Sorry for missing the point of your question. I do that a lot in internet forums. I think what you were asking was: “Why does God need any animal sacrifice?”
The answer is: He doesn’t.
I told you about this Hecatompedon festival in ancient Greece where scores of animals were sacrificed to Athena because it is in many ways similar to the sacrifice of countless animals in the pilgrimage season in Mecca. (If I go to a pilgrimage in Mecca I intend on not making any animal sacrifice if the Saudi Authorities allow me. And If they don’t, it will be the minimum number of animals. But I will tell them I prefer not to).
Also in popular culture there are people who will slaughter the animals and keep most of the meat for themselves or who will slaughter animals at events like weddings, the buying of a new car, the opening of a new business etc.
When I told you about ancient ritual offerings I was referring to something called the collective subconscious. This is a theory of Carl Gustav Jung that states that even if we don’t believe in ancient traditions today, they will still have an impact on us through our subconscious minds.
So ordinary people will tell you things like “but it is the will of God”. So what they will be saying is that God must have a reason for it since he was the one who ordered it in the first place. But in reality (just like in the issue of the Hijab) it’s the subconscious mind that is at work here. Turks also had their animist / Pagan beginnings so they still keep many traditions that come from the times prior to when they migrated to Anatolia. So in the subconscious “Blood is currency” as you put it.
But what it is in the Koran is different. Again, I am not a scholar. But you must have heard that pig meat is not allowed in Islam. So this makes animal protein even more inaccessible for the poor. So there had to be a solution for the poorest to be able to consume more meat, at least at the end of the fasting month (the Ramadan month).
So when I was a child in the 80’s, we would gather in my grandmother’s house, there was three uncles (and their families) and my mother (and us). We would slaughter 5-6 sheep (perhaps 7, I don’t remember). We would keep about 10%, perhaps even less to ourselves. Then there was a queue in front of my grandmother’s door (İt was a large house with an enclosed garden etc.). Poor people were given a sack of fresh meat. And in fact this is the way most people practice this tradition today.
But, in the last 40 years meat has become less and less expensive. Today it is the ignorant and poor people who eat an animal-protein rich diet while wealthier and educated people will be consuming a limited amount of meat with a diet that is rich in fruits, vegetables and carbon-hydrates.
So I don’t do it anymore. I give money to charities instead.
The answer is: He doesn’t.
I told you about this Hecatompedon festival in ancient Greece where scores of animals were sacrificed to Athena because it is in many ways similar to the sacrifice of countless animals in the pilgrimage season in Mecca. (If I go to a pilgrimage in Mecca I intend on not making any animal sacrifice if the Saudi Authorities allow me. And If they don’t, it will be the minimum number of animals. But I will tell them I prefer not to).
Also in popular culture there are people who will slaughter the animals and keep most of the meat for themselves or who will slaughter animals at events like weddings, the buying of a new car, the opening of a new business etc.
When I told you about ancient ritual offerings I was referring to something called the collective subconscious. This is a theory of Carl Gustav Jung that states that even if we don’t believe in ancient traditions today, they will still have an impact on us through our subconscious minds.
So ordinary people will tell you things like “but it is the will of God”. So what they will be saying is that God must have a reason for it since he was the one who ordered it in the first place. But in reality (just like in the issue of the Hijab) it’s the subconscious mind that is at work here. Turks also had their animist / Pagan beginnings so they still keep many traditions that come from the times prior to when they migrated to Anatolia. So in the subconscious “Blood is currency” as you put it.
But what it is in the Koran is different. Again, I am not a scholar. But you must have heard that pig meat is not allowed in Islam. So this makes animal protein even more inaccessible for the poor. So there had to be a solution for the poorest to be able to consume more meat, at least at the end of the fasting month (the Ramadan month).
So when I was a child in the 80’s, we would gather in my grandmother’s house, there was three uncles (and their families) and my mother (and us). We would slaughter 5-6 sheep (perhaps 7, I don’t remember). We would keep about 10%, perhaps even less to ourselves. Then there was a queue in front of my grandmother’s door (İt was a large house with an enclosed garden etc.). Poor people were given a sack of fresh meat. And in fact this is the way most people practice this tradition today.
But, in the last 40 years meat has become less and less expensive. Today it is the ignorant and poor people who eat an animal-protein rich diet while wealthier and educated people will be consuming a limited amount of meat with a diet that is rich in fruits, vegetables and carbon-hydrates.
So I don’t do it anymore. I give money to charities instead.
