Satan has always wanted children to die

I can not see how fear of the crops failing could motivate a parent to give up a child. I guess thousands do it every day though. Failed crops is another way to say economic hardship. An abortion is much cheaper than raising a child....

 

An abortion is much cheaper than raising a child.

You are "above average" in your goodness rating, Thelt.

 

but you're coming at this from a world where failed crops just means you gotta pay more for orange juice or rice-a-roni. if a failed crop meant that your village simply didn't have enough food to feed everybody, then it's not just an economic hardship -- it's life and death.

 

If someone was going to starve to death it would be me before it would be my child. I would give him the last bit of food before I got any....

 

but it's not a matter of only having enough food for either you or your child. it's a matter of the entire village (or community or whatever) having enough food or giving the gods a sacrifice. that's a lot of people worrying about THEIR kids being able to survive based on your kid not surviving.

trust me, i think it's pretty fucking stupid as well, but i chalk it up to the silliness of believing in the supernatural more than there being some big evil hand meddling in the affairs of man.

all religions have a form of sacrifice -- this is just an extreme case.

 

no way I go along with something like that ever, worst case I pickup and leave the village...

 

Knowing what you know now you say that, but maybe if you were living back then and everyone in your village believed that a sacrifice to the gods would help and passed that belief on to each generation, you might go along with it.

 

as Vince McMahon would say "No Chance in Hell"

 

Thelt, if you admit that supernatural thinking is not logical, then how do you come upon believing in your particular set of illogical belief systems when any number of illogical systems could conceivably "work" just as well?

Answer: your culture

You self-assuredness is in direct relation to your peer group's self-assuredness. If there was a truly strong undercurrent of life after death present amongst your peer group, then how could you possibly deny your child or any other family member from sitting next to God if called? And the priest's word IS divine, so if your child is called, then it is God calling.

You would do it, regardless of how strong you deny now, because you are the exact personality type that follows what is commonly accepted in your immediate culture (the base definition of conservative). Your personality type even defends it vigorously without deep reflection or need for logical underpinnings because "that is the way it is done and has been successful so far."

 

Your assumptions about me and conservatism are typical of the arrogant liberal but far from accurate. Conservatives are all about self reliance and individualism. We are the ones who stand up for the individual against the state. Liberals are the ones who want to subjugate the individual for the good of the state. You want to take from the fortunate to help the unfortunate. If any philosophy would support sacrificing a child to ensure the welfare of the community it would be liberalism. In fact liberalism has at its core the support of abortion rights which is a form of sacrificing a child for the sake of the state.