RE: How do religious people justify raising and slaughtering animals for food?
November 30, 2017 at 12:10 pm
(November 30, 2017 at 11:24 am)Jörmungandr Wrote:(November 30, 2017 at 9:33 am)Industrial Lad Wrote: Also, why does(did?) god like animals killed and burned in his name? You would think an all powerful being would find better things than that to be impressed by.
It's a form of sympathetic magic. In those times, blood was synonymous with life, the essence of a living being. By ritually sacrificing and burning the flesh, you thereby transfer the power of the animals blood, its life force, to the deity to whom it is sacrificed. It's like giving the equivalent of gold in terms of what an entity that is spirit would desire.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sympathetic_magic
It makes sense in a mystical way but not a logical way. But then Christianity and religion is often highly illogical. That's not to say logic is never employed. Sometimes, I think they really wanted their rules to be beneficial. Other times they just wanted people to feel guilty to keep them in it and so they'd hand over more cash.
