals ceased to exist. After the sacrifices, they ate the remains of the animals. That motivated them to perform burned offerings and other offerings that didn’t involve burning. I think many priests died in the siege of Jerusalem, if I remember right.
Maybe that’s why god isn’t listening to prayers anymore … 
Makes sense to me. He sure used to delight in the stench of burning flesh.
I thought they still did.
I remember controversies in Australia and New Zealand about exporting live lambs to the Middle East for this practice. Instead of being slaughtered humanely by professionals in meat works, these animals spend weeks on ships and then have their throats cut by amateurs as part of some meaningless ritual.
Or am I just being hypocritical?
Not necessarily- now that you mentioned it, there may be some religious holidays they do that with. I’m going to google.
First thing popped up…
Every year during the Islamic month of Dhul Hijjah, Muslims around the world slaughter an animal – a goat , sheep, cow or camel – to reflect the Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son Ismail, for the sake of God. At least one third of the meat from the animal must go to poor or vulnerable people.
Definitely not a regular practice though for approaching god, just a Abrahamic almost sacrificing Isaac thing.
Isn’t that part of halal? I could be wrong but I know that has to do with slaughtering animals in particular ways. It’s not far off from sacrifice, now that you mention it.
In primitive religions, a sacrifice was expected because back then currency as we know it was basically absent. Almost all trade was by barter.
The more sophisticated religions that did alter with the times prospered, and instead of animals they just asked for cash.
Money is much more convenient for all.
[quote=“Whitefire13, post:1, topic:1567”]
BUT how do Jews get away with no animal sacrifices to Jehovah? Or Muslims…mind you Muslims[/quote]
Yeah, interesting isn’t it. Today, neither do the most orthodox Jews routinely murder homosexuals, stone adulterers or sell their daughters into slavery. .
The simple solution is that religions always reflect the society which invents them and the people who practice them. They evolve over time.
The god of the Torah is a monster. He was originally both a war god and a petty god of storms, one of many gods. Eventually he became Eli. (father) In the gospels, jesus is reported as calling to god as “aba”. ( daddy/dad) Sometime after the alleged exodus, YHWH the vicious and petty monster became the only god and lord of the universe.
Perhaps living in cities made it impractical to sacrifice animals? ( The commandment says such animals must be without blemish) Over time sacrifices came to be made only on Passover.
The Jewish explanation is pretty good: Blood sacrifices can only be made in a temple. After the destruction of the second temple by the Romans in 70 ce, there was no more temple, so no more blood sacrifices.
Well a halal slaughterman would qualify as a professional, I think. They’d know how to kill animals quickly and without much pain. But the sacrifices are carried out by anyone and everyone, so I imagine there’d be a lot of botched killing, with animals left to bleed out in pain. But as long as Allah’s happy…
The sacrifices made in the Temple in Jerusalem were compulsory, that is they had to be made in the Temple which supposedly represented a fixed Mosaic Tabernacle. Some exceptions were made for folks who lived further out and north and for who the travelling made the practice almost impossible. Once the Temple had been destroyed and the Romans enforced their banishment of the Jews from Palestine, what remaining preists remained lost influence and sacrificing select livestock is not a real option for refugees who thought the sacrifice only counted in the specific location of the Temple in Jerusalem. The Jews then focussed on worship in the home,
As for the halah, it was simply a prayer offered by a muslim to Allah for the privilege of sacrificing the life of the animal. Without the prayer the meat was unclean. Australia exports lots of meat to Asian musiim countries and we allowed chosen muslims to work in abbatoirs to make that prayer, It didnt work out apparently, with unions and general racial intolerance being issues. So we started live export catastrophes and became aware that inspite of the prayer for taking a life, the animals were slaughtered in ways that offended our own expectations swift deaths (ie bludgeoning to death with repeated blows from a sledgehammer)
That prayer for the death of animal is not specifically muslim, its as ancient as eating and cooking meat. The traditional Khalihari bushmen use to formally apologise and thank their prey before killing it.
The Christians just adopted the idea that sacrificing Jesus was quite enough and the unnecessay deaths of furry lil animals and birds could not be justified in forgiving with the awful behaviour of humans.
What is it now? Surely not simply prayer ritual? I had heard that live exported animals were often killed cruelly.
I had the impression it was much the same a Kosher. IE ritual and the draining of blood (?)
I seem to remember reading somewhere that Kosher slaughter isn’t all that merciful. Especially compared with a bolt gun to the brain.
My sis tells the story of passing an abattoir while they were killing pigs. She said she could not eat pork for many years.
One of the weirder hilarities to be found in the requisite mythology, centres upon the fact that the authors of Leviticus thought it was a good use of their time, to devote the first ten chapters thereof to the business of devising ever more rococo ways of setting fire to small furry animals, in order to please their cartoon magic man.
Plus, does anyone actually know what a “wave offering” or a “heave offering” is? Even the terminology used bears the hallmark of having been dreamt up, whilst various hallucinogens were circulating in the bloodstreams of the authors thereof.
Though my copy of the NIV contains numerous hilarities, with Leviticus 13 to 16 being tailor made to be read in the voice of one of the cast of The Life of Brian.
I had to refer to the RSPCA for further details.
I always end up learning a lot about what I don’t know in this forum.
Both Kosher and Hilal require the draining of blood usually from a throat cut. Both require the animal to die from loss of blood and specifically not from any attempt to render the animal unconscious.
Kosher requires the animal not be rendered unconscious at all before it dies. Apparently, the animal has to be aware it is dying. Nice.
Although Australian laws insist on preslaughter irreversible stunning ie killing the animal, several abattoirs have been granted exemptions to perform both Kosher and Halal procedures for the religious markets.
Hilal procedures vary from country to country depending on the local interpretation or disregard of the Quran. In some places, the animal is rendered unconscious after the throat cut. The real trick is, keeping the animal out of it until it dies from blood loss. It just makes the work for the slaughterer easier.
In other Muslim countries when no such niceties are observed out of ignorance and the lack of proper equipment, cattle are slaughtered any old how. News media have released films of cattle killed in the most brutal fashion… even after having been specially transported live from Oz out of consideration of Halal requirements…using methods which appear to contravene any interpretation of supposed holy books and mocks attempts to appease religious sensitivities.