Why blood sacrifice?

[Godscreated]

I think it's important to keep in mind that ancient people viewed blood as the essence of life. Blood sacrifice was most probably viewed as sacrificing that which is most sacred.

I'm not sure you're correct about this. I'd have to do some serious research, but a couple of points, granting I could be wrong. The early Jews associated the breath with life, not the blood. If I recall correctly, there is no Hebrew word for soul in the Old Testament, and any analogous references to it are with words referring to the breath (in Genesis for example, God 'breathed' life into Adam).

The Hebrew word nephesh was used to mean soul, it has others but was used over 400 times in the OT to mean soul. The scriptures show that blood was the life in Genesis when Cain killed Able, God told Cain, Able's blood cried out from the ground, referring that the blood was life. This was before there were Jews.

It's possible that there was a less than fully explicit understanding of the matter, as I'm sure that people of the time could well associate blood with death, if the Hebrew language and first millennia medicine are any indication, it was not thought of as the life giving substance.

The Jewish people were told by God that the blood was life and in Lev. 17:11 nephesh is used for soul.

Lev. 17:11 For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the alter to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.

Lev. 17:14 For the life of all flesh is it's blood: it's blood is it's life.

Duet. 12:23 Only be sure you do not eat the blood, for the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh.

This of course reminded me of Yahweh and the blood sacrifices, the scapegoat of Jewish legend, Christ, and even the story of Abraham's commandment to sacrifice his son Isaac, in some ways prefiguring the Christ narrative.

That's exactly what those stories were eluding to. The OT is about the coming of Christ.

What struck me is that blood sacrifice is a pristine example of 'ritual magic'. You perform some action which, on the surface, would not seem to be causally effective in bringing about the result, and yet, because the ritual is performed, the result occurs, magically.

How so, why do you believe that the blood sacrifice was not able to remove the sins of the people, beside that you do not believe in God. God told His people He would for give their sins through a blood sacrifice as long as they were sincere about the sacrificial event.

You'll note that every time that the God of the bible wants to accomplish a miracle, there is either some ritual involved, or some mechanism involved (the flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah).

What ritual or mechanism was used for these two events.

In one of the gospels, Jesus' healing of a man is preceded by such things as spitting on the affected organs and the like. Why would a god need to use his own bodily fluids to effect a cure? He should just be able to will it to occur. And other events in the Jesus narrative also smell of traditional, ritual magic; his inability to perform when in a hostile/unbelieving town (what in parapsychology is termed "the shyness effect").

Why Jesus used His spit to heal the blind man has been a mystery to me, I guess I've not been curious enough.
Jesus chose not to heal in the situations you refer to, the man who willingly gave His life on a Roman cross could not be shy.

... The phenomena of prayer is a classic example of ritual magic; performing an ineffective action in the hopes that, through intermediary powers, it will be effected (and note that Christian prayers are directed to other things than their god).

The Catholics might but the protestants pray directly to God only, please do not lump everyone together. How is it you know that prayer is not answered by our God, I've experienced answered prayer on many occasions. Some answered at the time I asked, and others were answer months and even longer from the time I prayed. Some prayers were answered that I had forgotten I prayed until they were answered many months later, I've learned not to give up on answers.

[Minimalist]

the Jews quit sacrificing after His death.

The jews quit sacrificing after the Romans burned their fucking temple to the ground, jackass.

[Godscreated]

the Jews quit sacrificing after His death.

The jews quit sacrificing after the Romans burned their fucking temple to the ground, jackass.

As they did many times in the past they could have built alters to sacrifice on.

[Minimalist]

If you ever bothered to read your stupid ass bible you would note that the one recurring theme was that ALL WORSHIP WAS TO BE CENTRALIZED IN THE TEMPLE. The priests, who wrote the fucking book and were the prime beneficiaries of the process, would have it no other way.

When it became necessary to deal with the reality that the Romans had cleaned their clocks for them, they came up with rabbinic judaism which has grown into what we know today.

I see no evidence for your godboy but if your silly stories were true then he would have been one of those animal killers in that rathole of yhwh's.

[Godscreated]

If you ever bothered to read your stupid ass bible you would note that the one recurring theme was that ALL WORSHIP WAS TO BE CENTRALIZED IN THE TEMPLE. The priests, who wrote the fucking book and were the prime beneficiaries of the process, would have it no other way.

When it became necessary to deal with the reality that the Romans had cleaned their clocks for them, they came up with rabbinic judaism which has grown into what we know today.

I see no evidence for your godboy but if your silly stories were true then he would have been one of those animal killers in that rathole of yhwh's.

If you had ever opened it up you would know the priest did not write down the scriptures, they were relegated to copyists. Read it and you will see that sacrifices were done outside the temple at times.
Why would the sacrifice for man, sacrifice anything other than Himself.

[Minimalist]

Oh so its the literal word of god...except for the parts that "copyists" fucked up, huh?

If there were a jesus he would be ashamed of you.

[Godscreated]

Oh so its the literal word of god...except for the parts that "copyists" fucked up, huh?

If there were a jesus he would be ashamed of you.

The word of God is good, and you did not say anything about the priest writing scriptures. Jesus has been disappointed in me many times, thankfully He does forgive me.

[Minimalist]

The "word of god" was concocted by men to fool ancient primitives into toeing the line. There is no invisible sky-daddy behind them.

[Drich]

What it is that I would like to discuss is the notion of “blood sacrifice”. It seems to me that it is a very abhorrent notion, and I've always had a real problem with it. I never could square my feelings with the whole “Passion of the Christ” business. It never made any sense to me at all. Why was it necessary for God to sacrifice himself to himself in order that humankind could be “saved” from ourselves? I mean, he's omnimax, isn't he?

No. Omni-max means one is tied to the definations/perceptions of what it means to be omni-max, otherwise one finds himself in a paradox.

Maybe that is why does not describe Himself as Omni Max. He describes Himself as I am or The Alpha and Omega (The beginning and End of all things) This defination does not tie God to anything. It simply means God is whatever God says He is. Which is a more powerful description than Omni max if you think about it. As i said an omni max is tied to theperception that God must always will himself out of a situation by the easiest means nessary. While an "I am" God is free to have a personality and is ably to be an omni max if he wills is or even limit Himself down to being born as a man.

He could have whatever he bloody damn wants just by making it so. After all, he set all the rules in the first place, so all he had to do was have one of his prophets come along and preach at people that here's the new covenant, and so long as you follow the game plan your soul shall be saved. What's with the whole hang-up with suffering, blood, and death?

So that you can have a sense of what I cost God to forgive you spiritually. I just did a thread on this very question. In that the beating and death of Christ is a physical manifestation of the Spiritual cost of the forgiveness of your sins. and the Reason Christ had to die in the way he did was so you can have to oppertunity to understand (The pain God went through) and acknoweledge what I cost Spiritually for God to forgive your sins.

Christianity really does not seem like a very healthy mindset on a lot of levels. Any thoughts?

It depends on who you ask. If you ask someone looking to distance themselves from God they will say no. If you ask someone who is looking to be with God for eternity they will tell you we were designed to be with God.

[Godscreated]

The "word of god" was concocted by men to fool ancient primitives into toeing the line. There is no invisible sky-daddy behind them.

Glad to see your one liners can't answer the question.